He has HORRIBLE reflux. The NICU docs put him on Reglan, Zantac, and rice cereal to help with the puking. The Zantac freaked me out at first, as did the Reglan, but in his specific case, it was a necessary evil.

The rice cereal by itself is starting to work just as well as the Zantac did (we're slowly weaning Ethan off of all his prescriptions), but since her baby is one month old (Ethan is two months old), I'd check with her doc or NP before using because of its link with diabetes if started too early.

The risks of cereal, in my opinion, far outweigh the risks of Zantac, but it all depends on the child. I kept Ethan on it (and he still takes it at night) because he seems to have so much pain with his reflux and because the reflux also caused him breathing problems and bradycardia. It was scary to see Ethan's heart rate plummet everytime he refluxed while in the NICU.

Hopefully this has been a help. BTW, you were definitely correct in telling your friend to hold her baby upright and not bounce. That really helps Ethan as well. She can also try not rocking the baby until about an hour after the baby eats. Any kind of motion could cause more severe reflux.

my son had GERD(gastro-esophogeal reflux disease), which i'm guessing is pretty close to acid reflux (but i may be way off). he would throw up after eating all the time. i just kept him upright for about an hour after eating, no bouncing, and if i couldn't hold him up i would sit him in a bouncy chair or one of those activity saucers(with the toys all around). this helped tremendously, and it cleared up by itself when he was about 18 months. i don't know if this helps at all, but i hope so.

I think you're talking about me!
We started 2-mo-old dd on zantac and the side effects were worse than the problem--but then, I don't think she has acid reflux--she just spits up a lot. So zantac wouldn't really do anything for that.

I will write you later--on way out the door. May not be until later tonight, but I will write back. I know how frustrating this is.