Baby struggling at each feed, reflux? Help!

[angelz]

Hi,

I have just become a first time mum and whilst I am totally in love with our new addition, he seems so unhappy all day I am finding it very hard to enjoy these first weeks.

He is now 7 weeks, and pretty much since birth he has been crying on off all day and night. Every feed time is a struggle and in the past two weeks he is all but refusing to feed from me (was up until last week ebf, but have been topping up nearly every feed and am now considering swopping to formula as bf is such an struggle I just don't think I can continue). At first I thought it was just a bf issue, but after seeing lactation cons. who all say latch is fine, I am struggling to pin down what it may be.

Every feed he wiggles, cries, gurgles, and generally gets frustrated. He is SO windy, constantly farting, explosive nappies, and seems in pain as soon as he starts feeding. Even bottle feeding can take upward of an hour as it becomes a stop, cry, burp, settle, etc. In the day he does not sleep at all, only when put in the sling, walked and given a finger to suck.

It is really starting to get me down, I can't enjoy going to baby groups because he cries so much and I sometimes find seeing other mums with their fast asleep newborns a bit depressing. I am so exhausted and never manage more than 2/4 hours sleep a day - which I know isn't out of the ordinary but with his crying I just don't know what to do.

The doc suspects reflux (even though he is never sick) and he is on Gaviscon, but it is such a struggle giving it to him- when bf it was a faff, but now when giving it in a bottle, sometimes he graze eats so much he doesn't end up having the full dose but it does seemed to have helped a little - the manic crying is lessening.

I try to burp him a lot, keep him upright after feed, and carry him around constantly in sling (he never settles in chair, pram or anything other than sling) but still he looks so unhappy.

I adore him, but am worried about him .... especially as he has now started to make gurgling sounds, and has a slight wheezy cough.

He has been referred back to baby doc at hospital so hoping that will give us some answers, but would love to hear from anyone who has any advice or similar tales to tell..... so far I am finding motherhood very stressful!

Thanx u

Angelz - I know this thread was started a while ago now, but I was just wondering if you had discovered any solution to your feeding problem or whether your LO had improved any now that he's a little bit older? My 7 week old son sounds exactly the same as you described and after yet another night of screaming and resisting feeding (breast or bottle), we are feeling rather dispondant. If you have any update, would be great to hear. After reading your post we at least will bring up the possibility of silent reflux with the gp next week.

I am also interested to know how your little one is if you have found out what was causing his problems? my DS sounds exactly the same - arching his back and screaming in pain when feeding

Hey Vicky1976,

First off, sorry you are going through something similar, it has really taken its toll on me so you have my upmost sympathy...

As for ds, well..... wouldn't go quite so far as found a solution but things have settled a little :O)
He was diagnosed with silent reflux five weeks ago(ish) and put on ranitidine, took about a week to kick in but did have a good effect. The screaming marathons have by the large gone, but to be fair he is still quite an unsettled baby. He does sleep in the day now, sometimes, but our days have very little routine and feeding is better but still a struggle.
I would say to be careful with the gaviscon if they prescribe that for you first, it made our ds VERY constipated and he would cry because of that.

I am not sure exactly what has helped, and to be honest, I think part of it may be he has just grown up a little.

I still use colic drops which help him burp etc.

Unfortunately I didn't manage to continue bf- I don't know why exactly but he refused to feed from me, and my milk supply really suffered. Was quite disappointing but by this point his weight was dropping so topping up with formula became (in my mind, and I know many will disagree) necessary.

One thing I would add is that babies do apparently go through a growth spurt around this time, so you dc may be increasingly discontent because he is having trouble feeding but is extra hungry - viscous circle!

The other thing you may want to explore is if your dc has problems digesting the milk protein, I use colief (a product that breaks down the lactose in his milk) in every bottle, and I do think it has helped him, although the doc didn't think that was the issue??

