silent reflux

[24hourM0MMY]

I'm not getting anywhere with our doctor. All I get is 'all babies bring up milk'. The problem is that my baby us constantly swallowing whatever is coming up even when asleep. I'm wondering if anyone who has had a baby with definite silent reflux could tell mr the absolute telltale signs that confirmed the silent reflux. Baby is 1 month old and feeding (bottle feeding) is getting worse by the day. At night she's sleeping fairly well (3 hour stretches on good nights) but only ever drinks small amounts. During the day is an entirely different story. If she is awake (80% of the day) she is crying or moaning. Not happy at all to lie down, wants to be held upright all day. She cries in pain when drinking. Burps seem to bother her a lot. She squirms a lot and when she does drink she has a hard time swallowing and again cries out for a large part of the feed. I refuse to believe this is 'normal' newborn behaviour. Any feedback anyone can offer will be appreciated. TIA

It's not normal. Those are classic symptoms of reflux or colic. Go back to the doctor, preferably when your baby is in a very discontented state, and then try to feed in front of the GP. (Is there another GP at the surgery you could see instead?)
Ask for a prescription of baby Gaviscon.

Have you tried colic drops? they help a little.
Try carrying your baby in a sling during the day. Exhausting but not as exhausting as listening to the screaming non stop.
Also worth trying out some different formulas - some are more soothing than others.
Hope it gets sorted. nothing worked for S until he was old enough to be prescribed Ranitidine and then he was much happier. Still threw up a lot but seemed in less pain over it. Reflux is a horrible condition. I feel for you and your baby.

Have you tried any of the anti reflux formulae? I use the Cow & Gate anti-reflux milk and it made a big difference. It's available in the supermarkets but is a little dearer and a bit more of a faff to make up but worth a try.

It may not work for the more severe cases of reflux but it certainly seemed to help my dd who was getting very agitated during feeds. Now she takes full bottles with generally little fuss.

My baby was exactly the same as this. I would say it's definitely reflux. I went to my doctor and said my health visitor believes (slight stretch of the truth but we had briefly discussed it) that he was suffering from silent reflux. He prescribed him infant gaviscon. It took a week for it to settle him but we now have a completely different baby!
Signs of reflux I mentioned to him:-
Constant swallowing when awake which distressed him and stopped him going to sleep.
Regular hiccups
Sneezing milk
Continuous tongue movement in and out if his mouth
The swallowing was the biggest point as he would often drift off to sleep, swallow and scream in pain. It was awful.
The doctor listened to me but I sincerely believe he listened more carefully when I started with "the health visitor believes"

Hi, mum of a now 9 month old refluxer here. Sounds like reflux to me (not colic, that's different). My DS started with silent and moved on to normal vomitty reflux further down the line. Symptoms for us were his inability to settle at all on his back, wind, a hoarse cry, looking and sounding in pain, bunged up nose, grunting/groaning. I had a hell of a time getting a diagnosis and scoured the Internet for information. It was hell. So I'll give you the best advice I got which was to see a private gastro paed, if you have the means pay for a consultation, if you aren't covered with private healthcare. Failing that insist your GP refers you to an Nhs gastro paed.

Things that also helped us:
Co-sleep, baby upright on you
Tummy sleeping (with use of an angelcare movement sensor pad)
Raise cot high at one end - try soacebabies risers
Use a foam wedge for playmat time (little refluxers sell them)
Change formula for an anti reflux formula eg Aptamil, or add Carobel (a thickener) to your usual formula. You should also watch for signs of dairy intolerance as that can cause of exacerbate reflux - we are on neocate for this very reason
Don't use too many things like infacol, gripe water etc, they are probably not helping much. Baby massage for wind and constipation works as well as anything!
Omeprazole - my DS was prescribed this at 10w, it made a huge difference, it totally took the reflux pain away. He was on it until around 6 weeks ago.
Use a sling around the house so you can get stuff done and don't feel overwhelmed with your miserable baby. My DS loved the sling!
Buy as upright as possible bouncer, we had a cheap bright starts one which worked a treat!
Be kind to yourself!

I felt like this would never go and worried so much, I hated seeing my baby so distressed but as I read many times myself it does get easier and they do grow out of it. We were able to get him off of omeprazole recently and he started crawling and standing a few weeks ago, we seem to have really turned a corner with the committing now too, fingers crossed!

Good luck and I hope this has helped somewhat!

Apologies for typos! On phone in bed when I ought to be asleep!

I agree, definitely sounds like reflux - we cut out dairy and that made all the difference and stopped all the acid reflux and being sick after feeds. Reflux wedges are great for under mattresses etc and keeping them upright makes a huge difference. Don't be fobbed off by "its normal", I feel so guilty that it took us 4 months to be taken seriously and given the right support. Good luck, it's not easy xx

Thank you for all your replies! I am seeing a new doctor today, hopefully this one will work with me!