silent reflex and naps/sleep

[nomorelostweekends]

DD2 (21 weeks) has silent reflux. I think it is relatively mild, and has mostly disturbed her at night, although she can be quite cranky during the day too. She has been prescribed gaviscon, which is helping, and i have raised her cot and tried to start handling her more carefully. I hold her upright after feeding for 20-30 minutes, including at night.She has gone from waking every hour to 2 or 3 feeds a night (fully bf).

I was wondering how reflux had impacted on other babies sleep and ability to settle for naps and at night. DD2 has always fought sleep and we have had to settle her by jiggling and walking around. She occasionally takes a dummy but not consistently. At night if she doesn't feed to sleep then i get up and walk her around, so that i can hold her upright afterwards. This means she never really gets a chance to settle herself. The jiggling is fine for now, but she is getting heavier and i am not sure i will be able to continue it within a few weeks. In addition she only settles for me, which means i never get a break.

I'm not quite sure what i am asking really - I guess some reassurance that the reflux will settle and i won't be jiggling her upright for the next couple of years!

[nomorelostweekends]

oops silent reflux!

[SheWillBeLoved]

It will settle as her digestive system matures, especially if it's only mild reflux. DD who is 7 weeks is also the same, I know how completely knackering it is to have to sit/walk around for half an hour after her feed praying to god that her feed has settled... only to lay her down, have her puke some up, and then lie awake with hiccups for the next 45 minutes

"This too will pass" has definitely been my mantra for the past month

Could you not encourage DP/DH to take over in the evenings (or days if he is around then) when it's time to settle her down after her feed? It'll give you a break, and will hopefully ease her into being settled by somebody else - I'm sure she'll scream like a banshee the first few times but it shouldn't be too bad as she'll come to realize that it may not be you but someone is with her.

[lilysam]

Reflux is a nightmare - DS was exactly the same - and gaviscon made him wake every 2 hours at night! Days we didn't give it he slept for many more hours so we stopped using it and put up with the sick!

Unfortunately, from our experience and what the gp said, it is just a phase and you have to ride it out til they grow out of it .

I think you need to persevere with your DH trying to settle her too and see the gp again as suggested.

[nomorelostweekends]

Thanks for replying. I have to admit the thought if changing my diet sends me into a panic - I live on chocolate at the moment (though maybe thats the problem). But if things don't settle i think i will have to have a try.

I have had a chat with DP and he is going to do some of the settling at the weekend. We both need to take a deep breath and cope with the tears without me stepping in. Its hard when there have already been so many. Part of the problem is that he is not really around to settle her during the week, and as i am already feeding at night it is silly to wake him unless i need some help. So she doesn't spend a huge amount of time with him.

I haven't given her any meds tonight - she is so constipated So a little anxious about the night ahead.

[clown7]

Hi

My dd had silent reflux and it caused me a lot of sleep deprivation in the first few months. She is now 8 months and only recently came off the meds which thankfully she no longer needs. I have twins so I was not really able to devote a long time to walking around with her at bedtime because of my ds also needing me so I started putting dd in her bouncy chair to fall asleep in, which kept her at an angle and meant that she was more comfortable, before we transferred her to her cot. I also began to give her a bottle for her before bed time feed which had Nestec thickener in it (which the doctor had prescribed)and I can remember that our evenings began to improve when she fell asleep on this bottle. Another thing which helped our nights was doing the 10pm feed as a dream feed with her still asleep in the cot. I found that she was never in pain after this feed as she did not use to wake which was great and ended the 2-3 hour bouts of screaming after this feed. Obviously, if you are exclusively breastfeeding you will have to lift her out of the cot for the df or express (then you could also add thickener). I have to admit that on the worst nights dd also ended up in the swing chair or bouncy chair in the middle of night and I think at one point I could actually sleep whilst rocking the bouncy chair beside me....oh the joys of parenting...I also had to give up all fruit and veg as her reaction was so bad...

By the way - she is a relatively good sleeper now (amazingly after all of that accidental parenting)- self settles, sleeps through generally and usually naps ok - so hang in there, things will improve.

[nomorelostweekends]

Clown7 - gosh you have had your work cut out (and i guess still have ) thanks for taking the time to reply. You have given me hope .

We don't do a dream feed as such - after going down at 7 she wakes 2 or 3 times in the evening - i just hold off feeding her til about 10 as doctor suggested not feeding her each time she woke, and as she is really tired i can usually get her back to sleep ok without feeding the first couple of times.

Thanks again. Off to pick up DD1 from first day at nursery