I know also you are probably already doing this, but I really have to wind ds loads, he is a very very windy little boy, which makes me believe there is something more than silent reflux going on...... I still think he is having problems digesting his food. We have our return hospital appointment on Friday.... if doc gives us any more insights I will be sure to let you know.

Meanwhile........ hope something in my rambles helps, and if not, at least you know their are others with similar babies out there :O)

I think I went on abit too much!
In essence I think

1. Go to doc and see about silent reflux

2. Hopefully they will prescribe ratinidine

3. Explore possibility of lactose intolerance (use COLIEF in meantime)

4. Have faith that by 3 months things do calm down - I hated people telling me when he was around 7 weeks because he seemed so unsettled, and it seemed so far away - but it did come true, annoyingly!

Hi angelz,

I'm so pleased things have improved for you, I have an 11.5mnth old who has had chronic reflux which I am only now getting under control (this was quite a bad case so not typical with "normal" reflux). But I wanted to share a few things that worked for me.

My dd was also a terrible feeder - it just hurts them too much I think, but she really did grow out of that. She was also was terribly terribly windy, its part of the reflux - the acid levels create a lot of gas which gets trapped in their immature digestive system. My paed emphasised the importance of minimal handling after a feed, I used to wind the living daylights out of her, and all the motion was just making it worse, it worked better long term to wind her by keeping her upright. Infacol helped with the wind for a short time.

also I wanted to ask, have you raised her cot - you mention a moses basket? It really helps if reflux babies are never placed flat - I had two wedges at the top of dd's cot, also put two phone directories under the legs of the head of the cot - poor thing sleeps on a 45 degree incline with wedges to keep her from rolling down....

In our case, it turns out that she was allergic to dairy - and not to the lactose but too the protein in the milk. This is a less common scenario but something to bear in mind for your appt on friday. Identifying that and making the necessary changes have had the single biggest improvement for my dd.

Duende - I would go to my gp and have it checked out. Arching the back is a classic reflux indicator - they are trying to stretch out their oesophogus. With colic, babies bring up their knees, reflux babies arch and twist their necks to the side.

Thank you Rycie - can I ask..... how did they finally discover your little one was allergic to dairy? I suspect my ds is allergic to something, but doc doesn't seem very open to the idea????

bit long sorry.....all about allergy diagnosis

Angelz - I can imagine your doctor being a bit resistent, my theory is that not all docs are good at listening to mother's. I would say that if you have this instinct then really follow it up - you know your child better than anyone. Its not a straightforward answer however, basically you need to eliminate it from their diets, not so easy. I was also lucky that my paed had done a seminar on protein allergies so was able to identify it.

In regards to my dd, they did a stool test which showed high acidity (there is a blood test for dairy allergy but it is not very reliable so a bit pointless). Then, they did something called a barium swallow - she had to drink a bottle of barium which shows up on x-rays, and then they x-ray every hour throughout the day to track the digestive process. This test was actually for the reflux but it came up that her intestines were abnormally bloated, so she was very gassy and that meant she was reacting badly to something she ate...

So then came the formula experiment - I have honestly tried all of them. 50% of babies with dairy allergy have a similar reaction to soya. You mentioned using colief - that doesn't help at all with the milk protein unfortunately, only with the lactose which is the milk sugar and a totally different thing.

We landed up trying a formula called Neocate, which is hideously expensive but you can get it on prescription, it is a hydrolysed formula which means the protein is completely broken down so tolerable for protein allergy babies. I believe there is a cheaper one now called Pecticate, and also there are middle of the road ones such as the Novalac allernova which is partially hydrolysed.

Voila, you have a different child. My dd is now completely off all formula (obviously with blessings from paed) and gets oat milk, and I have to make sure she takes other supplements for her nutrition.

You could buy some neocate yourself if you have the means, and put your ds on it and see if improves. It takes about a week to truly assess a formula. What are your feeding him now?

