Silent Reflux baby waking every hour - would introducing a bottle help or make it worse?

[No1MummytoOtto]

Hi Ladies,

My DS is 13 weeks and has suffered from silent reflux since he was a few weeks old. He is EBF and his reflux is - generally speaking - under control (he is on Ranitidine); feeds are getting easier and more relaxed and he is happier during the day than he used to be. From 9 to 12 weeks his reflux was pretty awful and (for the first time) affected his sleep; my little one went from sleeping a seven hour block followed by a feed and a two hour block at nights, to waking every hour and just not settling in his Moses basket! Have been and still am utterly exhausted...

Now things have improved at night slightly (his first block of sleep will be 2/3 hours but after that he usually wakes up every hour) but I think his frequent wakings are due to his body having now fallen into a rhythm of waking hourly (he isn't upset when he wakes, and not always hungry, so can be rocked/cuddled back to sleep), rather than his waking due to discomfort or hunger.

So I'm thinking of introducing one bottle a day as an evening feed to help him sleep a little longer at night (for the first block of sleep at least). I'm worried that formula - even one bottle a day - might worsen his reflux as I've heard breast milk is better for reflux babies as their bodies digest the milk faster. Can anyone please recommend any brands of formula for reflux babies that might prevent this? And are these brands available on prescription? Has anyone with a reflux baby introduced a bottle a day and found it helped, or made things worse? Did it help your baby sleep a little longer at night?

Thank you so much - am very confused and just want to try and get a fraction more sleep :)x

I've got a 11 week old reflux baby. She is mostly on nutriprem 2 as she was premature but I've given her aptimil and she was fine on that too. She has to have gaviscon or else it all comes back up again, but you could use a thickener if you have the same prob with a bottle, if your DC isn't also on gaviscon already.

I truly think that formula is not going to help you out but introduce another layer of possible allergies and intolerances. The medication is the most important thing.

Breast milk is so much easier for your baby to digest. I switched my silent reflux dd to formula and have had 10 months of hell. Never should have used formula or given up BF. had to explore all the comfort formulas, HA formulas, even amino acid formulas. Was a nightmare. All the doctors said I should have stuck to BF. Even now I could kick myself.

My twins had silent reflux, they were on nutriprem to begin with which was on prescription but is for preemies, we then switched them to Cow and Gate as they make the Nutriprem so it was the most similar to what they were used to with no problems. IMO if the ranitidine has got it mostly under control introducing formula won't neccessarily be a problem.

Both Aptamil and Cow and Gate do an anti reflux formula which is made with carob bean gum which acts as a thickener. You can only get it in Boots and its a bit of a faff to make up as it has to be made differently to normal formula and left for 7 minutes before feeding it, but IMO is worth it. My 10 wo DS is on both ranatidine and domperidone and I would say that changing to an anti reflux formula has made the biggest difference to his reflux. Good luck.

Thank you so much for your replies! Orphelia, given your experience I think I'll defer adding a bottle - the thing I'm most concerned of us inadvertently making his reflux worse so probably best to keep things as they are for the time being. Thank you for the other comments - when the time comes to introduce a bottle, I'll head to Boots to find a reflux-friendly brand.

Thanks again Ladies, Merry Christmas :)

Good luck. Reflux is bloody horrible.

X

Have you tried giving up dairy?
Often reflux babies have a dairy allergy.

Second the dairy suggestion, In hindsight, my reflux baby suffered more with an unknown dairy intolerance than the reflux

Third the dairy!

I'll fourth the dairy!! I have had four babies with reflux but dropping dairy from my diet made a huge difference, almost overnight in one case.

Good luck, happy Christmas, and as my youngest 'baby' is almost 3, I promise you it does get easier - eventually

Check for tongue tie. Similar symptoms to reflux.

If they have tongue tie - be wary of those who say its minor - they take down air which makes them uncomfy and gives regular wakings.

Also there is a development leap around now which will cause night wakings. It rolls into the 4-5 month sleep regression/massive growth spurt. You might be better off co sleeping! I didn't with ds and nearly died of sleep deprivation. So with dd I did until she was 6/7 months and got her in her cot for the start of the night and it was easier.

Would strongly recommend not introducing formula. Most reflux babies are intolerant to cows milk protein and therefore most formulas will worsen the problem. Reflux babies just don't bloody sleep! The poor little things get themselves into a horrible cycle of pain and tension and often find it very hard to sleep deeply.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news but my reflux baby still wakes every 1-2 hours at nearly 15 months :(

Blimey Lamazeroo! My two weren't/aren't tht bad. Dd has silent reflux and tongue tie. She would wake that often if I didn't wind her properly (despite being 13 months) or if she ate anything windy (onions, windy veg like brocolli and peas, spicy food, rich food...) have you ruled out other causes?

My DS was just like this and it turned out to be tongue tie, try googling milk matter tongue tie and see if you are experiencing anything similar

Thank you for all your comments! I am going to stick to the breastfeeding; absolutely do not want to risk it getting worse with the introduction of formula. I do completely agree with cutting out dairy; I've been trying to avoid it for the last few weeks, but thoughtlessly had a very milky coffee (decaf) this morning and DS has been very irritable since midday, so I think the dairy is undoubtedly an aggravating factor so am going to be very strict with myself from now on and cut it out completely. I do think it's reflux as opposed to tongue tie, simply because DS responds so well each time we increase his dose of Ranitidine.

Thank you all again so much, just great to know - apart from anything else - that it's not just me battling this. Am holding out for things to get better and to having the occasional night's sleep.

Thanks again, and Merry Christmas!x

Still think its worth getting the tt checked as it can present as reflux, I certainly thought DS had reflux for a long time.

Agree with JJJ!! Because the medication should have settled them down (my eldest just had silent reflux whereas my second had both TT and silent reflux).

Lamazeroo I feel you pain - my dd was like that too! I kept saying, "she'll sleep through when she walks, that's what dd1 did. " Only to be 'blessed' with a bum shuffler that didn't walk (or sleep through) til 21 months!