Medicine for reflux not compatible with bf?!

[fizzypigs]

Hi my 7wko baby has reflux. Been prescribed infant gaviscon to be taken after each feed. I have been bf till now. It's a total faff to prepare - like making formula after bf. Anyway baby at first took it and saw a huge improvement - was happy and even slept!! but now is refusing it
and is quite constipated (as a result of gaviscon). Only way I can see to administer it is to sneak it into feeds which would mean expressing 6 times a day - which for me is not feasible. I don't want to stop bf but unless I can get an alternative to gaviscon I'm not sure what else I can do. Does anyone have any ideas or similar experiences? Thanks

[MainlyMaynie]

I think ranitidine is supposed to be easier to use with bf, could you ask for that?

[camdancer]

Ask for Ranitidine. You syringe a small amount 3 times a day. Soooo much easier than Gaviscon, doesn't cause constipation, and actually works.

[TruthSweet]

When DD1 had Infant Gaviscon I used to make up tiny little bottles with about 10mls of cool boiled water in and then the sachet of IG. I made the bottles out of BM containers with a narrow neck collar and teat from a standard narrow neck bottle screwed on. This was then fed to her in between sides.

I have heard of other people spoon feeding, cup feeding or syringe feeding the mixture in to baby rather than switch to bottles. I had only got DD1 back to ebf at 8 weeks old after pumping/formula feeding the whole time so wasn't going to go down the ex. pumping route again!

How ever like your baby DD1 was very constipated and the reflux still wasn't resolved so she went on to Domperidone which worked amazingly well. She actually gained weight on it. This was just syringed into her with her feeds as it was a very small amount (few mls a dose IIRC).

There is also Losec MUPS (omeprazole) as well as Domperidone & Ranitidine amongst other meds.

[chelen]

Hi, my son was also refluxy after various health probs in early life, we had ranitidine, which was easier to give due to oral syringe.

I would also suggest, if you are bf-ing, having a major investigation into your diet and the possibility of a lactose or other intolerance, something passing through into your milk.

I found when I cut out milk the reflux all but stopped, so I no longer needed the meds.

Could be no help whatsoever for your sitation so please acceot advance apols if the reflux is in no way allergic.

Hope things improve x