Is it worth a trip to the GP?

[iwasagirlinavillage]

DD2 is 9 months, born 7 weeks early. She currently has a chesty cough and is crying constantly. Feeding her is the only thing that will momentarily calm her until she starts screaming or bites me and then starts screaming. She's had back to back coughs, colds and viral infections since about October and every time the GP has said there's nothing you can do, just ride it out. But she is crying inconsolably. I don't know what to do.

[Noodoodle]

Aww sorry OP, that must be really frustrating. Does she feed ok though, has she got colic or tummy problems if she's screaming after eating? Have you discussed it with the health visitor or maybe try another gp?

I don't know anything about premature births though, is the doctor aware and are they suggesting maybe the infections/illness are anything to do with that?

[passthewineplz]

Is she teething, or pulling at her ears? (she might have an ear infection).

If she's not settling and crying constantly, I'd get her checked out.

[Igottastartthinkingbee]

Go the gp, she's very young, they're always happy to see babies. Hope she's better soon.

[LieInRequired]

Has dairy intolerance been considered? When both my DDs were babies, the HV and GP often thought they had a chest infection because their breathing was noisy and they had coughs. However in both cases it turned out to be dairy intolerance causing reflux.

With DD1, I didn't really get this fully under control until she was nearly 1. With DD2, I was more alert to the signs and was better able to prove to the GP that she was better when I went diary free (I was breastfeeding her). DD2 was then prescribed hypoallergenic formula (I needed surgery so could not continue to feed her).

[iwasagirlinavillage]

I took her. GP said her chest is clear so just another viral thing that we just have to wait and ride out. She does have reflux and is on medication. We ran out of the medication recently and I thought she was fine without it - in terms of not bringing up milk - but maybe she has been uncomfortable because of that. Although she's back on it again now. I had also previously cut out dairy but she seemed okay after I had small amounts (she is breastfed) and so recently I haven't made a concerted effort not to have dairy and last night, without even considering it, I had macaroni cheese! Basically a dairy explosion! So maybe that was it. I'll go back to no or only small amounts of dairy and see if there's any improvement. Thank you for the suggestions.

[Igottastartthinkingbee]

She could also be teething. The biting points to that.

[LieInRequired]

One paediatrician I saw with DD2 told me that he is increasingly recognising that dairy intolerance is a common cause of reflux. In your shoes I would try cutting dairy out for a couple of weeks and see if that makes a difference.