Do you feel.....“I’m afraid to go out for fear of my baby screaming or being sick everywhere” or “I feel like a prisoner in my own home” when talking about your baby with reflux issues? It’s a common feeling that you cannot take your baby out for fear of them being sick and uncomfortable with the movement of a car journey or the frequency of the ‘little & often’ feeding regimes or even more basic than that the sick will go everywhere!

Just getting yourself dressed and ready to go by lunchtime is sometimes the best you can expect from the day and I think sometimes it’s all you can expect. My message is clear, keep it simple, go at your own pace and build your confidence slowly. Here are my top tips for getting out of the house:

1. Decide when you are ready to go out – don’t try to meet an appointment and end up having to rush.
2. Choose a local place to go to and plan it around a feed if possible. Perhaps if you are bottle feeding, take one with you as a spare or if you have begun solids, take an extra water bottle.
3. Before you leave the house, run through in your mind how you will cope if your baby has a reflux flare and cries out for a time in a public place. This is one of the main fears – “will I be able to cope?”. The answer is yes! You know you can handle it in the house, it’s exactly the same outside the house. Take with you any special comforts – babies soft toys or familiar blankets that have home smells. A spare dummy.
4. Try not to feel intimidated by passers by and worry about the noise levels of a crying baby. The most important thing is giving your baby the time and comfort they need to allow the pain to pass or be comforted to a state of calm. As soon as you begin to feel tense baby will pick up on it. So, find a quiet spot and work your magic. If baby is very upset with prolonged crying, then make tracks for home where you can settle things down.
5. Sometimes a change of scenery and temperature is a good distraction – even if you stand in the back garden for 10 minutes (put baby in a blanket if it’s breezy) it can help them to stop crying or grizzling, maybe even drop off on you.
6. If your baby is very sicky, take plenty of sick cloths, muslins, bibs etc when you go out. Don’t be afraid to tell people that there is possibility that there will be some sick. Family and friends will say “oh that’s fine, thats what babies do!” but they need to know it’s not normal volumes. If you let people know up front, then there is less of an embarrassing moment when you have to wipe up a pool of sick from a new carpet or off the shoulder of a suede jacket.
7. Communicate to people who aren’t familiar with infant reflux about holding and positioning to manage sick. Don’t forget that jogging baby up and down to “See-Saw Marjory Daw” isn’t conducive to reflux, no matter how lovely it is!
8. Try to think about baby’s positioning – use booster seat in the car seat or buggy to promote good positioning. Take a wedge with you if you are out for the day. Pack a sling with you, for cuddling and keeping baby close to settle them – especially if you have other children to hold hands with or bags to carry. Use a sling for prolonged closeness aswell and promoting sleep whilst out of the cot. Take a play mat with you if you need to protect a carpet in an unfamiliar home or the back seat of a car.
9. Each time you venture out, you will encounter new challenges. Try to embrace them and if you really can’t deal with it, then don’t – no one is forcing you to. Just go at your pace.
10. One of the hardest things I have come to terms with over Willow is that her first 6 months have been a struggle for us all. We haven’t had a chance to really enjoy her ‘babyhood’ yet. By getting out and meeting other mum’s or walks out to the park, even on days when I really didn’t feel like it, gave me a sense of normality and my relationship with Willow changed. I became much less hung up on little things and began to integrate Willow into the family unit more.