End of my tether - Silent Reflux

[finn1981]

This is my first post here and hoping someone can give me some advice. My DD is 12 weeks and for her first 3 weeks was a dream baby. Fed, slept repeat sort of thing. But at 3 weeks she began to suffer really badly with silent reflux. I initially thought it was just trapped wone so I went down the infacol, colief and gripe water route, but nothing worked. After speaking to my GP at her 8 week check up, they prescribed infant gaviscon but to be honest, I couldn't deal with the added torture or seeing how constipated it made her. She was in enough pain as it was. I went back to my doctor who referred me to the paediatric ward in my local hospital. The nurses there were lovely and recommended carobel. But this is where my problem lies. I am EBF and DD is refusing to take a bottle. You name a bottle type and I've tried it. She screams blue murder, regardless of whether it's expressed milk or formula milk. This means I have to spoon feed the carobel, or rather, wallpaper paste into her mouth. It seems an awful lot to put into a little baby's stomach before a feed and she is now spitting it out and crying. It's feels like I'm torturing her. In fact, she's vomited more from the carobel than she has from the silent reflux. The nurses want me to try this for 2 weeks before I return to my GP, but after 5 days, I don't think I can continue putting her through it. I would be happy to continue with carobel if I was able to put it in her bottle and believe me I've tried. I've heard from some friends that carobel worked wonders for their babies. She will only nap in the sling or swing and trying to settle her for the night takes until 10pm. She will only go down for the night out of sheer exhaustion but will wriggle and squirm all night long. I've elevated her cot mattress and tried lying her on her side to alleviate the pain but she is still waking every 2 hours. We are both exhausted and I also have a 2 year old to look after (whose back molars are currently coming through) . All in all, things are pretty tough and I don't know what to do next. My friend says the only thing that really helped her little boy was losec. Is that the route I need to go down. I'm thinking of trying a cranial oesteopath to see if it helps. I gave up diary for a while to make sure it wasn't an allergy issue but she was still the same.
Sorry for such a long account of things but would really appreciate some advice

[seasidestory]

If it's really not working you need to go back and explain you need something else.

Are you definitely sure it's silent reflux? Only asking because there are other things which cause very similar symptoms including tongue tie, dairy allergy/intolerance (although I know you're already looking into this one), lactose overload or even just chronic overtiredness. Might be helpful to rule those out to make sure you're definitely following the right course of treatment.

How things get better for you soon.

[ImNotAFlower]

My daughter had the same problem with silent reflux although she was bottle fed.
We went through a stage where Gaviscon did absolutely nothing and we were given Ranitidine in liquid form that we would give her before her feed, that at the time was liquid gold.
We also on advice of a hv began weaning her at 4 months (awaits flaming) but a couple of spoons of baby rice before her feed really seemed to help keep the milk down. I'm not suggesting you do that without advice but certainly talk to GP and HV.
GOOD LUCK!!! this too shall pass! Once weaning was in full flow we had a completely different, happy, smiley baby who would eat absolutely anything.

[finn1981]

Thanks for the posts. The reason I think it's silent reflux is that she thrashes about when laid on her back and her face gets very red. She grabs at her clothes like she's in pain. She also is constantly at the breast feeding but fussing when she's there. After feeding her, she will always have hiccups and then foams at the mouth. I gave up dairy for 10days but didn't see any improvement in her symptoms. She also has very watery sounding burps and is always very congested. Think I'll ring the GP again for some advice

[finn1981]

I had wondered whether early weaning would help. HV just called and was surprised to hear I'd been prescribed carobel since I was BF. She's going to ring my GP and hopefully get me a prescription for something to help with the pain. I'm really hoping this will be some sort of solution

[Throughautomaticdoors]

You could try a cranial osteopath?

[rebeccahazel]

I've been through the same. My DS is 7 months and still struggling, but things are getting better.
My advice - stop struggling with the formula and trust your breastfeeding if she's gaining weight ok. Go back to the doc and ask for losec, or it's sometimes called Omeprazole. It can take up to 2 or 3 weeks to help but will hopefully make a real difference.
12 weeks is really too early to wean, and could bring a whole new lot of digestive problems at that age.
If you think it could be a dairy issue, which it might well be, you need to cut out all cows milk protein products for at least 4 weeks before you'll see any difference - it takes about 3 weeks to get out of your system.
Things will get better, I know it's awful to see them struggle.

