Milk allergy or reflux?

[Emilykw95]

Hi, my baby is 7 weeks old and my first.
At 1-2 weeks, we started him on aptamil and things were fine, he seemed to be drinking a great deal, sometimes even 4oz but then going into 3rd week he became quite unsettled. We swapped him onto the Aptamil comfort but this didn’t make things better so HV advised us to go back to normal milk with infacol.
This helped and he was fine taking the milk for a few weeks however was only drinking 2-3oz per feed and when his weight was checked at 6 weeks he’d dropped down from 75th to 25th centile.
We decide to change the teat size to medium flow (using MAM bottles) to see if this helped get some more milk down which did for the first few days but then the discomfort started and he was crying every time we tried to feed him - he was only taking about 1oz now! Put him back to slow flow teat but still no better.
We took him to doctors and they tried him on Neocate for allergies which we tried for a few days but things were no better if not worse. We returned to a different GP who felt it’s not allergy but more reflux so we were given gaviscon.
We started back on aptamil with gaviscon using medium flow teat again due to thickness and again it helped at first and he was doing 4oz nearly every time for 2 days but then things went back to how they were and again he was in obvious discomfort and not taking the feeds. He had now also dropped to 9th centile.
Took to paediatrician in hospital and he is leaning more towards allergy but has gave a prescription for ranitidine for 1 week and if no better advised us to go back onto neocate and persevere for another week on that.
I wondered what everyone’s thoughts where and if there’s been similar problems with ur little ones? In my opinion the problems start when we start using a medium flow teat but I can’t understand why. Problem when we use size 1 teat he doesn’t drink an awful lot as gets tired from sucking.

[Tinkhasflown]

For my reflux baby the gaviscon made things worse, but we saw a pretty fast improvement on ranitidine. Is baby vomiting much, or is it silent reflux where baby is regurgitating but not being sick? I've had experience if both with two babies and with one found a lot of discomfort was also due to wind. This could be the problem with your lo getting used to the bigger teat. Definitely don't go back to smaller teat as it will make things worse.

I recommend you try winding more regularly and for a long time after feed. Have baby almost sitting up on your lap, supported front and back and roll them gently. Does that make sense? You are circulating their upper body - great for bringing up wind.

If wind continues to be really bad I found gripe water helped also.

[Emilykw95]

Thanks for your reply.
He isn’t sick often but vomits maybe once every 3 days so it’s more silent reflux.
He’s very good at bringing his wind up we get a good burp from him every time!
I’m hoping ranitidine makes things better, fingers crossed. My main concern is his weight.
Thanks

[Tinkhasflown]

I actually think silent reflux is a bit worse, dd1 used to get such relief after vomiting the feed everywhere!

You should see an improvement with the ranitidine within a couple of days if it is actually reflux. Try to keep baby well elevated during and after feeds, either in baby chair or with a muslin under the mattress at top of moses basket.

If you don't see an improvement soon then I would be exploring the possibility of milk allergy further. My dd2 was on enfamil ar formula for silent reflux, but was never really a great feeder (I think that's prescription only, but Changing their formula can be unsettling too, so I would try to stick with the one you think is best). The ranitidine stopped the screaming within 2 days though.

Good luck, I know how hard it is.

[Josborne]

1st born had silent reflux screaming at feeds and always sounded wheezy like she needed to clear her throat. Put on ranitidine and it was the magic cure. Second born (DS) exact same symptoms but ranitidine didn't help. Saw paediatrician and he looked at his dry skin, heard his noisy breathing and red blotches and instantly put him on SMA Alfamino. It took 4 weeks for symptoms to go so perhaps you need to give the neocate more of a chance. I'm now at weaning stage and the symptoms are starting to reappear! Not sure what's causing it!

[Laksv]

My daughter too had the same symptoms from around 4 weeks .She used to vomit milk after the feed(formula) and also used to cry mostly whenever awake as if in distress.GP asked us initially to try Infacol and then Colief but both didnot work.I read more on milk allergy symptoms and took her privately to a Peadiatric gastroenterologist at around 4 Months.Her skin was rough and dry which Dr. diagnosed as Eczema due to which I think he suspected her of having Milk allergy and asked us to try Neocate for two weeks.Her crying stopped after couple of days and was not vomiting any more after a week.We further did allergy testing (Skin prick and blood test) and Milk allergy was confirmed.If Rantidine is not working ,I would recommend asking your GP for a referral to a Peadiatric Gastroenterologist .Also it would be better to notice if your baby is developing other symptoms as follows and report that too in your consultation.

Gastrointestinal-Diarrhea,Mucus in Poo,Constipation,Colic
Respiratory-Wheezing,cough,Runny nose,Sneezing
Skin-Rashes,hives,Eczema

hope this helps....

[peachgreen]

It took at least a week, maybe two, before we saw a real improvement after switching to a dairy-free formula - takes a while for the dairy to get out of their system.