Does this sound like reflux / allergies?

[MxMarmite]

I have a 7 month old who has never been happy. It's constant whinging / crying, apart from immediately after a nap. I keep hoping he'll grow out of it, and we do get the odd happy moments (even, occasionally, days) but his basic mode is irritability. Whatever position he is in, he seems uncomfortable. He's not a terrible sleeper, but not a great one either (usually 2 wake ups and a veeeery early start.) He does need a lot of sleep but because he struggles to nap is frequently overtired. He absolutely HATES being on his back, with lots of back arching and straining (tho the Sleepyhead has helped for sleep.) He is very attached to his dummy and still vomits dramatically, sometimes fussing during feeds. He rolls over well but hates being on his front, but is useless at sitting up and hates the high chair (so far weaning has been a total non starter.)

Do you think it's worth bothering the GP or is he just a grumpy baby? He is gaining weight fine, and is usually pretty chirpy when we are out and about, which makes me think he might just be a grump. But the vomiting and apparent physical discomfort makes me wonder if there's something more going on. Parents of reflux / allergy babies, does this sound in keeping with those things or not? I thought he should be growing out of it by now if it is reflux, but HV told me it can go on for years! He had a prescription of Gaviscon as a baby and it didn't make any difference.

I am leaning towards phoning up today for an appointment but still haven't got over the GP who told me with my daughter 'babies do cry you know', was no help at all, and made me feel basically just a bit neurotic. I know I'm not thinking straight because I'm exhausted and frankly pretty miserable.

Any thoughts?

I don't have a refluxy baby so can't talk from personal experience but what I do know is that if you are concerned about him, it's always worth having a chat with your GP. I'm sorry you've had a bad experience with one before but hopefully it will be different this time, then at least if you are sure there isn't a medical reason behind it you can look at other environmental factors.

I only have the one baby so don't know how much of what you're describing could be any baby, and simply luck of the draw... but you've described almost perfectly my ds at 7 months. And he has multiple food allergies; dairy, eggs and soya. He was bf so we didn't clock it was allergies until he started getting hives and rashes when weaning. I thought he was just a refluxy baby too, although we never treated it. Regarding cheering up when they're out, apparently the bumpy ride in a pushchair is soothing to their tummies if they have reflux or vomiting.

It couldn't hurt to ask a health professional; a friend insisted her baby had a dairy allergy on the basis of less evidence than you have, although they might just advise a food dairy or cutting out and likely suspects at this stage. If then it looks like there's a connection to certain foods you'd probably eliminate it and see a dietician. We got pretty prompt referral to the hospital by our health visitor (far better than seeing the doctor for possible allergies in my opinion - they see it far more frequently!) after some quite dramatic reactions so I can't help too much with the early process I'm afraid.

In summary (sorry, I waffle...), I'd speak to your health visitor as a preference. They might advise cutting out dairy (most likely culprit) or switching formula. See if makes a difference. Take it from there!

Thanks for the advice. I'll definitely talk to my HV although she's batshit crazy. I went to the GP in the end yesterday who said really the only way to know if it's reflux is to give reflux medication and see if it works, and gave me a prescription for ranitidine. He is bizarrely and uncharacteristically chilled this morning (baby, not GP) but I'm assuming that's a coincidence as he's only had two doses - will see how things go!