help-just found out my baby has reflux -cried all night but now taking action.

[mummatovinvin]

hi everyone.

my beautiful son is 9 weeks. we just discovered he has reflux. 2 doctors misdiagnosed him with colic so it took a while.

as a result of this my ds is fractious and unable to settle. he sleeps in bed with me so can feed every hour or so and can bf him back to sleep. this is only way it works and we're tired but coping.

yesterday was given 2 drugs - domperidone and rattidine by paed to see how they work and told to come back in 2 weeks.

I also went to see an v reputable baby osteopath this morning. he says that the reflux is a sympton of a compressed nerve which can be treated in 5-8 sessions.

am going to use both treatments at same time as want to get results as soon as possible and cant bear to see my son in pain.

would really appreciate advice from others as to whether these drugs worked on your babies and how long this took? what side effects these drugs had on your ds and dds?

also whether anyone else gone osteopath route? i guess ideally i'd do one thing at a time to see whats working but feel like cant afford to waste time.

btw is lactose intolerance always linked to reflux? wonder if shd give it up too?

any insight would be great.

many thanks

[corrina28]

mummatovinvin thats awful {hugs} hope db is ok.

[mummatovinvin]

thank you corrina 28. does/ did your lo have reflux?

[lulumama]

hi
my nephew was diagnosed with reflux..he was also prescribed ranitandine and domperidone. It worked quickly and he became much more settled....don;t know about any side effects, she was relived he was better...he came off the medication a while ago and is drinking milk without a problem.

she didn't see an osteopath.

don;t give up milk without medical advice.

HTH!

[LIZS]

dd ahd reflux which we didn't knwo until she was 8 weeks , by which tiem she'd developed an ear ifncetion almost certainly caused by the bacteria in regurgitated milk multiplying. So I cna understand a little of your guilt and sadness. We had a milk thickener but as I was b'feeding didn't use it much. Practical things ehlepd such as sitting her up after feeds in bouncy chair or car seat, not even lying her down to change a nappy for at least half an hour, raising her bed to an angle of about 30/45o, carrying her in a sling etc. We didn't do much else and it became worse for a while as she became mobile but improved vastly once she was walking. She struggled with lumpier foods at first when weaning but was not lactose intolerant or indeed has any allergies .

[poppiesinaline]

DS1 had reflux. He was put on Cisapride and Tagamet at 12 weeks and within a week he was almost a different baby. I say 'almost' because he was also dairy intolerant which we didnt discover until he was just over 2 Someone told me that apparently the two often go hand in hand.

He had 8 sessions of cranio-osteopath starting when he was 5 weeks old and it did nothing at all.

[taylormama]

hi - my LO was on domperidone and ranitadine and they worked wonders. Took around 5 days to see an effect. Ranitadine is very weight dependent so the dose needs adjusting every time LO gains around 1 LB in weight. Reflux and lactose intolerance often go hand in hand but not always - my DS isn't lactose intolerant.

Never saw an osteo but why not try it ... the meds will have an effect tho. Didn't notice any side effects TBH.

Good luck - things will improve.
xxxx

[mummatovinvin]

thanks for all your messages. really made me feel v optimistic about the drugs. its day 3 so far so hanging in there.

[Jimjams2]

google babynest amby hammock. It was desisgned for babies with refulx- is bloody brilliant, ds3 slept through from really early on in it.

[elibumbum]

You have my sympathy. It is awful watching your little one suffer with reflux but looks like you should have it under control soon.

My DS has reflux (now under control). We knew something was wrong with him as from about 8 weeks of age he would take about an hour to drink about 90-100ml of expressed breast milk and if he came off the bottle he wouldn't go back on and screamed and arched his back particularly after we burped him.

We tried gaviscon first but it didn't work.

We then saw our first consultant as DS was failing to thrive. He had dropped to the bottom percentile! We tried domperidone and ranitadine at this stage. Unfortunately they gave him the trots which wasn't good for a skinny baby! So they were stopped at the end of the first week. When he was 4.5 months I stopped expressing and he went on to a high calorie formula. He started to put on a little weight but his volume didn't go up and he was still fussing lots.

We then asked to see a different consultant - a paediatric gastroenterologist. He said he had a food aversion caused by the reflux and put him on Losec MUPs straight away and said that if he had seen him a couple of months before he would have also put him on Neocate - but as DS was about 5 months at this stage he said he would be unlikely to take it. Some think reflux and cows milk protein intolerance is linked - there is an article on the web about it (google search).

DS is now coming up to 9 months and the reflux is under control - his milk intake is much better now and he hasn't fussed for ages. Although the food aversion hasn't completely gone away - solids are a challenge!

