Infant Gaviscon making reflux worse?

[Stacks]

I have an 18w DS who has been sleeping poorly for weeks now. He's also had a cough and sniffly nose overnight, but rarely in the daytime.

His usual behaviour was generally just waking gently, making enough noise and movement to wake me, then taking a feed and going back to sleep. The only problem with this was he could be waking me every hour or more. His daytime naps are fine, settling in his pram sleeping for an hour or so, then waking for a feed and play.

All through the day he'll have periods of reflux, with acid coming into his mouth/throat which he swallows back down with a shudder and grimace. The doctor has suggested he could have reflux over night causing the wake ups and prescribed gaviscon.

I've given it to him twice at night at his feed before bed. These have been the two worst nights we've ever had. Waking with a pained wail, refusing to feed, arching his back and only settling with me sitting up to feed him. His cough has got worse, now sounding very congested and his throat sounding sore. Much more mucousy and visible signs of reflux with him obviously grimacing and swallowing before and after waking.
Last night we had hours of screaming, two lots of large volume projectile vomiting, and lots of obvious discomfort through the night even when sleeping. Every time he cleared his nose he'd cough and grimace sometimes waking, sometimes managing to stay asleep. He only managed two hours undisturbed sleep - the first two after going down.

Is this all coincidence? Can the gaviscon be making it worse? Has anyone else ever seen this? Thanks.

[Elibean]

My dd2 had reflux until about 18 months (silent reflux, so though she occasionally brought feeds back up, most of the symptoms were pain and arching). Gaviscon definitely didn't help, plus it constipated her which made her reflux worse.

She needed Domperidone and Ranitidine, which she eventually got - after I became very squeaky wheel and had her referred to a paeds team.

You may need to squeak, I'm afraid - some GPs tend to be of the 'just live through it' variety, which I have to admit I found intensely frustrating. dd2 actually had a floppy larynx, and once she was under the ENT team they immediately put her on proper reflux meds, as most babies with floppy larynxes have reflux - though not the other way around.

Good luck, let us know how he is.

[littleginger]

My DD had reflux and hv suggested i change her to anti reflux formula which seemed to work great for about 8 weeks. However last 3 weeks were dreadful and i could see she was really struggling with silent reflux (throwing up into mouth, swallowing and then screaming / pushing away feeds / horrendous night times). I went to dr and was prescribed infant gaviscon despite my pointing out she already takes a pre thickened feed. She insisted i could use both anti reflux milk and IG together and it was worth a try. Got home, read instructions and found that i couldnt use with anti reflux milk therefore had to dig out some old cartons from when she was on stage one formula.

I found that my DD was also worse. The feeds were not as thick as with anti reflux milk and she was spewing everywhere and screaming! I gave her 8 bottles of this stuff (ran out of cartons) and decided to go back to anti reflux milk rather than fork out for stage one formula needlessly.

What i dont get is that both hv and dr have told me that IG does more than thicken feeds yet all i see on the internet is that it doesnt contain any antacid and just thickens feed...

DD's more severe symptoms have since subsided on their own but ive sort of realised that some symptoms persisted throughout the 'good times', ie frequent night wakenings (crying), screaming for no reason, real grumpiness when she is usually very smiley, sometimes wont take feeds. Am i being impatient with these mild symptoms or should i go back to drs? I feel ill have a real battle on my hands in order to get hold of zantac and to be honest im not even sure if it will help. Now that her severe symptoms have improved im back to thinking do i just have a temperamental baby? She is seriously like jekyll and hyde!

Also are really runny and explosive nappies a symptom of acid reflux as my DD's have never settled down since she was a newborn. It hadnt realised that they were meant to have become a bit more solid!

Sorry for hijacking OP's thread. Hopefully someone out there has sound advice for both of us