Does your baby suffer from reflux or GERD? Reflux can cause night wakenings, discomfort when lying down, and shortened naps. However, a diagnosis of reflux doesn’t mean you can’t sleep train your baby. With a little planning and patience, reflux and baby sleep can coexist.
Learn about:
- Signs of reflux
- Keeping a log
- Upright position after feeds
- More…
What are the Signs of Reflux in Babies?
Before jumping into sleep training, if you suspect reflux you’ll need to confirm the diagnosis. There are 7 signs of reflux discussed in more detail in the book Colic Solved: The Essential Guide to Infant Reflux and the Care of Your Crying, Difficult-to- Soothe Baby
by Bryan Vartabedian, MD. If your baby shows any of the following signs, discuss it with your pediatrician before you embark on sleep training.
- Spitting and vomiting
- Constant hiccups
- Feeding disturbances
- Chronic irritability
- Discomfort when lying on the back
- Sleep disturbance
- Chronic cough and/or congestion
Easy to read and follow, kiddo is sleeping 12 hours
"This more gentle approach was perfect for us and by night #3 she slept 12 hours and I feel like a new person."
How Can I Help My Baby Sleep With Reflux?
The first and most important step is to tackle the reflux itself. Your pediatrician can help you get things under control before you start sleep training.
As parents, our natural instinct is to soothe a baby who hurts. That’s exactly what we should do. But we need to pay attention to how we soothe a baby who has reflux. While a baby without tummy problems may learn to rock himself to sleep for example, a reflux baby dealing with projectile vomiting may not. As we comfort our babies, we don’t want to inadvertently reinforce poor sleep habits. Walking, rocking, feeding, or swinging to sleep creates a habit that will be hard to break. Once the reflux is under control, a baby without poor sleep habits will learn to sleep easier.
I will give you two related sets of suggestions—one on how to deal with sleep while you and your child are still handling the worst of the reflux, and a second one on how to get him on a better sleep path once the medical part is under control or he has outgrown it.
In both cases he’ll do better if you tackle bedtime first, then naps. Before the nap piece falls into place, do whatever you need to do to get him some sleep during the day, even if it means breaking my usual rules of not using the car to get him to sleep. If you are feeding him at night for medical reasons, don’t worry about changing that right away, although the night wakenings might diminish on their own as other aspects of his sleep improve. Work with the information here as well as the relevant age chapter in my book, “The Sleep Lady’s Good Night, Sleep Tight” .
Keep a Log
As with a colicky baby, reading reflux babies’ sleep cues can be difficult. I suspect this is because they don’t learn to differentiate their cries because pain, vomiting, hunger, and tiredness all sort of blur together for them. We then have more trouble figuring out what they’re crying about and may not respond as consistently to whatever it is they’re trying to tell us. You have to be more diligent about watching the clock, not just your baby. Keep track of when he ate. As he gets older, you’ll want to stretch out the time between feedings as long as you can without provoking more vomiting, particularly overnight.
Pay attention to how long he has been awake. Make sure he naps on time. The last thing he needs is an overlay of exhaustion on top of his burning esophagus. Taking him into a quiet, dim room for a while before nap or bed often helps. He may show his sleepy signals more clearly in such a setting. Also, the quiet environment may cue him that it’s time for bed.
Wondering when those naps should be?
Read: Baby and Toddler Naps — Everything You Need to Know
Upright After Feeding
Your doctor will probably recommend that you hold or seat your baby upright for about twenty to thirty minutes after eating. Once the reflux has settled down, and your child is no longer in pain, try not to hold him until he falls completely asleep. You don’t want him to develop an association between sleeping and being in your arms, or you’ll have to hold him to sleep all the time for months to come. Don’t worry if he falls asleep in your arms occasionally — just don’t teach him that your arms are his only bed.
Allow enough time between feeding and bedtime for another activity in between. Feed him, hold him upright, and then read him a book, give him a bath and a massage. When it’s time for him to sleep, put him down drowsy but awake. Stay with him and soothe him intermittently until he is asleep. Gradually reduce your soothing as he learns to do it himself. If his crying ramps up quickly then pick him up and hold him to sleep and try again another day- especially if his reflux is newly under control and you are still concerned. I would rather you wait until you are confident that your baby is not in pain before you start sleep coaching- no matter how gentle the method.
Drowsy but Awake? What’s that?
Read: Drowsy But Awake — The Cornerstone of Successful Sleep Training
When possible try to arrange his daytime schedule so that you are feeding him when he wakes up in the morning and when he gets up from naps, instead of before he takes naps, to avoid that holding-to-sleep association. That gives him time to digest before he lies down, a position that increases the reflux.
Smaller, More Frequent Feedings
Some reflux babies fare better if they eat small, frequent meals. That might mean you will have to feed him overnight to an older age than you would a baby without reflux. But the night feedings can also add to his discomfort, so talk to your doctor about when you can stop them. At some point, the nighttime nursing (or bottle-feeding) ceases to be a physical requirement and starts being a sleep disrupting habit. When that happens, you need to stop those nighttime feedings gradually and gently. Some babies give up the night feeding much more easily than you might guess, in a night or two.
However, with children who had reflux, you might want a more gradual and gentler approach. I give many suggestions about night weaning in the age chapters in Good Night, Sleep Tight.
When you’re ready for night weaning, we have answers!
Read: Night Weaning After Six Months: How to Gently End Night Feedings
Be Aware of Potential Environmental Issues
In my own sleep practice, I have found that post-reflux babies often remain very sensitive to their environments. They react more to such stimuli as bright lights, crowds, food, and textures. You then need to be sensitive to their sensitivities! Continue to be very careful about his schedule. Watch the clock, and keep using that quiet, dimly lit room to help him calm down. Once his reflux is under control you can sleep coach for naps and nights!
