Infacol doesn't work! 9mo with loads of wind and suspected silent reflux. Can't sleep. Any ideas?

[schroedingersdodo]

DS is 9mo and always had trouble to sleep for long, specially in the first hours of the night (wakes several times from 7pm to 11pm, for example).

He has bad wind and sometimes wakes up, sits on the bed and only manages to go back to sleep after a mighty burp (or after farting).

Sometimes he wakes up screaming.

He has symptoms of silent reflux, so I spoke to GP and he prescribed Gaviscon.

Gaviscon didn't make much difference.

He has Infacol a couple of times a day (about 4, before main meals) but it doesn't seem to help either.

I thought gripe water would help with the burps, but again, no noticeable results.

He has fennel tea once or twice a day. Has dinner at least one hour and a half before going to sleep (so he has some time to digest).

Have also tried to put him to sleep with a pillow, so his head would be higher.

I avoid giving him lentils, beans, sweet potato, fiber, tomato at night. I don't feed him dairy either (at any time).

He is fully BF. Eats 3 meals a day and apart from that all he has is breastmilk (and a little water).

I don't know what else to do! How can I help him? He needs decent sleep (and me too)...

Thanks in advance

Did you try raising the end of his bed (where his head is) a little? It helps when it's higher than the rest of the bed- if he has reflux, than because his head is higher than the rest of the body, it's less severe. Sling helped a lot, but my DD was younger than your son when she had reflux...

Infacol and Gripe water are good for burpy wind iywkim but not so good for that deep intestinal gas that you describe.

We found camomile tea to be very helpful for DD's wind. She was FF and we made her bottles up with the hot tea. We would have tried Fennel tea too but i cannot bear the smell of the stuff. Peppermint tea is quite good too . I had abdominal lapriscopic surgery surgery a few years ago and in order to get enough room to manuver they inflated my abdominal cavity with air. The result was agonising wind for weeks afterwards. The GP's shrugged and said it would pass but the practice nurse suggested peppermint tea and it worked brilliantly. DD wont drink it though. Not keen on the flavour. You could give it a try though.

Other than that you could try colief for wind and go back to the GP and see if you can get a script for a stronger ant acid like omneprezole (sp?) or Rantadine (sp?).

We used Dentinox and found it to be very good. Although it is pretty similar to Gripe Water and I found it made my baby's head smell like Dill (I have a very strong sense of smell!)

BFAnon,

We co-sleep, so there's no way to change the inclination of the bed. But we have tried using a pillow to raise his head a little. I didn't notice any big difference...

TheSugarPlumFairy,

He doesn't drink peppermint tea either (too strong taste, I guess). I've given some with a syringe, but there's only so much tea I can give that way...

Haven't tried chamomile, I think I'll see if it helps.

I didn't know Colief, it's a good suggestion because it acts in a different front (lactose intolerance). If it works, then I'll know better where we stand (well, if it works my problem is solved, and I'll be a happier person :)

knittynoodle

I haven't given him gripe water in the last days, but if I get back to it, will try Dentinox.

Thank you very much for your answers, it's been a puzzle of a problem and every clue helps a lot!

Go back to the doctors and ask for ranitidine. MUCH better for silent reflux and very easy to adminster although strong peppermint flavour (DS loved it )

Also we didn't have trouble with sweet potato - why are you avoiding it? Be careful with citrus - including pineapple. And we found green veg caused a lot of problems for DS and bum wind so that is a no no (especially peas!!)

Does he sleep on his front? Again DS found this more comfortable - legs bent under taking pressure off of his tummy.

Reflux - silent or otherwise - in a 9mo baby is really pretty unusual. If your GP prescribed you Gaviscon without referring you to a paediatrician, then he probably thinks there is nothing really the matter with your DS. There would be other symptoms - e.g. chest infection, cough, weight loss etc. Lactose intolerance is also unlikely: if that was the case he would be losing weight and not tolerating your breastmilk.

I think that, in the UK, we are often far too quick to blame tummy troubles for grumpiness and sleeplessness, both of which are normal for babies. The danger is that you end up over-medicating them with god knows what chemicals. I did that with my DD and really regret it.

I would like to offer 2 alternative possibilities:

1. Separation anxiety. 9mo is the absolute classic time for this to kick in. They wake up, realise you are not there and start screaming for mum! Their growing awareness that you are not always there - as well as all the developmental changes, learning new skills etc, can make them generally more wakeful. This stage passes by itself.

1. Allergy or infection causing minor breathing problems. Turned out that what was causing my DD's hourly waking was hay fever, not reflux. She couldn't breathe through her nose and this unsurprisingly woke her up, angry and protesting loudly!

1. Just generally being a poor sleeper ... which very many 9mo babies are. I can definitely recommend Elizabeth Pantley's book, The no-cry sleep solution, which has loads and loads of different ideas. She had a co-sleeping BF baby of 12 mo who wouldn't sleep, so lots of personal experience.

Either way, I really do sympathise - at your stage, I was also only getting a few hours kip a night - feels like hell on earth

Good luck.

Ranitidine is all that worked on dd when she was baby. Gaviscon was a total waste of time.

theboob DS had symptoms of silent reflux at 9 months. Sometimes he'd be sitting playing and acid would come out of his nose :( :( his was induced by his diet - his grandfather has it too. Also gaviscon is useless for silent reflux as doesn't neutralise the acid.

I do think that many babies have immature digestion systems which cause tummy trouble. Since keeping DS's diet fairly plain (but balanced) he's much happier.

Iggly I'm not saying that it doesn't happen - it's just not that common. Self-diagnosis can carry dangers, so it's important to get a doctor's opinion.

Agree with theboob that it is uncommon that late which is why the doctor should be taking it a bit more seriously than recommending Gaviscon imho. If you really are sure that it is his tummy that is causing the problem could you ask for a referral to a specialist?

Yes theboob, I understand what you mean but I don't like to write off a baby's discomfort as being normal when something could be done - not just medication but making aure they're not overtired etc.
Also I meant to add - reflux isn't always associated with weight loss. Massive weight gain is a sign as baby feeds for comfort.

I empathise, although my DS is 12 weeks and appears to be growing out of it somewhat now. He's still a real trumpy bum though but seems to be able to push it out reasonably well on his own without all the discomfort he used to suffer. We tried everything, and i mean everything (infacol, gripe water, dentinox, colief, raising his moses basket etc) and resorted to co-sleeping in the end as he was only comfortable on his tummy. Now i tend to lie him on his back after i've fed him and rub his tummy clockwise a few times and then downwards like they'd teach you in baby massage. After a few minutes doing this i sit him upright and am rewarded with a big burp or fart. If not, i try to re-settle him. If he starts stirring again i try again - sometimes just picking him up moves his gas.