He doesn't have diagnosed reflux. Just to clarify. He's never gotten medicated for any health-issue and so far 4 separate drs have told me that he has no digestive issues. However we did switch him to soy formula at 6 months (against the drs advice) because he spit up SO much on dairy formula from 0-6months and I thought it was a combo issue of dairy and reflux.
The reason I don't think that he wakes up because of pain is because if he is being held he will sleep happily but even put down sitting or inclined in a stroller he will cry the same way that he did in his crib. (He's suuuuper needy during the day - so I wear him A LOT - even to go pee! - but I need a little space at night. He definitely wouldn't be held 1/4 as much if he went to a daycare but his insane clingy-ness is making me consider it more seriously.)
We give him water. And while he may be teething - he's never been an offical 'sttn'er (we never made it to 5 hours.) so at a certain point things need to change/be changed.
Just to reply to that part of your post. I have acid reflux (GERD) and to be honest, when I wake up at night with my throat on fire, I long for my mom. Yes, I'm almost 40, but when I'm in pain, I want my mommy. She's long gone dead, but that's beside the point. All my children though, when they're ill and feel like crap, they will stop crying when I hold them. Even if their head still feels like bursting, or their nose is still stuffy, or they're still coughing their lungs raw, they will stop crying when I hold and comfort them. Same with a reflux baby. They
need their mom, because they feel like crap. Being held or sit upright might keep the milk/food down a bit more than when you lie down, but once the damage in the throat is done, it HURTS. Water/milk sooths that pain, so that's why reflux babies like to suck constantly or regularly. I can't go 2 hours without drinking something, because my throat would be aflamed and so painful. That's why it upsets me so much when people tell me that they stopped providing their baby with fluids in the night "because they don't need it". Well, I'm almost 40 and I still
need fluids at night. Because of my silent reflux. How do we know what our babies go through and why they cry?
You need to do what you need to do, I just wanted to give my perspective from a person who daily/nightly goes through reflux and can voice what we experience.
