Acid Reflux in Babies: Guide to Elevated Sleep

If you are a parent with a baby suffering from acid reflux disease, then you know the emotional toll it can take. You always have a crying baby on your hands and no matter what you do, your baby is not happy. Often in the past, babies with acid reflux disease were labeled “colicky” and parents were told to wait until they got over the problem. Now, doctors are beginning to accept the fact that crying babies usually have a reason to cry. Babies with reflux cry because they are in pain. There are prescription medications that can help with the problem.

Some parents feel extremely guilty when their baby suffers from acid reflux. They feel that it is somehow their fault that their child is in pain. Well-meaning friends and family may tell you that the formula is doing it, if the baby is formula-fed. The breastfeeding mother can be told that it is due to something she is eating. Both of these wrong pieces of advice can cause guilt and discouragement in parents. While it may be that a change in the mother’s diet or formula can help the problem, these things are not the cause of the problem.

One of the biggest challenges of raising a baby with acid reflux is getting them to sleep. This is because by the time you put your baby to sleep, gravity’s effect on stomach acid is lost. The acid is sent to the esophagus, which is acid reflux. This painful problem makes the baby restless and wake up.

One way to combat the problem is to keep gravity in the equation. You can do this by raising the baby’s mattress to a slight incline. To do this correctly, try to have the baby’s head about thirty degrees higher than his feet.

One way to do this is to tilt the mattress. You can tilt the mattress using the integrated lowering mechanisms, if the crib is equipped with them. Simply raise one end one level higher or lower one end one level. This is the best way to elevate the mattress if you have one.

Another way to elevate the mattress is to add a pillow or two under the mattress. Even when working with a baby with acid reflux, you should never place the pillow directly under the baby’s head, as this can cause suffocation. Instead, live the mattress and place the pillow under it.

If the crib has wheels, you can tilt the entire crib by removing the wheels from one end. This can make the crib unstable, so be careful. Another way to increase the slope of the crib is to place two of the legs on bricks. Using bricks with holes in the middle helps keep the entire crib stable, as the legs sit inside these holes.

Elevating your baby’s crib mattress is one of the most effective ways to help with acid reflux problems. You will find a wide range of expensive products on the market aimed at helping babies with reflux sleep better by elevating the sleeping position. These are often a waste of money, because with a little ingenuity and a little effort, you can raise the mattress yourself!