Natural ways to cure baby reflux

[theworriermum]

We don't want to go down the omperazole route, we tried it and he was screaming out in pain with gas and we know it obliterates their gut health. Tried infant gaviscon which led to constipation and didn't cure it and the lactulose to balance constipation was a balancing act. There are no set guidelines for how much to give of gaviscon just says 2 sachets per feed but no more than 6, which sounds a lot.

In short we are back to square one. I don't think he has bad reflux. He is sick but not loads. He doesn't like being in a bouncer, car seat or flat on his back. Cries out screaming during naps and over night then when lifted up does a burp and sick.

That said he's putting on weight, isn't sick loads, is held upright after feeds as long as possible, does tummy time and we prop his cot up. He sleeps in a purflow in a cot. We give a probiotic everyday.

He is 14 weeks. Anything else we can do? I hope I'm not BU by not wanting to pump him full of drugs.

One of the meds we had was ranitidine

gripe water was useless. I think we concluded that it used to work as it contained alcohol so knocked the babies out! Once they removed that it lost its potency!

honestly I would reiterate that I am sure you are doing everything you can and are likely not over feeding. Trying different milks helps- we did go through various different ones and different bottle types as well until we settled on the ones that works the best.

You can mitigate the symptoms but the only true cure is time. Once they are sitting upright and then standing and running about it pretty much sorts itself out.

Have you tried smaller more frequent feeds, 7 Oz is quite a big volume, he may be better with smaller feeds

This is the best book about reflux there is in my opinion https://www.carolsmyth.co.uk/workshops-webinars/reflux-an-acid-problem-finding-feeding-solutions/
very much drugs as a last resort. Points out that if you feed two hourly, the reflux never becomes acidic enough to cause pain (which can be helpful in the day, split the feeds into several small snacks) and talks a lot about how to recognise over feeding and under feeding and about the physiology of reflux.

Look up the hotshot method for the rapidcool. It won’t help the reflux but it avoids putting the formula powder directly in the rapidcool meaning you can use it for every feed!

Basically you measure out the boiling water as normal but then put the formula powder in the bottle, add a tiny bit of hot water to the formula and mix it to sterilise it. Put the rest of the boiling water in the rapidcool to cool it then add to the bottle.

@Spaghettisour we do this but we always have cool boiled water ready to go so doesn't seem warranted. We do that if for some reason we don't have cool boiled water. We have the cooled boiled water in the old Spectra bottles which came with the pump. They say they can withhold heats up to 110'C

One thing to keep in mind is that changes can take time to settle.

I now realise with DD1 the problem could have settled sooner if we'd given things more time. A bit like your DC by 15 weeks she'd had 4 formulas and 2 different medications. None of them really got the chance to work before we were given another change.

@ARichtGoodDram very true. When baby is in pain it's hard to not chop and change. We thought he was waking up all night because he wanted his dummy. Dummy did soothe him but we went cold turkey removing it and feel so terrible now, he needed it for comfort :( we did gaviscon for a while but didn't help. We don't want to do omperazole it's such a last resort and for severe reflux, it's such a powerful drug and has no many negative side effects people are not aware of.

We will try smaller feeds and then anti reflux formula before going down the omperazole or dairy free route.

Tiger in the tree hold
Time

Gripe water after feeding, probably burped him first then gave gripe water to help bring any stuck gas up and settle the tummy, but it's been 7 years so I'm not certain on that 😅definitely after feeding though.

I loved Ranitidine for myself. Unfortunately it's not longer available.
NHS: Ranitidine is not currently available in the UK or globally. It has been discontinued as a precaution because it may contain a small amount of an impurity that has been linked to an increased risk of cancer in animals. It's not yet known whether it will be available again in future.

I've had two babies with bad reflux and do understand why you would want to avoid lots of medication. But i would just add that you don't have to use the full 2 x sachets of gaviscon in each feed. We had success with using 0.5 of 1 x sachet until DDs were 6months and then after 6months, we used 1 sachet. It didn't cause any constipation but did stop the reflux. It might be worth trying a much lower dose if you already have the medication rather than swapping formula again, which can bring its own problems. Reflux formula can cause the same constipation issues as gaviscon as they are much thicker than normal formula.

Thank you, going to just try 1 bottle of reflux formula a day and stick to the regular for now. The post nap feed today was first one and no sick! Tomorrow will trial the bottle being before bed instead and see how that goes. If all goes well in a week will trial 2 bottles. He's almost 4 months and I don't think the reflux is terrible, so I think once sitting up and weaning which we will do at 5 months like DS1, we will be in a better spot.