We also tried an osteopath - It didn't work for DS but I know it works for lots of babies.

We have also tried homeopathic treatment. DS did consume more milk after we saw her.

Keeping DS upright after a feed helped too - we raised his moses basket at one end so he was on a slope after night feeds.

This has turned in to a bit of an essay - sorry!

[TreadmillMom]

Good Morning mummatovinvin,
Big hugs to you honey, I know exactly how you're feeling. DS2 was also born with Gastric Reflux but not diagnosed until he was nearly 5 months old.
When he was first born he seemed normal in every way but to us seemed very clingy, you never heard a baby scream so much when he was lay down and I felt I could get nothing done because he was so 'spoilt', nighttimes didn't initially seem so bad as I'd BF'd DS1 I expected the 2 hourly round the clock feeds but when it came to 1 hourly with sometimes projectile vomiting thrown in we knew this was not right.
Took him to GP twice and was dismissed. His weight gain was good but that was because he was never off my breast and so was ingesting something.
After a particularly bad night visited GP again and insisted on a referral which I got as an emergency case.
Paediatrician took one look at son and listened to his symptoms and knew straight away it was reflux.
He too was prescribed domperidone and ranitidine and his stools were tested for lactose intolerance but thankfully came back negative.
After every feed I would keep him sat upright for at least 10 mins (even in the night), his cot mattress was propped up with spare blankets to make it at least a 30 degree angle with a rolled up towel placed under his thighs/bum like a little seat to stop him sliding down the mattress. Each night he seemed a little more settled and by the 5th night he slept 5 hours straight, I could not believe it, I was so overjoyed.
Then the guilt crept in. I (not nature or the GP) had let him suffer all this time. I had called him spoilt and told him more than once to be quiet and not picked him up until I had finished what I was doing, I?d even tried to sleep train him and left him in his cot screaming...in pain!
At approx 9 mths old he had a really bad case of diarrhoea, the poo was just pouring out of him and I couldn?t get to speak to the Paediatrician, after 5 days of this I figured that as domperidone forces the food out of their gut perhaps he didn?t need the meds anymore and they?re giving him the runs so we stopped his meds and within a day his poo started to firm up and he was still a happy baby a week and a half later when I finally got to see the Paediatrician.
She wasn?t overly impressed that I?d taken him off the meds though she did admit it probably wasn?t doing his diarrhoea any favours. She examined him and said he had actually outgrown the reflux and was happy to sign him off.
I was so happy; my boy was not suffering anymore and could get on with having fun.
He?s just turned 1, is walking, saying the odd word, sleep trained him with confidence two weeks ago and has slept through since the 3rd night and is totally mischievous.
I do see in my minds eye though his red scrunched up face and his fists tight up against his chest and I give him a big cuddle and tell him how sorry I am.
Chin up mummatovinvin the medication will hopefully make a dramatic difference in a very short time, just make him as comfortable as you can by adding the practical steps advised.

[mummatovinvin]

Thanks for further posts ladies. Really good to read about others experiences.

Its Day 4 of the drugs and NO difference so feel less optimistic.

Do you think should have seen some effect by now?

[TreadmillMom]

C'mon mummatovinvin give the meds a chance, be positive,read the posts again, there is a light at the end of this tunnel!

[elibumbum]

I'd give them a couple of weeks.

Our consultant wanted us to come back after 2 weeks when we tried the same meds because they take a couple of weeks to work. The Losec took more than a month to make much of a difference in my DS - he had a learned food aversion by that stage though so it took a while for him to realise that milk didn't = pain.

[mummatovinvin]

really? good i have renewed hope. its been a week and tbh no change.
people seem to say its a dramatic change once drugs stgart working - would other mamas agree?
thanks again for all the replies - so helpful.
thank goodness for these boards....
xx

[mrsnoah]

DD2 had reflux and cows milk allergy.
She had Ranitidine, cisopride and thixo D.
No side effects and the results were instant and wonderful.

Could try Infasoy milk its ok for girls not boys though.
I expect you know all the rules about keeping them upright etc?

Very dubious myself about this kind of osteopathy. The one I saw was very expensive and not very good.

[mrsnoah]

DD2 had reflux and cows milk allergy.
She had Ranitidine, cisopride and thixo D.
No side effects and the results were instant and wonderful.

Could try Infasoy milk its ok for girls not boys though.
I expect you know all the rules about keeping them upright etc?

Very dubious myself about this kind of osteopathy. The one I saw was very expensive and not very good.

[mrsnoah]

oops sorry