i'm pretty sure dd has reflux but gp prescribed colief drops, is that the right thing to give her?

[J20DemondaughterandDevilbaby]

i'm really struggling to express a bit of bm to mix with the drops before every feed too any ideas?

am seriously considering giving up bf i am so tired, dd is 4 wks 4 days.

[NorthernLurker]

Hi J20 - no idea about those specific drops but will stick my oar in neverthless
Firstly - if your GP thinks they are worth a try then I would give them a fair chance - if nothing else it gives you some moral authority when you go back and say 'I tried your way, now listen to me!'
Secondly - hand expressing can be tricky at the best of times, doubly so when you are knackered and under pressure. I find gravity does help for me (breast fed three babies and everything has moved south a bit ) Are you standing up when you express? If not might be worth a try?
Thirdly - it is perfectly ok to be tired. Your dd is at a tough age - a lot of the support you get when they are first born starts fading away, parents and partners are back at work and it's just you and someone who seems to be claiming that you are trying to poison them or at least deprive them of everything that is light and bright in the world! You have done marvellously to get this far and believe me everything is going to settle down. You will get more sleep, feeding and expressing will get easier - you just have to hold on. The very best of luck and hopefully someone will be along in the morning who knows what they are talking about! Huuuuuggggg

[NorthernLurker]

Oh honestly - that isn't supposed to be a link it's supposed to be a {{Biiiiigggg Huuggggg}}!!!

[tiktok]

J20 - colief drops are for lactose intolerance, not reflux which is a different condition. Perhaos your doc does not think your baby has reflux? Having said that, I know of no good work that shows colief drops work with breastfeeding babies.

If your baby has reflux, switching to formula is unlikely to make any difference.

I really, really hope you can get good help with the whole thing, and the first step would be to have someone who knows what to look for observe a feed start to finish - has that happened?

[J20DemondaughterandDevilbaby]

thanks guys.

i have taken to expressing a couple of ounces and using a bit of that to give the drops in, they seem to sometimes help, not convinced though! will see how i go with them for a few more days, feel a bit better today

thanks for the hug northernlurker

[ib]

Bf a baby with reflux is a nightmare, but trust me that they get much worse if you try formula! (before ds was diagnosed with reflux we were told to top up as he wasn't gaining weight, it was a disaster)

Have you tried Gaviscon?

You may need to be fairly insistent to get the right help, but don't give up - reflux is treatable.

What makes you think she has it? How is her weight gain?

[MirandaG]

My first baby had reflux, but no-one took it very seriously because she was gaining weight. It was a nightmare because she threw up constantly - everything covered in sick - luckily the sofa is milk coloured! I was advised to keep the baby upright for at least half an hour after feeding, either by holding her (this works best but makes it very difficult to do anything else) or putting her in a little chairi. Get some plastic backed bibs (with sleeves if possible) to try to avoid changing clothes all day - I found cloth ones pretty useless unless they were really thick and even then... She was prescribed infant Gaviscon and I think that helped a bit. I agree that you need to insist on specialist help - maybe a referral to a paediatrician. It is very hard to get someone who has never experienced it to understand how soul destroying it is to see all that precious breast milk being sicked up and to spend your enitre day cleasning up and washing clothes. Good luck with it - the good news is that they do grow put of it by about 6 months but it can be managed better in the meantime.

[J20DemondaughterandDevilbaby]

IB-her weight gain is good, but she is always being sick, somewtimes its like curdled milk, she cries for hours sometimes like she's in pain but its usually more of a whine like she's uncomfortable and arches her back a lot. usually when she's sicked up a lot she wants feeding again, and most of the time my breasts are emmpty by then.

miranda, i agree with it being soul destroying when you see the bm come back up after spending 40 mins getting it in!

was wondering if it could be lactose overload, has anyone heard of that?

[MirandaG]

I've never heard of lactose overload, but the crying and sicking sounds very similar to my first baby. Part of the crying might be wind - I am really useless at winding babies and often forget about it altogether . Does it get progressively worse as the day goes on? The empty breasts might be to do with your baby's growth, although they will never be completely empty apparently. If your baby is going through, or about to go through, a growth spurt your breasts may be catching up with her needs, so she will need to feed a lot so that you make enough for her. sorry have to go - DD2 needs a feed . will log on again later - would like to be able to help you because i know how awful it is. it is worth persevering because it does get better - the bf will become much easier and less frequent as your baby gets bigger

[J20DemondaughterandDevilbaby]

Thanks miranda

lactose overload is basically where the baby is getting too much milk, mainly foremilk and it ferments in the bowel causing symptoms similar to reflux and colic, not commonly known about i don't think.

more info here

so as well as the drops i'm trying to go a bit longer between feeds, like 3 hours-ish. its so hard not knowing what to do for the best.i have also decided to giver her abottle of formulae on an evening as i did last night and she seemed more content and slept 3.5 hours which was fab

[J20DemondaughterandDevilbaby]

p.s yes gets worse as the day goes on, starts around now, like tea time and she won't settle till about 10 or 11pm

[Isobella123]

I used to use colief and bf.

I used to sterilise a calpol spoon in a microwave dummy sterilizer, put the drops in the bottom of the spoon, express a bit of milk into the spoon and then pour it carefully into the mouth before I started feeding.

It worked really well once I got the hang of it.

Ds2 has silent acid reflux and no amount of colief would help that. Arching the back after feeing is one of the symptoms.

I would give the colief a week and then go back to your gp if it doesn't get any better.

[J20DemondaughterandDevilbaby]

i've been expressing a couple of ounces and putting a couple of calpol spoonfuls of the ebm into a sterilised pot with the drops, and then giving it to her on the spoon, not too much trouble, just having to keep sterilising the spoon and pot!

[MirandaG]

Glad that things have improved.
That's interesting about the lactose intolerance, especially the case study, because I took my DD1 to a cranial osteopath to try to help with the evening crying (she was a ventouse delivery too) and it did seem to help. I know people are very sceptical about cranial osteopathy, and I am about a lot of alternative therapies, but it seemed to help. With DD2 (now 10 weeks) I found that a bath in the evening and putting her to bed really early helped her to settle better. That said, DD1 hated the bath, so it didn't work with her!

[J20DemondaughterandDevilbaby]

i would like to look into the CO, don't know where it would be done round here.