Reflux

[DaffyDuck1983]

My LO has reflux its driving me crazy! He eats every three hours day and night and is such a struggle he spits up loads and then cries because he is hungry. I'm so tired and exhausted. I cry almost every day and I'm finding it so difficult. I can barely go the toilet without him crying. I try really hard to put him down for a nap but he wakes straight away. I'm starting to loose my temper and I'm not enjoying motherhood. I feel like I can't go out anywhere because he just cries. And dread visitors coming round as well. Me and my partner argue all the time and he looses his patience easily. We are falling apart. I'm seriously rethinking having more children. Has anyone else experienced this? I love my baby so much I wish there was something I could do.

Reflux is awful, my boy had it too. It is a real strain on those early days, especially as my wife had quite severe post natal depression. Is your child being treated for it? We found infant gaviscon and infacol really helpful. We also propped up his cot at the head end with a phonebook to make use of gravity to reduce the severity of the reflux. Longer winding sessions also seemed to help.

Sorry to hear about your LO, OP. My DD is a reflux baby, though she was worst affected at 3-9 weeks and is now improving a little bit at 15 weeks. It's very, very hard. I'm enjoying motherhood but am seriously exhausted. Here are a few things which have helped:

Carrying her in a mei tai sling or moby wrap so she's upright most of the day. She also naps in sling so that helps to settle her.

Medication - Domperidone and Ranitedine. Over the counter stuff was completely ineffective in her case. Except for Gripe Water - that helps a bit sometimes.

Reflux wedge underneath cot sheet and sleep positioner to keep her on her side. Left side is best for digestive stuff. I was initially paranoid about this, but she's never been able to settle on her back - wakes instantly or within 30 minutes tops. I use a breathing monitor, but you may be more relaxed than this. Cot is a co-sleeper one as she wakes so much in the night I need to have her close by.

Eliminating dairy from diet if bf or using a hypoallergenic formula is ff.

Lots of touch and cuddles, skin to skin, warm baths, baby massage.

Help and support wherever you can get it! I have no family about but DH is great and I'd never be able to do it without him.

Mostly, I think they just have to outgrow it. DD's Dr said they often do as they get older, sit upright more, walk. Gravity helps apparently and the gut sometimes just needs time to mature.

Take care and hang in there!

And please talk to someone about PND - it sounds like you may be suffering.

Talk to DP too about trying to be more patient and supportive. Easier said than done with an irritable baby and no sleep, but it's important that you stop arguing and both try your best to support each other.

Hope it gets better for you x x

Reflux is shit.

Is your baby FF or BF? If FF, they could be intolerant to the cows milk - in which case speak to your doctor and get hydrolysed formula. And some medication.

If BF it could be your diet - I found dairy and soya to be the worse culprits.

Also try and feed more frequently. In the early months, DD could go three hours but would feed more then be sick everywhere. So I made it two hourly.

Introduce a dummy - stick baby in bouncy chair or a sling for twenty mins after a feed with the dummy to keep them upright.

Reduce any tight clothing around the waist - no tights/leggings/trousers. Loose dungarees or all-in-ones and don't do nappies up tightly either.

How old is your baby? They'll need more help with naps as the reflux will make them uncomfortable and hard to sleep.

He is ten weeks old. I have a dummy thank the lord for the person who invented those! Ive recently got some infant gaviscon let's hope it works. I just want my baby to be happy!

Oh I was breast feeding but I have now switched to formula. When you talk to family friends and other parents about it they just don't understand and think in making it up!!! I do sound rather depressing but im not me and my partner do work together it's just hard when he goes to work. Thanks for all the advice 😊

My son wasn't diagnosed until 17 weeks, I thought he was just a "high needs" baby, but my husband went to the doc in desperation and we got a hospital referral.

We changed formula to hypoallergenic and the transformation was almost instantaneous. He's putting on weight at a rate of knots and we've been able to introduce a routine the last few days (he's 21 weeks (I think))!

Our marriage was put under terrible strain and we have no support (live abroad) - but are getting there now.

I use gaviscon if he's had a rough day to try and help him through the night, but the incidents of having to do so are becoming less and less frequent.

Every week which passes gets you a week away from this.

I can honestly say that if he'd been my first baby we might not have had any more and as it is my husband's had a vasectomy as we can't do this again.

Xx

As for "making it up", that's why I didn't seek help for so long - I thought I'd not be taken seriously and that they'd just say "errrr, babies cry dear".

Hello Daffy, poor you. I also had a terrible reflux baby and it is SO hard in the early days. As they get older it gets progressively easier, you have already got past the hardest part.

