to be sick of the expression "reflux baby"?

[jujumaman]

I know, I know some babies have serious reflux and if they do it must be a complete nightmare. If your baby has had diagnosed reflux you've all my sympathy

BUT these days everywhere I go I meet mums who say their babies are "reflux babies". I didn't think the condition was so common it affected something like 95 per cent of the baby population. I've met some angelic babies who occasionally squawk and their mother says "that's because she has reflux." What I think most mums mean is my baby is a screamy nightmare who won't settle and often pukes back a bit of feed. IE what most babies are. I don't think it means they have an actual medical condition but people seem to feel the need to find a label.

Fully expect a host of "how dare you, my baby had reflux etc etc" responses. As I say, I acknowledge some babies really do have reflux and it must be very hard. I'm just sceptical that it's as common as is now made out. And if my babies had had reflux (they didn't, they were just noisy and demanding) it would have annoyed me to have others jump on the bandwagon.

Exactly, delllie. If every baby under the sun is now called a reflux baby, the ones with real problems won't get the medical attention they need.

HI, I was hoping there might be someone out there who's baby has been diagnosed with moderate to sever reflux and has been given the drugs ranitidine, domperidone and our latest one is omeprazole? My baby is now 4 months and has been on a lot of different drugs, including the ones listed and we have made no progress. Feeds every 1-2 hours 24/7!!! We are now due to have a bearium scan done which is a tube up her nose and down into her stomach to see whats going on... has anyone had to have this done on their baby? Also anyone used the 30 degree wedge pillows to help them sleep at night? Got a lot of questions i know but im getting desperate to find someone whose gone beyond the need for Gaviscon and the initial drug solutions Thanks

My DS was diagnosed with Reflux while still in SCBU, I am glad that he did get the diagnosis as I'm not sure I would of realised, thinking instead him to be a 'difficult' baby who didnt sleep for more than 20 mins at a time and only if on my chest, was constantly sick and screamed almost all the time. By the time he was 3 months old he was vomiting blood from the tear he had in his oesaphagus due to the violence of the vomiting

At three he still had Reflux and still is on medication

rainy ds1 was a projectile and had omeperazole and domperidone until age 1. ds2 is 16weeks and has it v v severely. no meds have helped, in constant pain. waiting for a call back today from paed as she has to urgently stick camera up and down him to check level of damage and take biopsys. he will prob have to have an operation.OP, i understand that yes people say such thingsto make themselvesfeel better but until you have dealt with such a poorley baby you will never ever know how hard it is to cope with. i hope for your sake you never have to.

Rainy... My son had been on Omeprazole since he was 3 1/2 months ish. I still dont think it totally takes away the pain associated with Reflux as my DS still has bouts when he is in pain/distress. It did lessen the distress for him as a baby but I personally think time and growth worked for him as well

He has dairy intolerence (which many Reflux babies have) and was masked by the Reflux symptons. As babies get older, and stronger eat more solid food and are more upright, plus the size and shape of oesopahgus change symptons doo lesson. I know this is no comfort when your in the throes of Reflux. I have always been told... he will grow out of it by the time he is 1,2,3. Yes an operation would help but that they are unwilling to operate on one so little (plkus I think docs are always thinking YOUR child will be one of the ones that will groe out of it)

My DS had an endoscope at 4 months that showed the damage done due to vomiting (tear in the oesophagus and areas of ulceration) and chronic oesopahigitus. Then an bariun x-ray at a year old showed he had no muscle control at top of stomach

oldraver what happened after he was 1?

Oh dear should spell check...

ds has reflux ( also a scbu diagnosis )and is on domperidone, renitidine and gaviscon.

he's only 11 weeks so nowhere near the point that you've reached ( you poor thing ). i put a wedge in his moses basket to keep him more upright which has helped and apparently putting bricks under one end of the cot works just s well.

i've also read of children sleeping in their carseats or buggys though obviouly thats not ideal. Are you breastfeeding ? i read somwhere that dairy in the mothers diet can aggrivate refluc but i cant rememer where sorry.

also want to add ds2 has bad episodes of stopping breathing so it the term 'reflux baby' should never be used losley

Afer his xray the The Radiologist told me.. "oh he has Reflux" I was sorta tell me something I dont know ..

He continued on Omeprazole (and that is a trial in itslf due to there being no peadiatric version available and various arguments with phamacies)and is now up to 20mg (he is only 12kgs) but is such a good big boy he takes the tablet and is soo proud of himself

We continued to see his pead regularily, and he did had a vey disastrous 'trial' off the Omeprazole. The peads reasoning was .. we dont know if he still needs the medication unless we try, which I can see but it was two months of back to square on hell.. I know he does still Reflux as he still B/F'S bed and if he falls asleep not propped up will Reflux.

