I’m looking for some advice with regards to my daughter and feeding. I’m really at the end of it and can’t bare to watch her suffer any more.
We’ve been through quite a journey so far with no one really offering any support or seeming like they know what they are doing.
When DD was around 4 weeks old the HV suggested she may have reflux as she was curling her feet / legs into her chest, her tummy was very gargly and she was very gassy. At this stage I was combination feeding expressed breastmilk and Cow and Gate first milk.
(Unfortunately my plans to exclusively breastfeed didn’t happen, however this is a sore point I’d rather not go into.)
Following the HV’s suggestion we went to the GP who said we had 2 options - Gaviscon or changing her formula to anti reflux milk. He recommended Gaviscon as the anti reflux milk is thicker and as she was combination feeding this may cause confusion with my breast milk being thinner.
The Gaviscon didn’t work and if anything is made things worse as it caused DD to be constipated. So we switched to the thicker C&G anti reflux milk and unfortunately she did stop taking my breast milk. We have been giving her this ever since but it still hasn’t fixed the issues, she is still having problems and is 12 weeks old.
The main areas are:
- Irritated during and after feeds
- Very reluctant to feed - she pushes the bottle away, screams, grunts and seems stressed
- Straightens her whole body / stretches so she is rigid
- Kicks legs, arches back and jerks body
- Hiccups and sneezes during and after feeds
- Doesn’t finish bottles
- Sometimes will want to feed little but often - it feels like this is to comfort something
- Doesn’t poo regularly - once every few days and is very stressed and difficult to settle on days she doesn’t
- Very large solid and smelly poos
- Lots and lots of smelly wind
- There has been some blood and mucus in her poo
- Extremely difficult to settle and her to sleep at night - she then often wakes up during sleep and most of the time she will wake crying
- Breath smells like sick
Today I have tried her on C&G comfort and constipation milk and she has spit up after the feeds and really struggled to drink it. She has had maybe 2-4 ounces at a time.
We have tried various bottles including Tommy Tippee anti colic, NUK and Dr Browns.
On Sunday I had the worst night trying to settle her since she was born, she cried constantly from 11pm until 5:30am and I can’t cope watching her like this any longer. I took her to the GP on Monday who has referred DD to a paediatrician but the appointment hasn’t come through yet.
On Tuesday she had her second dose of vaccinations and prior to the appointment we took her to the weighing clinic. She’s 11lbs9 and has put on 10lbs in 4 weeks.
The HV said she wants to monitor her weight but to me she looks healthy weight wise - I feel that they just like to worry you for nothing sometimes? She also asked about her feeding etc and gave her the update as above. I was blamed for not breastfeeding and also for using a prep machine. I also queried CMA and wasn’t taken seriously and was told to give DD freshly squeezed orange juice ?!
I haven’t given her any juice and am awaiting next steps from the paediatrician but can’t take it any longer. It’s just taken me almost 3 hours to get her settled and to sleep. Once she’s asleep she’s fine and will now sleep for 6 hours so I am lucky in this respect but it is extremely difficult every night.
We have tried infacol, colief, gripe water and none of these have made a difference either.
Can anybody offer any advice please? Does it sound like CMA or could it be a combo of constipation and reflux?
If it is, is the next bit going to be a battle, as from what I’ve read this is dismissed and passed off as reflux by doctors and mums have to fight for diagnosis?
Any help would be very much appreciated xxx