Help!! Is she spoiled or is this still reflux?

DD won't sleep for longer than 2.5 hr. She has been really fussy since 4 weeks old. She had all the symptoms of reflux and has been on zantac for almost 2weeks now. We do hold her a lot during the day. Now for the past few weeks, the moment we put her down, she starts to cry. But if we let her sleep while holding her, she can sleep at times for 2.5 hr. Most of time we hold her for 30min after feeding because of reflux, but then as soon as she's laid down, she cries and takes us forever to calm her down. Now we've gotten the habit of letting her sleep on us during the day (sometimes at night)just because it's easier. We do swaddle her at night and she sleeps up to 2-2.5hr by herself, but still wakes up sometimes every hour. I don't swaddle her during the day because I want her to know swaddling is for sleeping at night -- should I swaddle her during the day even at almost 8wks? Is she spoiled or is this her reflux? She still spits up a lot sometimes an hr after last feeding. Should I just put her down and let her cry it out? I'm beginning to believe that she'll never sleep through the night.

Also she would only sleep while sucking on my nipple. I know she's not really hungry because she has just eaten half an hour to an hour earlier. She roots and acts like she's hungry, but then sucks on my nipple for less than a minute and falls a sleep -- which is the only way she's fall asleep. Many times she'll fuss for 1-2 hr before she finally falls asleep on my nipple. She won't take a pacifier still. I'm going back to work in 3weeks and will at work untill late night, so won't be home to put her to bed. What should I do if she won't sleep without my nipple?

Thanks for any suggestions!!

I don't have any advice about the second problem because we never really faced that, but for the first, I would say go ahead and swaddle during the daytime, too, if it helps. I don't see any reason not to. We did it until 4 months or so, but I have heard of several babies here who liked to be swaddled for several more months after that.

Also, most of the sleep advice I have read, even from CIO advocates, does not recommend CIO for babies as young as yours. And crying actually aggravates reflux pain, so I wouldn't go that route at least now. Try the swaddling and other comfort measures like white noise machines, vibration, etc. At that age my son still slept in his car seat most of the time. It wasn't until 3 months that he was able to sleep on a flat surface like a crib comfortably for any length of time. Don't worry too much now about whether she will ever sleep through the night or whether she will always need to be swaddled, etc. What a newborn needs to sleep really doesn't say that much about how he or she will be later on. When it was time to give up swaddling and time to give up sleeping in the car seat (and he let us know!), James made those switches with no problems.

Finally, you should also keep in mind that if your DD continues to show reflux symptoms with no improvement, you can ask your ped to try a different medicine. There are many choices, and Zantac is just the first one.

Elizabeth, Mom to James, 9-20-02
EDD #2, 10-30-04

Well, there are many schools of thought that say that you really can't spoil a baby less than three or four months old.

I would swaddle her, but I would also try and get her to sit in a bouncy seat or something similar instead of constantly holding her. She's way too young to let her cry it out, so if the bouncy doesn't work, then maybe try a sling.

Sophie was on Zantac for about six months, and it helped tremendously. The only catch is that it takes a couple weeks before it really works.

I don't know if you're co-sleeping or have her in a crib, but if you have her in a crib, try raising the head of it with some books under the legs. It made a difference with us.

Try a few different kinds of pacis before giving up. I think it was a good 10 weeks before Sophie willingly took hers. We used a clean pinky until then.

Good luck!

-m