If formula feeding go to your doctor and ask for a prescription formula. I used Aptamil Pepti and it made a world of difference. The drug that worked for us was omeprazole, it's a stomach acid blocker. I didn't have a vomity baby, just in pain.

In the early days feeding little and often works well. It's a pain but i wish I had stressed about that less, I was always trying to get a routine and really they will naturally fall into one.

There is usually lots of support for reflux in the feeding section of MN and it's also worth reading through the support thread for advice.

Try to get out and about - a day at home alone with a reflux baby is HARD. The slings are great and don't worry too much about a crying baby, just go to baby friendly places, where they all scream! Also, I think they cry less when out and about. I went for lots of long walks too.

Lots of luck, it does get easier, I promise.

Yes, we've had it, I think I cried every day for the first couple of months but then it got less and less, until we got the right medication. My dd's was diagnosed at around 3 months.. It's such a strain on the relationship, especially when friends' babies seem so easy.
My advice would be keep on at your doctor if the treatment isn't working, find friends and family to take you baby for walks whilst you rest. Keep telling yourself that it will get better and that your baby won't remember this time in its life. Also remember that things could be so much worse.

Good luck, you are not alone. Hugs. X

I had the same prob with all 3 of my dc, my third ds is 4mo now. He now naps regularly and sleeps thru the night. Although he does still bring up a bit of milk when he burps, its not as much as during the first couple of months.
It is hard, especially when its your first baby. my ds did not sleep at all the first few weeks, he'd fall asleep at the breast for a few mins and would wake as soon as I put him down.
Try feeding little and often so your lo has more chance of keeping it down, also keep baby upright for longer after a feed, gravity helps. This is all exhausting and takes alot of time, but you're already past the hardest part which is the first few weeks, it does get better and you'll start enjoying your baby better very soon.

Btw I bf exclusively and didn't use any meds, but my babies always put on enough weight. you should take baby to the gp if they are not gaining enough weight.

Oh Daffy, I feel your pain!
Please please please take your child to a cranial osteopath.
My DD2 has reflux. She is 20 weeks and been back and forward to gp's.
Nothing has worked.... No medication helped. I was up 4/5 times a night.
Took her to osteopath last week... Slept that night with only waking once and the last couple of nights, she slept 11 hours and didn't wake up once.
What the doctors have not managed to sort in 20 weeks, the osteopath has sorted in one week! Amazing!
Similar results with DD1 but for colic... She was cured almost instantly.
I'd recommend continuing with seeing the doc just in case it doesn't work for you but you must try it as its a been a miracle for us

Sounds very familiar, OP! My baby had reflux and colic - I found taking her to see a chiropractor helped hugely with that, especially with sleeping better at night - but she was also a baby that just liked to be in my arms all the time. She would wake as soon as I tried to put her down. Would only sleep on me or right next to me and looking back, I think I wasted a lot of time trying to get her off to sleep in cot, pram, car seat, swing, bouncer, etc. In the end I decided to just let her sleep on me rather than get stressed about it and I found that helped me deal with it. If I have another baby I won't bother trying endlessly to put them down to sleep, I'll just let them sleep on me in a sling. It is a phase and it will pass. Hope things get better for you soon.

My lil girl had reflux too and again it was horrible. I wish I knew the tips many of you have said, as in my experience, I think doctors and midwives are really reluctant to diagnose it. My lil girl didn't put on any weight and even started to lose it, and would scream if you put her down or even sat down with her! All I was told was to top her up with a bottle so she had more chance of keeping more down! I would say she threw-up about 60% of everything she had. Again, she would never sleep in the day, but would funnily enough sleep well through the night.

The reassuring thing I will say is that as soon as she started eating solid food , the reflux stopped like a switch! We did the whole baby-led thing and she took to it like a duck to water. We started her on solids at 5.5 months and she is now 3 years old and loves her food. Hope that helps!

p.s. my 4 month old boy doesn't have it, thankfully, so please don't let it put you off having any more children!

Good luck!

Lots of really good advice on here - I would second switching to a hypoallergenic formula (you don't need a prescription to try it and the earlier you switch the better as they get used to the better tasting normal formula - if it works, the doc should then prescribe it - it's pretty pricey otherwise). Dd2, within two days of being put on Nutramigen, was like a completely different baby - she had spent the first three months crying and it took us going to see a private consultant to get diagnosed. She still has reflux but, after a brief spell of it getting worse when she was learning to crawl, it has improved alot - she still spits up a lot but is not in distress like she used to be, and is no longer on medication.

We also went to a cranial osteopath in the early days with both my dc - it may be a happy coincidence but with ds1, he started sleeping through the night after we'd been. It didn't happen so immediately with dd2 as she was still undiagnosed with a CMP allergy, but she was so much more relaxed after each session.

Good luck.