gastric reflux in babies

[babylonian]

hi, i think my dd has got reflux which is causing real problems with feeding, it also means that she occasionally brings back milk way after a feed and she occasionally chokes on it . now i am really worried about this, and have read stuff on the net and have put her bed on an incline so her head is always higher than the rest of her body...

am planning to take her to the gp today, but thought i would open this topic up to see if anyone has any experience/ thoughts on what to do, or for that matter what not to do...i worry about her so much it is really hard work at the moment.

[Potty1]

Don't have much experience with this babylonian so bumping it up for.

Dd did have mild reflux connected to her heart problems and we used baby gaviscon for her which worked well. Hope you Gp can help.

[jane313]

My son had it for 10 months, luckily never choked or caused him any pain. I used gaviscon too and it helped but was a pain to give as I was breastfeeding and I had to make it up with cooled boiled water before 6 months. You can add it to formula milk and a friend who was bottle feeding got prescribed some thicker milk from the drs made by SMA I think. It worked well for her.

[babylonian]

thanks jane313, hopefully will try gaviscon and see how it goes, as i am bottle feeding shouldnt be too much of a prob to add to milk, glad to know your ds has grown out of it... wishing you both well

[KathH]

14 wk old has reflux and am in early stages of medication etc. At the moment we're trying SMA Staydown which has improved it slightly and the next step is Gaviscon. Have to go back next week to see GP for a review.

[SofiaAmes]

My ds had reflux, and always seemed to be choking on it, but I was reassured by everyone (including paediatrician in usa) that he wouldn't. He still gained lots of weight and eventually grew out of it when he started on solids. My dd had hidden reflux and we used an american staydown formula called Enfamil AR (also available over here) that has rice starch instead of corn starch and that really helped. I was bfing and gave her one bottle a day.

[Lolski]

My DS had quite severe acid reflux. It is apparently very common with premature babies (he was a month early). He was constantly sick, got through umpteen bibs (and outfits) a day and I spent two months sitting up with him at night because he couldn't be laid down on his back. The vomiting didn't seem to bother him but the acid was burning his throat and was causing him a lot of pain. I took him to a Gastric paediatrician and he was prescribed Infant Gaviscon and then a short course of Renetidine (I think that I have spelt that correctly !!). He was also prescibed a thickener for his milk but I decided against using that.He was on the Infant gaviscon for months and it is apparently completely harmless. It is used in all the premature baby wards etc on tiny babies and has no side affects whatsoever. It has a slight thickener in it and it stops the burning.
When he was really small I put a pillow under one end of his moses basket to elevate it a bit and when he was a bit bigger I bought a cot wedge and put it under one end of his mattress. You can but special hammocks and a thing called the Tucker sling to really keep them upright but I didn't try those.
I hope some of that helps. Try not to worry about the choking. The constant vomiting seems to worry us more than them.
It is a horrible time but they do grow out of it.
Hope that helps.

[babylonian]

thanks to everyone...it seems i am getting consistent information about what to do...its a great help and i really appreciate it. i do have one more quesstion...did your babies cry at mealtimes and refuse the bottle for a bit before eventually gulping it down hungrily ? or is that unrelated?? as i seem to be getting that most of the time...by the way, have been prescribed infant gaviscon by GP..so will see how it goes.

once again a huge thank you to your responses, it really helps to talk about it...

[lalaa]

yes, that happened to me too.

gaviscon should sort it out pretty quickly. such a relief when it starts working......!

[stewarty]

My baby has recently been admitted to hospital with worsening reflux.His medication has been changed bbut still he vomits projectally with feeds.He was 5 weeks early and wondered if anyone has advice,or even better light at the end of the tunnel.It gets to the point you're scared to go out in case he vomits .HELP!!!

[Lolski]

There is definitely light at the end of the tunnel. Reflux is apparently caused because the valve that is at the entrance to their tummy (or thereabouts !!) should close after drinking/eating. In a reflux baby the valve just flaps and doesn't close. This means that the milk just comes straight back out again - which is why it helps to try and keep them upright. I was told that this valve is one of the last things to develop in a baby which is why reflux is very common in premature babies. As the baby gets bigger and the valve strengthens the reflux will go away. It will also help when they can sit up on their own and start eating solid food.
I wouldn't worry about him being sick wehen you are out. Just keep a big supply of bibs with you and try and remember that it will get better !!!!

[babylonian]

have started gaviscon, no real improvement yet, but waoiting and hping...but now dd has become constipated!!!! i read about it and it shouldnt really cause constipation, but wanted to know other peoples experience..is it related or just our bad luck?

[Lolski]

My ds got constipated as well. I didn't know whether it was the Gaviscon or just coincidence to be honest. I just put a teaspoon of freshly squeezed orange juice into some warm boiled water and gave it to him in his bottle as often as possible and it seemed to do the trick.

[KathH]

My 14 wk old has changed formula to SMA Staydown which i think works the same way as Gaviscon - or not as the case may be. He's been really constipated too - added delight and him straining to poo and puking whole bottle over me & him!

