Colic, silent reflux or CMPA

[FTMRLH]

My baby will be 6 weeks old on Thursday and is currently on Kendamil formula in a MAM anticolic bottle.

These are her symptoms:

After winding mid-feed she roots for the bottle but then shrieks out and refuses to drink
Screaming following feeding
Can hear the milk going into her tummy
Hadn’t regained birth weight at 3 weeks not weighed since (was discharged as only 20g under)
Gulping sounds when led flat
Spit up smells foul and acidic
Grimacing after spit up
Stiffening body and squirming even after winding
Hiccups after all feeds
Coughing/choking mid feed
Constant blocked nose since born (can see the boogers)
Lots of bottom wind
Very watery poo’s
Spots on face
Dry skin on eyelids/brows
Always rubbing face (which knocks dummy out)
Soothed only by frantically sucking dummy
Wheezy breathing after feeding
Brings burps up well after feed but still seems in pain
Tried infacol, dentinox and gripe water
Feeding upright
Keeping upright after feeds
Tried bigger size teat
Tried different milk (was originally on cow and gate)

I have my 6 week PP check with the GP tomorrow so I might request a dairy or lactose free milk?
My sisters children were all on apatamil pepti 1

Any advice welcomed

This sounds awful op. What advice has your health visitor given you and why haven't you pushed to be reviewed sooner? Your dd should've been weighed again for starters.

Good your seeing gp for a full review and examination. Yes probably lactose free milk and/or gaviscon should be tried. Then arrange frequent reviews with hv going forward if problems persist.

She should be getting a 6-8 week HV appointment too, ask for a referral to the dietician.

It could be either reflux, allergies or both (given that the latter causes the former sometimes).

What is that milk she's on? I've not heard of this.

Sounds like cmpa with the allergy symptoms. She will need a dairy free milk like neocate

Sounds very like my ds when he was born. He was treated as having silent reflux but was diagnosed as coeliac aged 3. I really feel bad for you because it was an awful time for us. Hope you get some answers soon. X

My health visitor just says it’s colic and it will pass 🙄

@FTMRLH

My health visitor just says it’s colic and it will pass 🙄

Omg that is terrible. I mean yes it may be colic and it may pass but if it is colic then lactose free formula will improve the situation massively, or get those colief drops and put them in bottles of normal formula.

Some HVs are useless. Why hasn't she weighed her again?

No one has been in touch about weighing her. Even my GP haven’t given us an appointment until her immunisations are due. So I’m going to discuss it at my own postpartum check tomorrow and if all else fails book an emergency

My son has similar and we were dismissed repeatedly. We cut out lactose and he was like a new child.

You could try some lactase drops in his formula to see how he gets on? It won’t do any harm and results care very quick.

Our daughter had the following symptoms:

• Could hear the milk in her stomach
• Struggled to regain birth weight
• Would throw up after every bottle and then spit up frequently between feeds which smelt horrendous
• Tried a faster teat which made her choke/gag. Tried a slower teat which she struggled to drink from.
• Winding usually brought up more milk.

Infacol and Gaviscon did nothing. We bought Cow and Gate reflux milk and our daughter has been absolutely fine since!

Hi OP. 2 out of 3 of my babies have had CMPA and it really has made me realise that babies don’t cry that much unless it’s for a reason. The first time doctors were useless and fobbed me off with ‘colic’ and all the reflux meds and we went through hell. I’d go down the CMPA route if I was you.

A baby with CMPA will basically cry the whole time they are awake. Be stiff and arching, unable to take feeds easily and won’t be put down.

I’d say reflux is more likely to be just after feeding and then they settle rather than cry constantly.

If it’s CMPA which I described. Ask your doctor to trial (they’re more likely to do this) Nutrimigen formula. Be assertive. With DS this sorted him out in a day and he was a different baby but it can take longer. Doctors might try to fob you off but ask for this directly and you should get it- say you have a family history if necessary. You can also buy this formula online but it’s expensive and a tin doesn’t last long. With DD I gave up dairy as I was breastfeeding and that took about two weeks for her to be a different baby.

If you think it’s more reflux, you can try gaviscon or other meds (available on prescription). But I’d do CMPA first.

I think so many babies suffer with this and we’re just told it’s ‘colic’ or they are a ‘difficult baby’, as doctors don’t have a clue about babies are just aren’t prepared to help them. It’s fucking awful to be honest, I still have ptsd from my baby girl being in so much pain. I’m glad we knew what was going on the second time around.

A lot of CMPA flags there definitely.

