Is my baby suffering from Reflux?

[Olliepoly]

Hi. I’ve been reading a lot of mum’s and parents experience and finally got around to creating an account as I would really benefit from advise.

My DS is 10 wks old and was born at 34 wks. At the moment, he spits up every feed and you can usually tell that it’s coming because he squirms and sometimes cries before he lets it out. He doesn’t cry frantically but he is unable to sleep for more than an hour as he

Hi op, do you burp him during the feed or after? My daughter (8 weeks old) spits up milk if i give her 2 ounces in one go, so after each ounce ive got to burp her. Same when im breastfeeding her, got to stop after 5 mins and burp her otherwise she will bring up milk

Thank you replying navteexo

I burp him after 40-50 ml and then feed him again. I give him about 30 ml per hr so if he’s hungry after 3 hrs, I give him 90. I was told I should let my baby guide me if he’s still hungry but he has never voluntarily refuse milk so I just have to stop him. It’s a struggle to stop feeding him because he cries and screams when you take away the bottle. What I do is replace it with a dummy. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.

I think I’m worried that I’m over feeding him which causes the reflux and the spit up. On the other hand, he seems to be giving hunger cues which tells me he still wants to feed. Ah! The joys of parenthood

Babies almost always bring up some milk after a feed which is normal. The question is how much.
About 90ml of milk every three hours sounds a good quantity. What are the hunger cues you are relying on?
I would say that at 10weeks for a 34 weeker a 3 hourly routine is about right.
I would try winding baby after every oz (30mls) trying a variety of positions up on shoulder, sitting up holding head up, lying cycling legs then holding up. And giving a much longer winding process at the end. Often you will get one or two bumps come up straight away but ot will take considerably longer maybe 15 mins for the rest to come up if you look at your baby's mouth area you can some times see azgreyish or green tinge which shows some wind is still there.
A small amount of possetting is not cause for concern and isnt the same if reflux. Prem babies are more prone to having digestive difficulties but it's a case of determining if it's actually reflux or not.

How much is he bringing back up? It’s good that he’s wanting and enjoying his feeds as my DD and one of my DGC used to scream at the sight of a bottle of milk and would arch their backs to get away from feeding.

If a lot is coming back up then it might be worth asking your HV if they think a thickener like carobel might be worth trying. It definitely helped both DGC to keep more milk down. The youngest was also prem and did bring up a lot of milk until around 1 year.

Is DS gaining weight ok? Is he on formula for preemies and iron supplement? Eldest DGC wasn’t prem but weight gain was so poor due to refusing feeds that a high calorie formula was prescribed to get maximum calories from the little that was taken.

I reckon he’s bringing up about 20-30 ml, at most. It has declined the past few days but still 3-4 times in between feeds sometimes curd.

The doctor did say to try thickened milk. I use liquid formula (aptamil) is it alright to use carobel with it? At what point did you decide that it was time to use Carobel? At this point, my concern is that the spit up is accompanied (squirming/crying) by discomfort that interferes with his sleep.

He looks to me as if he’s gaining weight but drop in clinics are closed and my digital weighing scale is unreliable.

So sorry it’s taken me so long to reply Ollie. Yes you can add carobel to aptamil. That’s the combo prem DGC had. It did help. It’s worth trying. If the discomfort goes on they might need a ppi drug to reduce stomach acids. But that needs to be on prescription. Littlest prem DGC was started on carobel at about 4 months if I remember rightly. I’d give it a go and if the discomfort and sleep is still being affected it might take something to calm the acid down to make him more comfortable. I think if he looks like he’s gaining weight that’s great. But obviously you want him to be comfortable and able to keep as much milk in as possible. DD used to bring a constant stream of posset up, first DGC brought very little up but hardly had any milk at all and lost weight so was put on high calorie formula with carobel added along with omeprazole. I hope you soon find something that helps. Preemies are very prone to reflux because their guts are extra immature and all bunched up into a tiny space bless them.

Thanks a lot @SnakePlant

Did DGC eventually went back to just formula or did she carry on with Carobel? I do apologise if I’m being pesky. I guess I find solace in hearing from Mums and their experiences. My nerves sometimes get the better of me.

With my own DD nothing was tried because reflux wasn’t really known about and she was just called a colicky’ baby. It was a nightmare and drove me to the brink.

Oldest DGC started out on normal aptamil but wasn’t gaining weight as barely drank any milk due to silent reflux. She didn’t bring much up but was clearly in a lot of pain. When she was about 4 months (I think) a specialist changed the aptamil for a high calorie formula with the carobel added to thicken it. Although she still didn’t drink much, the high calorie content of what she did have helped maintain her weight. After about 5 months on this she went back to normal aptamil but still had the carobel added to thicken it. At around a year she suddenly decided she really liked milk and seemed to have no problem with it and moved onto cows milk and no carobel. She also didn’t need the reflux meds by about 15 months. She is a normal weight and height now.

Her second DC was prem (32 weeks) and was on special premature baby formula. She also had reflux and would regularly bring what looked like entire feeds up but seemed in no pain and enjoyed her milk. Her weight gain was slow but steady even though she was always bringing feeds up. DD added carobel and that helped as she seemed to be overwhelmed with the amount of milk in her mouth and was spluttering trying to swallow it. I was amazed at how stable her weight was considering how much milk she brought up. It gradually improved at about 11 months (corrected) and her gut seems to have matured and by 13 months didn’t need carobel. I can’t remember when she was moved off the premature formula and onto aptamil but she had the carobel with both till she was about a year. She was an exceptionally sicky baby but didn’t seem very bothered by it.

I think it’s definitely worth trying the carobel now. And if the squirming and discomfort continue to consider asking the GP for ranitidine or similar to help stop acid production. It’s so stressful to try cope with but it does resolve as babies guts mature. DD was far less worried about DGC2 as she knew what to try and was reassured because her first DC came out the other side of it happy and healthy. She was absolutely distraught at the time though because every feed was a nightmare with DGD pulling away from each bottle and screaming and refusing more than an ounce or so.