If you gave up dairy to help baby's reflux symptoms...

[DuggeesWoggle]

How long did it take to see a difference?

DD is 11 weeks and bf and has silent reflux (regurgitating and swallowing sounds when laying flat) although she is also vomiting quite a bit too.

She had a tongue tie snipped so I waited until that had settled to see if it helped but no such luck so 2 weeks ago I cut out dairy. I don't think it's that as her nappies aren't explosive and her skin is fine, bit thought it was worth a try. I know it can take a few weeks to get out of your system but surely I should be able to see an effect after this much time? It's actually getting worse!

It's not really causing her pain and she's gaining weight well, but I am struggling to get much sleep as she wakes up as soon as I put her down (bedside crib with raised end). My son was the same and didn't grow out of it until he was a year old.

Is there anything else I can try to ease symptoms? I miss cheese

I did 8 weeks dairy & soya free last year starting 1st December when my baby was just over 3 months old and miserable. It made zero difference. He’d had TT cut at 12 weeks too. Only thing that helped was when he started eating a decent amount of solids which wasn’t until 7/8 months. He’s my second, my first was a sicky baby too but wasn’t upset with it like he was. Have you tried different feeding positions? The laid back/biological nursing position was marginally better for us I think.

I've tried the laid back position and I just can't get on with it - the tongue tie meant she has trouble latching by herself and doesn't open her mouth very wide, so it's hard to get her to latch on when in this position. The side lying position is no better - my nipple seems to point down towards the mattress and I just find it really hard to get her latched on when lying down. Plus of course when lying down she's more likely to be uncomfortable and be sick. I try and keep her upright after feeding for 20 mins or so but I often end up falling asleep with her on my chest while I'm sitting up in bed. I KNOW this isn't safe although it feels secure enough as she's central on me and can't really move by herself yet and I'm a pretty light sleeper so tend to wake if she moves. It's the only sleep I get some nights. But I know I need to get her sleeping lying down more and with the reflux getting worse I just don't know what to do.

OP, I could have written your post about my DD (now 4). I also gave up dairy and was told it can take several weeks to make any difference - but it never did for us and turns out that wasn’t the problem. (DD also didn’t have explosive nappies / green poo / bad nappy rash so I kind of knew it wasn’t an allergy issue.)

We did manage to get the laid back feeding position to work for us. I went to a BF support group and explained our situation and they were really helpful. Might be worth seeing if you’ve got one near you and going along for advice and support? It helped with the projectile vomiting DD would do after some feeds, but didn’t solve the silent reflux.

The only thing that made a significant difference was getting a prescription for ranitidine for her. Within a few days there was a marked improvement and I could lie her down without hearing the horrible gurgling. Such a relief!! I still remember the shock I felt when I put her down in her Moses basket and she stayed asleep!!! Up until then my husband and I had been sleeping in shifts while one of us held her upright so she could get some sleep at least.

I did have to be really pushy with the doctors though. One of them even refused to prescribe ranitidine because the guidance said it was not to be given to babies unless under medical supervision - she didn’t seem to get that her prescribing and monitoring it was the medical supervision!! I eventually got a doctor that took me seriously rather than an over anxious first time mum, and he prescribed the ranitidine without hesitation. So definitely worth being persistent and getting appropriate treatment.

Good luck!!

Thanks PrincessSarene, it's so hard isn't it when you can't lie them down? She was so much better in the first couple of weeks but the tongue tie made feeding difficult so we've had all that to deal with. Thankfully that has massively improved but now the reflux has got worse (if it was an allergy surely it would have been bad from day 1?)

My son was on ranitidine for a long time after a few disastrous weeks trying to administer gaviscon - it just isn't very compatible with breastfeeding as you're breaking off feeds to syringe it in and it made his nappies all pasty and horrible. Ranitidine was much better and definitely eased his pain. His reflux was worse in that he was a lot more sick but it seems she is now following suit. I wondered if ranitidine would be suitable for her as she doesn't seem to be in pain (although often has a gripey tummy and can be uncomfortable if she is working up to doing a poo), but if it helps stop the gurgling that would be a massive deal. Might ring the Dr this week and see what they say.

We have bf support groups I can go to although not sure I can get to one for a couple of weeks but will persevere with trying the laid back position - she might be a bit better now her latch has improved.

"Reflux happens because muscles at the base of your baby's food pipe have not fully developed, so milk can come back up easily.
Your baby's muscles will develop as they get older and they should grow out of it." -from the NHS site.

There will be some who have an allergy for whom the food is making it worse, but the majority of the time giving up a food like diary won't do any good, and may also do you some harm as you need the calcium.

That's the conclusion I've come to, Witchend, from what I can gather, true CMPA isn't actually all that common. As with my son, I think it's just a case of DD growing out of it and trying to ease the symptoms in the mean time. I'm not too worried about not getting enough calcium as I've switched to fortified oat milk and sunflower marg, have been taking a multivitamin and eating plenty of kale which is high in calcium.

I did cave and have pizza for lunch so the deed is done now .

My DD had blood in her nappies for weeks, a sure sign of dairy intolerance, the internet said. The paediatrician said ‘it’s probably not, wait and see’ and she grew out of it. If I’d given up dairy, I’d have given it up for no reason, but also thought that DD was intolerant as it ‘sorted’ the problem. The doc said that loads of women are needlessly giving up dairy because the internet tells them to and actually it can harm breastfeeding rates as too difficult to keep up.

My DS had horrible vomiting every time I laid him down, the entire house was covered in muslins. What helped with him was only giving one breast at a feeding and holding upright for at least ten minutes afterwards. He needed feeding every 2 hours instead of 4 but at least he kept it down. If I gave him both it would all come back up. Also sat him in baby chairs a lot instead of laying him flat.
He grew out of it too.