Can you talk to me about coming out the other end of reflux?

[BoobiesToTheRescue]

My third baby (16 weeks) is suffering because I screwed up a few doses of his ranitidine. This has showed me that the meds definitely help and the fact that I've eliminated a ton of things from my diet for months, probably hasn't helped at all.

Did your baby turn out to have allergies?
Or was it 'just' reflux?
Did weaning help?
Did you wean early?
What did you wean on to?
When did you see the reflux start to go?
When were you able to stop the meds?

Sorry you're right in the middle of this, I remember it well and it's really difficult.
My baby is also lactose intolerant but once we got the allergies and reflux under control, everything got a hell of a lot easier and she was hardly ever sick.
We didn't wean early, we were advised to start at 4m if things hadn't settled but they did so we started at 6m.
Did standard weaning and started with vegetable purees, fruit and porridge. When we progressed on to lumpier food/finger food, sometimes she gagged and was sick but I'm confident it wasn't a reflux thing, just normal baby getting used to textures.
I think we started testing cutting out the ranitidine around 7 months and I don't remember having it again after 8.
When she was first diagnosed with reflux at about 2 weeks old, I remember feeling like we'd be stuck in this awful sicky stage forever but she 19m now and it's a fairly distant memory.
The allergy was harder to spot but I knew she still wasn't right even with the meds which led me to experiment with milks and when we went lactose free, the difference was almost immediate.
Sorry for the essay, I hope this helps

Thank you.

Does she actually have allergies? Or is it just the lactose that she doesn't break down? Lactose intolerance isn't an allergy.

I've been trying to figure out if my baby has allergies, I'm breastfeeding him and I've eliminated a whole bunch of things but the only thing that seems to have helped is the meds.

We saw some improvement with meds, but not a full resolution, despite me cutting out dairy etc. All hell broke lose with weaning, and it turned out DD was intolerant to a load of stuff, including many fruits and vegetables, so it was no wonder just cutting out the main culprits didn't resolve it. I never had a chance of getting to the bottom of it while breastfeeding.

I'm not saying that will be the case with your DC, it's highly unusual to be intolerant of so many fruits and veg. But it could be that you are not seeing full resolution because there is an intolerance/allergy to something as yet unidentified. Given the delayed/diluted effects with breastfeeding, it may only become apparent once weaning starts.

My second son has multiple severe allergies which only became apparent when I started to wean. He also had reflux but I don't remember it being this bad.

This is why weaning worries me. It could make things better or it could make things worse!

Dd had horrendous reflux so much so that after BF she was in so much pain she would stop breathing, start going blue and pass out. ( The Dr’s originally Thought it could be severe epilepsy). After a spell in hospital at 8 weeks they advised me to stop EBF as the effort of feeding seemed to exacerbate the situation. I expressed for a couple of days and the improvement was immense, as feeding required so much less of energy to start with. She was swapped to formula , stayed on ranitidine and gaviscon sachets for 18 months and although it didn’t totally resolve the situation she was so much better and thrived. Once she walked at 18 months it pretty much sorted itself. We didn’t cut out any food groups ( wasn’t even suggested) weaned as normal, she’s now 12 no allergies or intolerance’s.

Not sure if this is the same thing but my DS had really bad sickness where he would entirely cover himself, me and anything in a 5 foot radius. However doctors thought it was because of weak muscles in his stomach rather than allergies as he had no other symptoms. We were prescribed infant gaviscon but it made no difference.
We weaned at 4 months and saw immediate benefits now he's 6 and is absolutely fine.

Just reflux no allergies. Grew out of it over time. Ranitidine gradually reduced. Weaning made no difference.

We were on the waiting list to see paediatrician but as soon as I cut out lactose she was fine so I cancelled it. No CMPA as she can tolerate lactofree products just fine.
I started to twig when the colief I was using to break down the lactose in her usual formula helped but didn't eliminate it completely.
I think it's even harder with bf babies because especially with weaning, you've got to track what they're eating as well as yourself.
Have you got a referral to paeds? My hv was amazing and pushed for it for me. I'm sure you know the process much better than me with having a child with dx allergies.

Hi op, you have my sympathy. dd 1 started with reflux at around 3 weeks. I still have no idea how she gained any weight. After every feed she would be sick, it was projectile and sometimes it seemed as she was bringing the whole feed up! HV/GP didn't really take me seriously and wouldn't prescribe anything. I was only told "all babies are sick, some babies are sick a lot" I was only told to use cow and gate comfort milk but it didn't help at all. It was horrendous, it was just constant washing and changing. I weaned at 6 months, and that's when things started to get better. Didn't do anything special, made a lot of the baby food myself. I occasionally used a jar of food if we were out and about but found she was often more sick after those as the consistency was thinner than what I would make myself. The vomiting stopped completely when she started standing and walking when she was 14 months old. It was almost like the constant sitting was "squashing" her stomach and causing the reflux. She continued to complain of intermittent stomach ache for many years though. She was eventually referred to a paediatrician who thought it was constipation. She was prescribed various laxatives but nothing helped. Took her back to the GP again when she was 7 and she was prescribed Ranitidine which she now takes every day. This was a year ago and she is fine now. She had no allergies and is not lactose intolerant. Hope things get a bit easier for you soon.

Thanks, I'm so glad to hear it's not all allergy related.
I'm tempted to try dairy in my diet again.

Although he did have a horrible allergic rash before I eliminated that.

My youngest has reflux, hes weaning now (but still on formula). We've found anything a bit spicy or anything tomato based set him off. We didn't wean early (maybe a couple of weeks) but hes so much less sicky.
It's such a horrible, horrible thing but we have found it does improve!

Yep, we went through all this with DS.
He was EBF and would bring up every single feed. The HV witnessed all the sick once and finally believed me and left me with one of those blue rolls to help with the cleaning up. We have wooden floors and I just used to let him be sick all over the floors then mop it up.

An awful time in our lives.

I weaned him at 5 months. He initially brought that up too, and struggled to swallow so would suck his thumb to help the food go down.

But absolutely no allergies or side effects (apart from my mental health suffering) and he is now an 8 year old with a good appetite and no other issues.

I can’t rid my memory of the sickness.

Dreadful reflux with DS1, he was eventually diagnosed with CMPA but actually the prescribed formula only made a tiny difference to his reflux, we saw the most dramatic change on settling his tummy so was worth doing.
He had ranitidine and gaviscon, and then finally paeds prescribed domperidone and omeprazole at 6 months. This was life changing for us.

We didn’t wean early, waited until 6 months. DS continues to be a child who has a sensitive tummy and has not grown out of the CMPA.

It’s a really hard time, just sending you some strength!

My DD had silent reflux but wasn't diagnosed till she was around 3 months old - we tried cutting out dairy but that had no effect only the ranitidine helped. We baby led weaned at 6mths & it went fine. Think we stopped the ranitidine around 9-10mths.
She is now 4 (nearly 5) & has no food allergies, is only allergic to chamomile (random!).
Reflux was dire, but it does end & the ranitidine is amazing.

That's so good to hear. I'm so glad the majority don't have allergies!