Cry It Out - Part I

Babies do need to learn how to self soothe but if the baby has gerd then you shouldn't make them cry it out. They are in pain and they don't know why. Depending upon the type of cry, if the baby is in pain and you could help them then why not?

I really am for treating infants who are colicky with GERD medication.  We often can't see whats making a baby cry.  A short trial is enough to figure out if it is the problem or not.

My son cried for hours, always wanted to eat and would stop and refuse then want to eat again.  It was a never ending cycle. I was told at first he was just coliky by the advice nurse and given all kinds of advice for helping him sleep on his own.  I read tons of books and tried anything and everything. I was a first time mom and thought I must be doing something wrong, because I couldn't comfort my son.  I'd run out of patients for the crying and at times had to put him in his bassinett in another room, because after a couple of hours I couldn't take it anymore. I felt so horrible that I couldn't figure out what was wrong with him.

Then one day I got a parenting magazine and it had an article about infant GERD. I was astonished to see that my son had displayed all of the symptoms.  I went to my son's pediatrician the next day and she watched him breastfeed and asked some questions and determined he did indeed have GERD.  The medication worked incredibly well.  He stopped feeding for hours on end and slept better than ever.  He stopped projectile vommiting all over us.  At about 1 1/2 we stopped the medication as he stopped vommiting and waking at night.  Now that he is three, he tells us he throws up in his mouth, so I think we may be looking at talking to his doctor about medication again.  GERD does run in our family and I remember having it as a child.  I also have a history of severe ear infections.  In fact have tubes right now. Found out a few years ago that GERD may have contributed to the ear problems. My son has only had one ear infection so far. Knock on wood, but I am wondering if it's because we got his GERD treated.  My mom said I was colicky just like my son, but back then they didn't know about GERD and especially not infants that have it.