Sounds quite like my LG who ended up on neocate for CMPA! My health visitor wasn't too sure what if anything was wrong for her and I eventually pushed for a referral to paediatrician who instantly diagnosed CMPA! We saw such a huge improvement on neocate after weeks which were horrendous!

Feel for you OP as we went through this last year when our DS was born. Personally I found the Pepti 1 formula to be rubbish (baby gaviscon also rubbish) - we eventually were given nutramigen (a more hydrolysed formula) which was much better. They also prescribed baby omeprazole for DS which helped but they were reluctant to give a decent dose until we brought him to a paediatrician privately and they were able to prescribe a much bigger dose which helped a lot too. Not all our symptoms disappeared immediately but they were certainly much more manageable after being prescribed these things. It seems that a lot of GPS and HVs pass these symptoms off as colic but keep fighting for answers, it’s tough but keep going!

That sounds identical to my son as a baby. I was told colic and stomach bugs. The first few months after he was born was honestly the most stressful time of my life. When DS2 was born he had reflux and upon detailing DS1 behaviours/symptoms as a baby to his gaastro paed, he said it sounded like classic cmpa symptoms and was so angry we were fobbed off. For you own sanity please so not let this drop if you believe something it is either reflux or cmpa - I really wish I had pushed

Sounds absolutely classic CMPA. Have you the Cmpa and allergies Facebook group? Loads of help on there. Lactose free milk won't help, you need a prescription milk that's free of dairy protein altogether.

I’d say reflux is more likely to be just after feeding and then they settle rather than cry constantly

In my vast experience (of one baby ) this isn't necessarily the case. My DC had silent reflux as a newborn and they were basically either asleep, crying or feeding and nothing else. The acid would cause the pain so they'd seek to feed to soothe the pain, the feed would cause more pain... we were in an awful cycle.

OP, I'm sorry your health visitor was useless. Mine was equally so until she happened to be visiting me at home and saw first hand what it looked like when DC cried and her previous advice of "all healthy babies cry" changed. Do push for more help, whether it's from the GP or a HV. I felt clueless as to what was "normal" as a first time mum and I so wish I'd insisted on more help earlier. DC was prescribed omeprazole at 10 weeks and immediately improved and was fully settled in a few weeks. We weaned off the medication once they were established on solids with no issues.

As an aside, my DC also failed to gain weight and in addition to the silent reflux was diagnosed with a tongue tie. This was snipped at 4 weeks and, whilst it took longer to sort out the reflux issue, they at least started to gain weight.

Best of luck, it's so hard in those early days, you're doing so well to cope with it.

@modge oh yes the cycle of feeding and pain! DS1 ended up putting on a pound in week from that

This is definitely reflux. I had two with severe reflux. The first question the paedetrician (who specialises in reflux) asked was if he hiccuped after feeds.

Of course, it may also be CMPA too as they often go hand-in-hand. Does he have a red ring around his bum? Two paedetricians told me this was one of the ways they diagnose CMPA.

Hi OP can I also add lactose intolerance as a possibility. My DS never gained much weight, was extremely windy, constantly arching his back when feeding, didn't settle well, problems with skin - HV also noticed nothing. We were only diagnosed at 6 months when DS had been filling 8-10 nappies a day and after 4 weeks of being told it was a virus a GP listened and tried us on a non dairy formula. It was miraculous. We knew within 3 days - DS thrived with the change of formula. Still angry no one spotted the signs in the early days and I had loads of stress because DS wasn't gaining as much weight as they'd liked.

Eczema and lactose intolerance are definitely linked btw,

We had Nutramigen too

Colic is just used to cover all undiagnosed crying for extended periods - it’s such a bollox term.

GPS aren’t great with newborns and allergies reflux :(
Unfortunately, it can all linked and can take some tweaking to find the best action to make her more comfortable, definitely push to medicate / change the milk asap.
Good luck

@FTMRLH

No one has been in touch about weighing her. Even my GP haven’t given us an appointment until her immunisations are due. So I’m going to discuss it at my own postpartum check tomorrow and if all else fails book an emergency

The HV should weigh the baby at the 6-8 week review.

Good plan OP. Someone should take you seriously that way.

Health visitors seem very good at fobbing people off. I have two friends whose babies were allergic to cows milk and both went into goats milk of some sort and were fine.

In one case the older sibling also had the same issue and the poor new baby had blood in his nappy and still the hv weren’t bothering their backside doing the most fucking obvious thing. That poor baby must have suffered. It’s negligent for them to palm people off. Disgraceful.