14 weeks old, refusing feeds.silent relfux - help!

[bluebea]

Any advice..feeling very down about this. About three weeks ago I started to encounter problems with breast feeding my baby (she's been fine until then) She started by arching her back when I tried to feed her, but I could usually persuade her onto the boob. Then she stopped feeding and at one point we were feeding her with a syringe (she won't take a bottle of expressed milk either) The doctor thinks she has silent reflux and has put her on Gaviscon. I've been using this for two weeks, but she is still really difficult to feed. She feeds for only a few minutes and then she seems to be in pain and can't carry on. She is settled between feeds and has wet nappies/poo but is putting on very little weight (1oz a week) Can a baby get enough from such short feeds? I manage to feed her about 4/5 times a day and she wakes once in the night. The stress of feeding her and the Gaviscon fiddle after every feed is making it difficult to go out. Does any one have any experience of this?

I found Colic Solved by Dr Brian Vartabedian (Amazon £6.90) to be really helpful. It's all about reflux - silent or not.

Does she have any other symptoms other than back arching? Does she hiccup a lot? Does she burp? Is she tossing her head from side to side when feeding?

Maybe you could feed her more often? She might be a little and often baby - just to get the weight on.

There are other medicines too.

My baby wasn't settled in between feeds, which I think is more common with silent reflux. I wonder if it's something else. Maybe trapped wind in the bowel?

thanks.. I shall get that book.

She does hiccup a lot and has foamy dribble. She tries to latch on and then gets upset and moves her head away and then tries again. I burp her as much as I can, keep her up right etc and have cut out dairy from my diet. don't understand why she is settled in between feeds, as she seems to be having hardly any milk. I have tried feeding her little and often, but she just refuses to drink at all. She feeds best at night or when she is sleepy.

I have read elsewhere on MN, hat rubbing rather than patting is best for winding. Frankly, I could never get either of mine to belch until they were over 6 months and on solids.

I wonder if she's having trouble breathing while feeding (nose blocked, nasal airways, congested)? Maybe try putting some snufflebabe on a tissue under her nose before feeding to clear things a bit, and some on your boob where her nose will be?

Does she get overtired? It was hard for mine not to be as they hardly slept, but that definitely made feeding harder. If she'll sleep without being fed maybe you could make all her feeds dream feeds, ie. lift her when asleep and put her to the boob - hopefully feeds away happily. It's amazing what you forget but I think I had to do that with no.2. She also only fed off one boob at a sitting. She also didn't gain much weight and went from the 99th centile at birth to just over the 50th where she settled. My son also did that. It could be your DD is doing that, particularly as she's settled in between. What centile was she on at birth and what's she on now?

Both my DS and DD had silent reflux the gaviscon should be working by now I would be going back to the gp and either asking for something else or a referal to the hospital. With silent reflux you need to get it under control as the stomach acid is burning her throat etc on the way up and the way back down and it can get raw, we kept getting fobbed off by the gp with DD until she started getting small amount of blood coming out where her throat etc was burnt raw - so def go back to the gp and get something else.

Over night is she sleeping on a tilt? this helped a lot as kept acid down over night...

Fairimum, was your baby settled in between feeds?

She started on the 95th centile and is now on the 50th centile. She only lost 4%of her birth weight and seemed ok for a while. Then at about 9 weeks her weight gain seemed to stall (when the feeding got difficult) and she's only put on a tiny bit each week (she is now 12 pounds, 90z) Am I just over reacting to the weight issue? She seems healthy, but just has problems feeding. She is sleeping on a tilt and usually wakes once in the night. I keep thinking she wouldn't be sleeping so well if she was hungry?

Our boy had silent reflux, which wasn't properly managed for about 3 months. Gaviscon isn't effective with all cases, but there are other medicines that are - in our case, ranitidine. Don't delay going back, as if your baby starts to associate feeding with pain it can be hard to get them to feed well even once the medicine has started working. I felt quite desperate at the time,but he did grow out of it at about 9 months.

I think she's probably finding her centile. Just keep an eye. If she's happy and settled and seems healthy I think all is well.

I've found a support thread on the breastfeeding part of the site for mums with babies with reflux. Loads of info on there and experiences. Have a look and see if your baby fits the mould.

I've bumped the thread so hopefully near the top when you log back on.

bluebea, we had exactly the same with DS, it started when he was 8 weeks old. I stopped breastfeeding as I just couldn't get him to feed and the breastfeeding clinic couldn't help. He took bottle OK at first but then started refusing this as well. He would feed for a minute, then start screaming. At times, he even stopped breathing and I had to blow in his face to make him catch his breath. My legs were like jelly before every feed, it was an absolute nightmare.
Anyway, gaviscon didn't help DS. What eventually did was omeprazole and prescription formula (turned out he also had a problem with cow milk protein and lactose :( ) He was 4-5 months when he finally had it under control and by then I had lost a stone, was constantly anxious and couldn't sleep at night as I thought I could hear him scream.
It was awful, so I really hope you get it sorted.

I found this page excellent.

Hi there. My little one had silent reflux and I fed her in an upright position and kept her up for at least half an hour afterwards. (bumbo was a godsend!) dr prescribed gaviscon but I couldn't get it down her as she was fully breastfed and wouldn't take a syringe, so I gave up. She dropped from 75th centile to 9th but was always happy and settled between feeds so I stuck with the upright thing and she settled on the 9th. Since weaning, we discovered she has a dairy allergy, but has pretty much grown out of the reflux now.
Good luck - I know how hard it can be to feed a baby who screams as if you're poisoning them every time you try :-(

Went back to GP today. She wants me to up the dose for the Gaviscon for one week and if DD does not put on weight we have to see the specialist. 'Obsessivereader' did you baby lose weight or just put on very little? Is there any lasting damage from silent reflux? had a bad afternoon today :(

had exactly the same thing as your little one. on and off boob and screaming head off. also constantly waking up at night and just wouldnt sleep.
eventually gave up breast feeding at 4 months thinking it was me but formula made no difference.
finally got gaviscon which worked very well.
but in your case it is classic of reflux and if gaviscon does not help would go back to your GP. other medication available that can help.
problem with silent reflux is that it is not well recognised by doctors. I am a GP and didn't even pick it up on my DS till 4 months old! kept thinking he had colic. now i recognise it all the time.