Reflux baby - really struggling to cope!!

[BRL94]

Hi all!

New on mumsnet (and first time mum!) my little girl was born in July, now just over two months old. She was born via emergency c section after getting stuck for 40 hours and I had sepsis. It was all v traumatic but following that things have actually got tougher believe it or not! Since about the second day after she was born, she screamed (and I mean SCREAMED) non stop. We couldn’t comfort her at all. It was heartbreaking. I got fobbed off by medical staff as a crazy new time mum and was undermined constantly by healthcare visitors.

in the end I ended up with PND/PNA/PTSD and grief (from the birth, and experiencing a type of loss as baby wasn’t how I expected)

long story short, in the end after going private and seeing various specialists she was diagnosed with severe silent reflux and lactose intolerance. I remember once ended up in A&E because her screaming was so bad she ended up with a temp because of the pain.

I guess I’m not here really asking for any advice because I know there’s no magic pill for reflux, she’s on omeprazole and neocate which is helping a bit but she’s still not 100% happy. It’s v hard to play with her and take her out ect…

more I just wanted to know if anyone else has been through it, how you coped ect…

thanks all xx

Omezprozole takes a while to kick in. Gaviscon worked for us but she got used to the reflux and it stopped bothering her, just caused us washing.

Boots own brand gripe water worked wonders for my dd who had silent reflux for her first year or so (not as bad as the newborn stage throughout, she improved a lot as she moved to solids.) It is awful to go through and you have my every sympathy. Our paediatrician dismissed my concerns about dairy and I foolishly listened. DD, now 9, still gets constipated and bloated if she eats very much dairy.

I went to A&E too, my boy was an emergency section after a botched and drawn out induction, 10lbs and a severe tongue tie. He was given omeprazole and aptamil pepti, the latter of which helped the most. We noticed the omeprazole wasn't effective at first so I went back to hospital and they upped the dose to his weight, they had him on the starter dose. He was on 15 which was high. But we weaned him off successfully when he was 11 months:) we also found the way the instructions say to administer the omeprazole meant alot got stuck in syringe, so we used an infacol pipette instead (he loved the flavour too so made it easier to give him it!) What dose is your baby on? She may be on the tiny placebo level and it isn't helping her.

It's a hard hard time and it does rob you of what you thought things would be like. There are many more lovelynstages to come and now I'm through that awful awful bit and my sons 15 months old, I recall the grief but I don't feel the grief if you know what I mean. We found using the next level up bassinet helped outings, he couldnt abide the lie flat as the reflux comes up when they lie flat. Changed him well after a feed so that the legs scrunching didn't force milk up again, can also do a sideways technique too.

The pram bassinet I mean *

I had pnd after the birth of my first child who had reflux. I empathise with you so much. It was hell having a newborn with reflux pain. My son still has a very weak sphincter as an older child, but it's managed well and he is not on medication anymore (just gaviscon as and when).
You will get through it and hopefully the worst is over now you have the right medication.
Stay strong and ignore the people who tell you their baby has reflux too, when they may have been a bit sicky, but GERD is a whole other, depressing, sad experience.