Reflux advice

[Alxx]

Hi all,
So my LO was diagnosed with silent reflux at 3 weeks old. We were prescribed gaviscon and had been managing it ok with this, however about 3 weeks ago it seemed to get a lot worse (he is now 16 weeks, exclusively breastfed). He would feed for just a few minutes then come off crying and refuse to go back on. We went to the GP who just said up amount of times we give the gaviscon, she wouldn’t prescribe anything else as he is putting weight on ok.
So he is now on Gaviscon 5 times a day. Most days he is eating more but he does bring milk up a fair bit. Other days he will barely feed from me and will get very upset. His sleep is also pretty awful- he wakes up constantly in the night, pulling his legs up and arching his back in his sleep, sometimes groaning and eventually waking himself fully. Does this sound like reflux discomfort to you?
I’m not sure what to do- I’m not prepared to let him lose weight just to show the GP, so on the days he hasn't fed well I will express and he does take a bottle. Should I carry on as we are until he grows out of it? Or should I go back to the GP and ask for ranitidine? I don’t want to medicate him if he doesn’t need it but I’d just be really interested to see if ranitidine would make a difference to his feeding and sleeping. What are other people’s experiences of ranitidine?
Also does anyone have any experience about giving up dairy, as I’ve read this can help with reflux? How long until I would see an improvement?
I’m exhausted from lack of sleep and worrying about how much he is eating, and it’s hard not to take personally when he refuses to feed from me
TIA x

[lahooks]

Hi!

My little boy was like this since being born! Wasn't breastfed though.
He also had gaviscon which just made him constipated. He ended up hospitalised because of a blue episode and then we were prescribed ranitidine.
We saw a huge difference.
However the leg stomping etc continued. It wasn't until he was about 5 months old that he was diagnosed with CMPA which led to being dairy free.
It could be worth doing an elimination diet and cut out dairy for a few weeks to see if that helps improve things.

My little boy is now 14 months and is now back on blue milk, no ranitidine and trying to wean him off lansoprazole for his reflux.

If you need a chat then I'm always here for one x

[ElyElyOy]

You could try being dairy free (completely though, not just reducing your intake) and although it takes 6-8 weeks to clear you should see improvement earlier than that.

Go back to your GP though and ask for ranitidine in the meantime. My son has CMPA and severe reflux so needed a combination of being dairy free, ranitidine and omeprazole to help him.

You could also get tongue tie and latch checked if you have any la leche league people in your area: I’ve heard lots of people get improvement with these sorts of symptoms with that :)

[Alxx]

Thanks so much for your comments, really interesting to hear other experiences.

I have been trying to go dairy free for the last week to see if that helps, haven’t seen an obvious improvement yet but I’ll persevere for a few more weeks. Although there is dairy in a lot more food than I thought! How do you get CMPA diagnosed properly?

We have had his latch etc checked a couple of times and it’s always been fine. If anything I think it’s the breastfeeding positions that sometimes bother him, so I’ve been trying out more upright feeding positions that don’t involve lying him down, to see if that helps.

And I may just have to accept for now that he isn’t a great sleeper!

[PragmaticWench]

How's it going OP? We went through this with both DC, it's really tough when they're not sleeping and the reflux isn't controlled. Did you manage to persuade the GP to prescribe Ranitidine?

[Paradyning]

Get omeprazole