***********REFLUX***************

[dinkyboysmum]

ds is now 12 weeks old (was 6 weeks premature) and has been a nightmare to feed. arching back/screming in pain/pushing bottle away but obviously hungry. we tried cow&gate comfort, but he was terribly constipated, so we went on to aptamil when he was 5 weeks old. (also tried nutramigen, as HV suspected lactose-intolerance, but no help) 3 weeks ago GP sugegsted he had reflux and gave us gaviscon. this seemed to work well, for about a week, and now we're back to square one. i took him back to GP on Tuesday who gave us Ranitidine, but his seemed to have no affect at all. I totally flipepd during a bad feeding session this mornign and took him to A&E. One of the paediatricians saw him and said to try using both gaviscon and ranitidine together.

anyone else have experience with reflux? did the gavsicon stop working? do you think ranitine with gavsicon will help?

just been reading about 'silent reflux'. ds is never sick.

my ds had silent reflux until about 5 mnths then started to e sick.

es been put on an ani reflx formula but this wouldnt be suitable for yor boy as its to revent the sickiness.

i think try whatever they suggest, i know people on here ave used both and there was another one that was for acid refux but i cant remember what that one was. sorry not much help!

My dd2 had reflux diagnosed at 11 weeks. She ended up on gaviscon, ranitidine and domperidone ( I think that is how it is spelt!) The gaviscon did little for her I think, but with the other 2 ( one neutralises acid and the other empties the gut faster) we had some improvement. If it is reflux you may be in for the long haul - it can take up to a year to settle. My daughter was pretty much ok by 10 mths, but those 10 mths were still very hard. The medicines can help, but they don't entirely remove the problem, just reduce it a bit.
Tbh my GP's weren't much help, but we got a referral to a paediatrician and he was great. Have A& E referred you to someone for follow up? Hope this helps

I've got 8 month old twins, were 3 months Prem. We have been feeding them Nutriprem 2 cow and gate (premature catch up) which you can only get on prescription from the GP. One of the girls had reflux in hospital until they were probably 1 month corrected age (4 months actual age), and we mixed Gaviscon powder into their milk. (Don't know if you've being doing liquid or powder) Apparantly it makes the milk so thick that it sits on their stomach, so it's harder for it to come back up. (Sounds lovely doesn't it!) I have also heard that gaviscon (like Infacol etc) builds up, so gets more effective the longer you take it.

katsh - how often did you give the ranitidine & gaviscon. i mix powder gaviscon ionto each feed, but only give ranitidine 3 times a day. just read that you should give ranitidine an hour before, or after, gaviscon..did you do this?

and as others say, its reduces symptoms but doesnt get better altogether, now my son doesnt bring up whole milk feeds but is still sick, wont drink as much milk as he is 'supposed' to and has sicky days where he'll refuse milk because he knows it will make him sick!

good luck!

I was bf so gave her a spoonful of gaviscon mixed with water before every feed ( very messy , very difficult !!) and ranitidine 3 times a day always before a feed, but not before every feed obviously. She was vomiting every feed, and the gaviscon did at least make it a bit less fluid when it came back up! EAsier to catch . Are you going to see someone again about it? Is he doing ok weight wise?

weight gain is fine (prob because i've been feeding him almost every 2 or 3 hrs 24/7). A&E have referred us to consultant next week.

did you give ranitidine an hour before the gaviscon?

dinky - the original advice i got for my 2day old was wake him every hour to feed him...which he would take 1oz (he was taking 2oz for 5 hrs)...but it would take 20 mins and then id be back up 40mins later....nightmare.

good luck!

when ds was born, 6 weeks prem, he was being fed via nose tube every hour...that wasnt so bad, as the nurses were doing it for me...2/3 hours is aweful! cant imagine having to do hourly now...well done you!!

not so much well done, was so sleep deprived ended up on anti-ds!

it does get better tho, as long as you persist with them! the docs and hvs insisted there was nothing wrong with ds because he was still putting on weight, despite 2oz for 5 hrs!

I can't remember at what time I gave ranitidine. Just know it was before feeds. My daughter just kept losing weight despite frequency of feeds, so it's great that your son is doing ok. Hope all goes well with the consultant next week. It is hard going - hang in there.

My dd has reflux and is 7 months old, she was put on gavisgon but that didn't work so they put her on rantindine and domperidone which has helped but she still suffers just not as bad, the first 4 months were really hard, i looked on a website called"crying over spilt milk" which said that taking gaviscon and ranitidine together stops the medicine working properly, not sure how much of this is true, but i stopped the gaviscon and just used the other 2 and it seemed to work, hope this helps.

A friend's baby had dreadful reflux and found that cranial osteopathy worked wonders. I couldn't tell you how or why it works, but it does seem to ease some of the pain some babies experience when feeding. If you want to give it a shot, and are near London or Manchester, the osteopathic centre for children is a charity where you only pay what you can afford. Alternatively search here for one in your area.

thanks - we're doing cranial osteopathy (have been going weekly from week 2), not sure how much effect its having, but i'm too scared to stop! also using dr brown's bottles. (have also tried colief/infacol/baby massage.....)

titchy77 - i heard that too, but i read that if you give the ranitidine an hour before, or after, the gaviscon, then it should be OK.

those on ranitidne - how much did you give? i'm only giving 0.3ml of ranitidine, but GP said i could dilute it to 1ml by adding 0.7ml of cooled boiled water - was scared of ds just spitting it out!

I gave 0.3ml with a syringe, straight into the back of her mouth so that she would swallow. There's no way I'd have diluted - just more to spit out. It does taste disgusting (I tried it), but if you lie your baby on their back and put it in with a syringe it misses all taste buds and goes straight down once they swallow. Not much fun, but should help.

My dd started on 0.3 too but one doctor told me that it has to be increased as the baby grows so now she's on 1mg but then another doctor told me you didn't need to increase it as baby gains weight, so she's been on 1mg since 5 months old!....conflicting advice!
We also tried cranial osteopath and I'm not sure how much it helped as didn't notice much of a difference, but by that point anything helped!