Help with reflux

Hi all,

Our 3 week old has been diagnosed with silent reflux.

3 days ago the doctor put him on ranitidine, which I know can take a wee while to work. We found the next 24 hours unbearable, so we went back to the doctors and they’ve also given him infant gaviscon to take one sachet 6 times a day. We’re hoping this will soothe him a bit until the ranitidine kicks in.

We’ve found he’s instantly better with the gaviscon, which we started using yesterday, although we’re still not sure he’s ready to be put on his back to sleep, we’ve taken shifts with him sleeping on one of our chests for the last 4 days as this is the only way he seems to get some decent rest.

He gets 8 feeds a day at the moment, but because we can only give him 6 sachets across a 24 hour period two of his feeds are without gaviscon. When he feeds without gaviscon he just screams the house down.

Does anyone have any advice? Are we better splitting the 6 sachets across the 8 feeds so each feed has a bit in?

Also, he’s just over 4.5kg which is the point where we can go up to 2 sachets in a feed, but my husband is reluctant to up the dose because we’re worried about constipation. We’re giving him an ounce of cooled boiling water twice a day to try and keep constipation at bay.

Any help would be appreciated!!!