Madfor my baby.. sorry should of added .... after one yes he did seem to improve especially after going on a dairy free diet (and me due to B/F). This is definitely worth looking at as many Reflux babies have this as well.. Due to the Dairy intolerence DS was still doing the 'attempting to decorate the house vomiting' even after his medication. To be honest it was difficult to see where the Reflux/Dairy Intolerence line was

Thanks for those comments and bits of advice. We ended up in SCBU within 3 days of birth as she wasnt feeding and became totally dehydrated and lost a lot of weight... I was originally sent home and told to feed with a spoon until she started to latch on properly (its my second child and i could tell this wasnt a latching on problem!) I kept telling them in SCBU there was a problem but they ignored me and sent me home again. Im glad a few of you got diagnosed in SCBU, they made me feel like a crazy incompetent mum! I still feel neurotic.
She also dairy/protein intolerant. None of the Drs havent said that there was a connection and ive only just learnt this by reading all of your messages. How has anyone else coped with the hourly feeds 24/7 (im BFing)? Ive just ordered a wedge pillow so i shall let you know if she sleeps longer that max 2hours soon! My first was also reflux but mild, he just vommited all the time and today is just a very fussy eater and gags a lot.

Reading this thread makes me so sad that anyone could be so intolerant of someone who thinks their child has reflux. As previous posters have mentioned, it's a horrible thing to see your baby so distressed. My DD is now 19 weeks, she spent the first 6 weeks of her life, if she wasn't sleeping or feeding (feeding for about 15 hours a day) she was crying. Then the vomiting started and we got a diagnosis, I wish I'd heard of silent reflux before she was born.

I have read that 50% of babies have reflux but only 50% of those show the symptoms.

My DD is on domperidon, renitadine and max dose gaviscon, I am BF and have been dairy-free for 3 weeks and she has been seeing a cranial osteopath since it was diagnosed...and she is STILL being sick, although we are now seeing more and more of her "real" character every week in her smiles, and not just a screaming miserable baby, she is slowly improving.

My friend's (who is a GP) DS is 15 weeks and has had 2 stays in hospital in the last 3 weeks because reflux has only just been diagnosed, they thought he was colicky, he has lost weight and burnt his oesophagus.

So as far as I'm concerned I am one of the people who says to others maybe it's reflux when they say they have a screaming or vomiting baby and I do that in the hope I can stop a child being in severe discomfort and get them the treatment they need.

It really worries me that one poster says Domperidon can inhibit their development - has anyone else got any experience of this?

Isn't the difference between possetting and vomiting? I always thought possetting was bringing up a bit of feed and most babies do this. Reflux (not the silent type) ime is always pretty much projectile vomiting. Ds had it and it was like a specator sport.

rainy3 I propped one end of the cot up on special castors so ds wasn't lying flat. Definitely helped although didn't sort out the frequent feeding until he was 8.5 mths. Nightmare time so you have my sympathy.

Or try putting a pillow under the mattress.

DS is on Gaviscon, DR said to take him off it, his milk consumptin went down so much that he dropped from just over 50th percentile to under 25th in 10 days, he now has it every other bottle and weight has settled but not putting on the extra that he lost. He also chucks up violently on cows milk. So yes YABU.

When ds was a baby (2004) he was the only baby I knew with reflux. He was born on 50th centile and dropped off the chart completely for months. Even very early weaning didn't help.

My DD2 has diagnosed reflux.
This was diagnose at 6 weeks.
For those weeks she continuously screamed for 3 hours after every feed and would tense with the pain. It was heart breaking.
She was given Gaviscon which worked for a couple of days but then stopped. She has now been on Enfamil for 6 months and the difference in her is unbelievable.
DD2 still suffers every now and then and is often sick but she doesn't get the associated pain.

I'd never heard of reflux till dt1 was born. She was my 3rd dc and suffered for 7 hard weeks till I read about it in a baby whisperer book and recognised all the symptoms. The nonstop changes of clothes for her and us, the writhing in pain and feeling like I was watching something from the Exorcist when she vomited.
A few days later she aspirated on her milk and ended up hospitalised on a drip. She's grown out of it now thankfully but they were tough days.

Hoochie.... Yes 'miraculous' is something I can relate to. When we went dairy free the results were almost instant. I was very resistant to trying as I had become very wary of doctors advice due to much bad care, including taking a biopsy from the wrong place and wrongly being told my DS had a serious pre-cancerous condition.

I just couldnt link the two, and looking back the signs were there especially as he was given infant formula after he was born. He should of been in SCBU from birth where he would of been given DBM but there was no room. He was vomiting from day one but this was intially put down to Reflux (and as I said before I was glad we did get this diagnosis as some parents do struggle to get it recognized)

Hi my 4 month old has severe reflux. Was diagnosed after stopping breathing and being rushed to hospital. The worst things are the constant screaming and choking. The stress is unbelievable. I am bf, have cut out dairy, soya and egg fir 4 weeks, no difference. DS is on Losec suspension (omeprozole) and domperidone. Gaviscon makes him constipated/scream/thicker sick. DS is not irritable 24/7 when awake anymore but he still suffers alot. It's so much more than 'indestion' or 'being abit sick'. A friend of mine said (after DS had been in hospital again) she knew what it was like as her baby was sometimes sick after a feed!! I can handle constant sick and washing but what's hard is the fear of DS choking, stopping breathing and not being able to soothe your own baby ALL THE TIME.