5 tips to limit your baby's reflux

The first few days after birth can be deceiving... basking in the joy of the birth of your baby and surrounded by expert nurses at the maternity, your baby may seem like an absolute angel, sleeping peacefully twenty hours a day and drinking his milk whenever he is awake!
And then you get to come back home, confident. You have learnt to change a nappy, feed your baby and put him to sleep. It will all be fine, but then reality hits...
The first week home is usually hectic. If your house is upside down, you are exhausted and your hormones are all over the place, then you are just like the vast majority of new mums! But if, like half babies under the age of 3 months, your baby suffers from reflux, the impact on your quality of life (and your sanity!) can be significant. 
The Reflux Infants Support Association (RISA) surveyed more than 500 parents in 2016 about their experience caring for an infant with gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD) and found that having a baby suffering from reflux had a very severe negative impact on their quality of life, with 1 in 5 parents reported that they no longer wished to have more children after having a baby with GORD.

So what can you do if your baby suffers from reflux?

  1. First of all, it is important to seek advice and support. RISA is great source of information. Make sure to also seek professional advice and book an appointment with your midwife or paediatrician.
  2. Keep your baby upright during feeds and for at least 30 minutes after each feed (for example in a baby swing, bouncer or hammock).
  3. If you are breatsfeefing, write down all your meals, analyse your eating habits to see how what you eat impacts your baby's reflux. If your are bottle feeding, consider trying out a few different brands of baby formula (with your doctor's approval) and bottles to see if they impact your baby's reflux differently. Some bottles have been specifically designed to help babies with reflux. For example, Minbie is an award winning baby bottle designed to help mitigate reflux and colic.
  4. Massaging your baby soothes your baby and can help with his digestion too.
  5. Use the Cocoonababy whenever your baby is asleep. Thanks to its 20º incline, the Cocoonababy helps limit reflux by way of gravity.

Don't forget that most young babies spit up sometimes, since their digestive systems are immature, making it easier for the stomach contents to flow back up into the esophagus (the tube connecting the mouth to the stomach). 

If your baby is a ‘Happy Spitter’, gaining weight well, spitting up without discomfort and content most of the time, then spitting up is a laundry & social problem rather than a medical issue! 

If you have other advice to share with new mums on how to help manage baby's reflux, please do not hesitate to share it in the box below. Thank you from the Cocoonababy team!

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