[rebeccahazel]

Just re read and seen you have heard of losec- go for it!

[GraceGrape]

Ranitidine, or even better, Omeprazole. They are both antacids. I would also persist with the dairy free.

If BF, is it also possible that you have a very fast flow? I found this caused symptoms similar to reflux.

[finn1981]

Waiting to hear back from the doctor, hoping it is losec he gives me. Wouldn't even think of weaning just yet, but might think about it at 5 months. It's just so horrible seeing her like this

[finn1981]

I do have fast flow. Strangely, faster than I did with my son. Think I'll try going dairy free again and see if things improve

[finn1981]

I'm thinking the same. I've heard great things about them

[Caper86]

Cranio osteopath helped my baby with reflux, worth a try.

[rebeccahazel]

If you do get the losec, it will probably be in tablet MUPS form. Just for future use, I found the easiest way to give it is to break it in half (don't crush) and disperse it in a tiny bit of boiled water and apple juice, then give it from a wide calpol syringe. There will still be some of the tiny 'bead' things left in the syringe or the cup you used to dissolve it - get as many of those into your DD as possible, I used to wipe them on the inside of DS's mouth.
Good luck!

[Lbee123]

Ranitidine was a life saver for me. My baby is now 5 months and no longer needs it but he suffered with reflux so much after the first few weeks of being such a content, quiet baby.

I also breastfed and found him to be fussy occasionally which I put down to reflux but now looking back I think it was due to growth spurts and s fast flow (him getting frustrated after initial let down when my milk was slower).

[StrawberryLeaf]

Oh it's so tough, I remember how hard it was and my daughter is starting school this year!

My daughter had terrible silent reflux, we were prescribed gaviscon which did nothing, then carobel. By then I was doing a bit of expressing to try and top her up (her weight was dropping) so I was able to get it into her in a bottle.

Then I was prescribed ranitidine which did nothing either.

I finally saw a gp who said if ranitidine doesn't work it's not silent reflux alone. She advised me to go dairy free. The reflux was a symptom of a dairy intolerance.

It takes about 6 weeks to get completely dairy free (but there were big improvements quickly), also you need to cut out all dairy, read every label. There's bloody dairy in everything! There's no point doing it half heartedly, you need to cut it all completely. If you see sustained improvements it's likely to be an intolerance. I got prescribed calcium and vitamin d.

The difference I saw in my child was amazing and it was completely worth it despite being hard.

I hope things get better soon x

[finn1981]

I feel like screaming. Just called the doctors to see if my prescription was ready to collect and what they were going to give us, only to be told it was just gaviscon...again!!! I'm expecting a visit from the HV this afternoon so hoping to get it resolved. I was really hoping we were coming to some sort of solution

[rebeccahazel]

Urgh, that's dreadful! Definitely ask the HV. Or if they can't help, rock up to kids a&e (or normal one if you don't have a kids one) and get seen there. In my experience, docs at a&e are much better and more helpful - I was told at our one that gaviscon is practically useless, but they prescribe it because it's cheap.
Good luck!!

[finn1981]

Just back from the doctors and they've prescribed a 10mg dose losec . I've to dissolve one tablet in 10ml and give DD 4ml. Is that about right do you know? Tbh I'm just glad to finally be given something as we had a horrendous night last night. Just given her the first dose so fingers crossed

[Acorncat]

I found it more accurate to split the tablet, you could be giving her 4ml of mostly water. Obviously that's not exact either as its never going to be split exactly. And I only dissolved it in 3ml of water, using a calpol syringe, in room temperature water (too warm can damage the medicine apparently). Ranitidine is easier! Or you can get liquid omeprazole but it's expensive apparently. I had to cut out soya too, common for dairy allergic kids to be allergic to soya too. Though we had other signs like bad nappies and skin. Hope she improves soon, it's just horrible watching them suffer.