[NannyJo]

My son suffres with both reflux andconstipation but i found that the enfamil milk (pre thickened formula to help milk stay down) was the cause of the constipation which was so bad he was on lactulose, senna and having sappostries all at birth through to 20 weeks. I tried him back on to aptamil and his constipation is now fine but has reflux again!! We just don't know what to do for the best. Drug free is obviously best option as long as there is no long term effects of reflux.

[Amanda3266]

Hi,

My DS had gastric reflux too. It varies in severity and some babies gain weight well while some will lose weight.
I used Infant Gaviscon for my son and it helped to a certain extent. However, it really improved at 8-9 months once he could sit upright.

[Bexybear]

Hi
I just wanted to add that although the first few months can be awful from our experience things do get better... and it can be manged -

we took DS off ranitadine and gaviscon (prescribed at 3 days old) and concentrated on managing it - bought a hammock (fab) kept him upright as much as poss, didnt dress him in trousers (really effective that one!) stocked up on bibs (and stopped worrying about him puking)

Now (5 and half months) he sits up and is on solids and the improvement is huge. He only pukes small amounts and is a really contented little boy.

hope things get better for all of you finding it tough

Bexy

[Bexybear]

BTW when i said i didnt dress him in trousers i dont mean we took him out with his little legs all bare....!

Just that he only wears dungarees or loose fitting tracky bottoms - most trousers were too tight at the waist and made the puking worse.

[jessicasmummy]

jessica is 6 months old and is still a "pukey" baby! We tried gaviscon and Carabel (the thickener for milk) but neither helped - she was a nightmare and still is!!! you get used to clearing up sick after this amount of time!!!

[KathH]

we've noticed the trouser thing too although dh thought i was making it up! DS is now on domperidone after gp referred us to consultant at hospital and we were also advised by consultant to start weaning which we did last week - it does appear to have improved things from around 20 odd sicks a day to about 5 so fingers crossed!

[NannyJo]

KathH, how old is your ds? mine is nearly 5 months and the consultant has just told us not to put him on solids yet even though he is still really suffering with reflux he's still putting on the weight so i did't want to put him on gaviscon. Health visitor said she thought solids would help, not sure what to do now!

[Jimjams]

ds3 seems refluxy to me- often projectile vomits after a feed and vomits loads the rest of the time. Also chokes a lot and rattlles away inbetween feeds. I've just bought him an amby sleeping hammock which was designed originally for babies with reflux (we bought it for other reasons so that was a bonus). here

[KathH]

he's 5 mths on tuesday - when i took him to get weighed last week he'd actually gone up a centile! Havent a clue how hes managed that.

[NatureDoc]

Homeopathy and cranial osteopathy can really help in cases of gastric reflux - there is one particularly great remedy called Vomitusheel supplied by www.biopathica.com - they can give you a list of practitioners in your area that can prescribe this. Best of luck.

[NickyGal]

Hi all. Do you think my 5week baby girl has reflux...she pucks streams of fluid after breast feeds, out of her nostrils too, throws her head back, gags and shreaks when she can get her breath, gets through loads of bibs, throws up partly digested milk 1 or 2 hours later even. It's horrible to see her in such distress. During the day I keep her upright after feeds, and her cot is inclined slightly. But how to do burp her without making her vomit? Easier to let her dose off unburped. And how do you avoid sitting up for hours during the night feed...as she always gags for about 1 hour when I put her down (so I don't sleep then anyway)? If I got Gaviscon, could I use it just with the expressed evening bottle or wouldn't that be often enough?
Thanks for any tips.

[snazzles]

Hi NickyGal, I've only just found this message board, but I see that no one has responded to your message so thought I'd help.
It really sounds like your baby has reflux. I presume when you say 'streams of fluid' you mean milk? My baby was 14 weeks premature and she refluxes in spectacular style, I think prem babies are more prone to reflux and so it was to be expected. We did exactly as you are doing, raising one end opf the cot, I would burp her really frequently during the day when feeding but when it came to night time feeds I would take my chances. Sometimes I would burp her, other times not I took it from how she was acting and just hoped that she would keep it in! I know that it's not everyones cup of tea but our paediatrician recommended using a dummy when she seemed especially bad as the sucking relex sometimes helps to keep it down. I only use the dummyat bedtimes now when I have burped her.
Gaviscon does help, but seeing as your breastfeeding it's not the easiest thing in the world to administer. Putting it in some cooled boiled water or EBM would be the way. We ended up going back to the paed because I was putting Gaviscon in every feed which helped in that it made her vomit thicker and so niot as much came up but she was still refluxing. If she had been lying down for a while she would get very upset as it was acid in her throat, the doc eventually prescribed ranitadine and domperidone which have done the job fantastically. No vomit, no acid in the throat, and most of all, our little one would sometimes stop breathing when she vomited and go blue which was horrid, and she does'nt do that anymore.
DOn't be put off by the doc or HV saying your baby is just a 'sicky baby' as my HV was telling me. Hope you get it sorted!
Snazzles