Thanks for such a long and helpful relply :O)

I really do feel there is something else going on with my little ds, almost as if the reflux is the result of an allergy, so whilst the ratinidine helps it has not cured the problem.

I did go out and buy Nutramigen to try him on that to see if it helped, but it smelt and tasted so awful he point blank refused it! Is this the same with all alternatives?

Is Neocate any different?

How old was your little one before they started testing for what was going on>?

Reflux can definitely be the side effect of an allergy, so you should absolutely pursue this avenue fully. I must say, your comment about the wind does raise a bit of a red flag - obviously its impossible for me to say but if he has that much gas it would seem as if he is eating something that he can't digest comfortably.

Nutramigen was out of stock when I started the formula treadmill so its the only way I haven't tried - I have also tried the Similac Alimentum which she would take, and the Alfare from Nestle which she wouldn't. The Neocate tastes a bit better than those. The Novalac Allernova also tastes fine. Though I did realise that it was hard to assess what she liked because she refused the damn bottle half the time anyway!

If you want to get him to take the nutramigen, wean him onto to it by mixing it with the existing formula - 20% nutramigen + 80% old formula, 40/60; 50/50 etc. etc. He will get used to it.

DD had her first barium swallow when she was 8 weeks, and then ongoing tests including another barium at 3 months. The real breakthrough came with the formula though.

I hate to be overly radical but I have had 4 DC two of whom were extremely windy - one I suppose would fit the mythical 'colic' description and I have also been maternity nurse and nanny to lots of babies (one with reflux) - and I still suspect you 'just' have a wind problem!

It is exactly as you desxribe - finger sucking works a treat. I found getting them in a position of firm hold at the breast helps so that when they do that thing where they pull off and screech because the tummy pain comes they can't go far and they suck their way through it and release the wind. It's imperfect but will hopefully get you through to the time when wind in babies is less of a problem (few more weeks).

Are you talking about my baby? Because if so I don't think it is just a wind problem, and neither do the medical professionals. Before on medication he used to scream from morning till night, and still has bouts where he literally flings himself off me, as if he is trying to do a backwards flip???? I used to try with all my might to keep him on my breast, but nothing could keep him on, and the state he used to get in was unbelievable - even one of the bf support ladies said she had never seen the likes before!

It may sound very dramatic hobbgoblin and i can see how this would read, but the pain a reflux baby goes through is a very diferent situation to bad wind - or did the reflux baby you looked after experience a similar level of discomfort to your windy babies?

We all interpret descriptions of a babies condition with our own experience in mind - ergo, you see it as wind, I see symptoms of bad acid reflux. Angelz knows her baby best and will know the degree of severity of discomfort he is in.

The baby with reflux was in severe pain as have been the colicky babies. The pain experience seems to be on a par but the behaviour very slightly different.

How can I know without being there angelz, as you are? I can't so the point of my post was to remind you of the hope and possibility that this is not something lifelong or serious. However, it seems that you may just prefer the other possibilities to me so I'll butt out.

I appreciate all post hobbgoblin, but you are right, I know my son best.

But I agree with you that he is probably not seriously ill, or has anything lifelong. He is gaining weight well now, and when not crying is a delightfully cheery little boy.

I appreciate your opinion.

Hi angelz,

I was just wondering how you were getting on and how things went at your appointment last friday?

Things are much, much, better! My little man has finally discovered sleep and he is a lot more comfortable!

Doc was very happy with him, but has now suggested that we early wean with him, as he believes the introduction of more solid food will help keep his stomach contents down..... so that will be our next step, although nothing more than baby rice at first I think.

I do think his meds have helped him greatly, last night I forgot his 3am lot and this morning I had quite a cranky boy again, so maybe not quite time to take him off them just yet.

It is just such a relief to have a more content boy..... guess time is a great healer x x x

Thats great, sleep and time are definitely the best healers!

I was also advised to wean my dd early and did so at just under 4 months, it really does help having heavier things in their stomach. Good luck with it all, I'm sure it'll just keep improving.