My 7 week old baby has been diagnosed with reflux and has all the classic symptoms of projectile vomiting, doubling over and wincing in pain, impossible to settle, sleeping in 15-30min chunks.
We've taken her to a paediatrician who initially prescribed ranitidine. This seemed to provide some mild relief and limit the vomiting for a few weeks and then seemed to lose some of its effectiveness, which I've heard is common. Last week the paediatrician switched her to Omeprazole and we're enduring a living nightmare since then. Her projectile vomiting is back with a vengeance, she will not settle and most bizarrely the following:
- During the day she will scream and thrash around unless she is upright. This has meant I've had to carry her all day in the baby bjorn. Then:
- At night she will scream and thrash around unless she is lying down? She will go as stiff as a board in my arms and scream until her voice gives out which is highly distressing. This can last for over 30mins straight.
I estimate she is only getting between 6-8hrs sleep each 24hrs and she is obviously exhausted however nothing seems to get her to sleep for more than an hour at a time.
I'm at the end of my tether and don't know what to do. The paediatrician has said we could just go back to ranitidine but that wasn't working either. She's been on Omeprazole for 5 days now and things have worsened significantly. Will it miraculously kick in at some point? I've read so much about it's effectiveness and am shattered to think that it has not only not helped it has made things worse : (
Has anyone experienced anything similar? Any advice would be very welcome : )
Z