Silent Reflux - Infant Gaviscon

[Freyfreysmum]

Hi

DD2 is 4 weeks on tues and has been prescribed infant gaviscon for her SR. It has definately helped, a little, we give her 1 sachet before each feed - she is now bottle fed.
However, from 6pm ish til 1am she is literally hysterical still, arching her back , spasming, inconsolable til she has screamed herself to sleep or exhaustion. It is so distressing, and I am so grateful to so many of you who have responded to my posts on here.
She is now on C&G Comfort which seems to have also helped, but we are going to try the dairy free formula for a few days too to see if that is also related.
Does anyone have experience of silent reflux and can suggest a medicine that worked, when Gaviscon didnt? Our GPs (we have tried 2 at our practise) really dont seem concerned or interested, and I am pushing them and literally pleading for help.
Thanks in advance mummies, x

gavsicon made DS really constipated - he was diagnosed at 7 weeks

he was on two drugs - ranitadine (an antacid) and domperidone (moves the milk through the gut quicker)

after 10 days on these drugs he was like a different baby

silent reflux is the pits - DS used to scream all day and arch his back etc

Keep your DD as upright as you can especially after feeds
let her sleep upright in a carseat (for a couple of hours if this helps)
raise her moses basket (put a telephone directory under the legs)
most babies do grow out of it by around 6 - 9 months but it is horrid when you are in the thick of it

hi FFM, my DS is on omeprazole atm, it made a difference within 12 hours! we still get bad days sometimes (lots of screaming) but he is also investigated for lactose intolerance.
some babies respond well to ranitidine + domperidone.
good luck, reflux is a nightmare
hope your LO gets better.

sorry, x-posted with rubyslippers.

My dd was prescribed a special stay down formula called Enfamil AR by our paed in the usa after receiving no help at all from our uk gp. Dd was bf, but we supplemented with one bottle of Enfamil AR a day. It helped a lot. In the end I got uk gp to prescribe it so that I didn't have to pay for it. Chemists didn't keep it in stock, so had to order it in advance.
Difference between Enfamil AR and other staydown formulas was that it had rice starch instead of corn starch, I think.

Thank you all for your lovely responses. I hope so much this is resolved, I cant stand hearing her in pain, it is so hard.

I had to kick and scream for a referral to the local hospital as our GP was useless and suggested Gaviscon and Calpol

Ranitidine worked for us, and dd outgrew her silent reflux before she was a year old.

Good luck, keep fighting

hi ds2 was also on ranitidine and domperidone, this changed to omeprazole and domperidone when his body got used to the ranitidine. Ranitidine isn't licensed for use in infants so the GPs at our surgery wouldn't prescribe it - he didn't have it until he finally saw a paediatrician. But we had to go back to the GPs five times before they bothered to refer him. So stick to your guns and I hope your little one gets the proper treatment sooner rather than later.

Gaviscon made ds2 constipated too, and bear in mind the ranitidine and domperidone do take up to 2 wks to take effect.

It's worth trying lots of 'lifestyle' changes to ease the pain but in my experience we still needed the medication.

A good website re infant reflux is www.pollywogbaby.com

Hi,

Our little boy had silent reflux for the first few months of his life (he's now nearly 1). The GP originally prescribed us Gaviscon, which didn't really make a difference. The consultant paediatrician we saw gave us rinitadine and domperidone which worked like a miracle. We also found the following helped:
*Sleeping at a 30 degree angle, on his side (supported by blankets)
*Losely fitted nappies to relieve any pressure on his tummy.
*No trousers, only sleepsuits and dungarees.
*Keeping him upright as much as possible, especially for 30 mins after a feed.
*Never letting him lay flat (we even put a rolled towel under his changing mat)
*When winding him after a feed, rub in circles, never patting.

I hope this helps, and in desperation, maybe you could take him to another GP to see if they can progree with his medication. I'd certainly kick up a real fuss to get him seen by a consultant asap as silent reflux can be terribly painful.

I'll keep my fingers crossed.

x

Thank you all. Off to see the doctor at 1730 today and will stomp until we get referred. We cant go on like this, there is such a happy little baby inside a very fearful little body. It makes me so sad that people (ie the GPs we have seen) just Arent listening. After last nights pain for her, this is it and Im not backing down today. x

good luck, will be thinking of you

Stomp and stomp until you get referred to a specialist. Never take no for an answer. GPS are mostly clueless (we were told that there was nothing wrong with DS and then that there WAS nothing else other than gaviscon

The medications mentioned by the others are likley the answer - I have friends whose little ones were helped by ranitidine.

However, just as a bit of left field thinking as well...

Gaviscon did help DS quite a bit fortunately BUT even on good days he would still have a screaming-in-pain fit every day - always around the same time and always for at least an hour/one hour thirty minimum. Paediatrician decided that it was not the reflux directly as it was not happening all the time. He had a theory that something (?) was causing DS's tummy to spasm and therefore trigger the reflux so prescribed merbentyl syrup (anti-spasmodic- normally for IBS type stuff). It worked! (alongside the gaviscon as well.)

So sorry you are going through this - I know how much hell you are all suffering .

practical bits and bobs like this can help too

Elffriend and all others, thank you. Your responses have me in tears purely because I too am sure that there is Something that will work. She has just cried herself to sleep and it breaks my heart that the only time she is peaceful is when she is asleep, I want to share some happy times with her.

If you are able to (if you can afford it or have insurance), get a private referral. That stops GPS deflecting the issue and also means you get there as quickly as possible (our appointment came through the next day once I went on a mission!).

You WILL all get through this and get to happy times I promise. In the meantime though, do also make sure you have plently of help and support yourself. I am convinced that a lot of my PND was down to sleep deprivation and reflux.

There are a lot of us here who are veterans so do keep us posted and we will do our best to get you all through this! Let us know how you get on at the doctors but remember -do NOT take no for an answer. You are your daughter's voice.

good luck. x

Insist on referral to a paediatrican. Get the right drugs.A dummy helped my DD as the sucking created saliva which diluted the acid. You may have tried this.

Propping the cot up is a good move and let her sleep in pram during day. slightly raised. Made a difference.

I know it's awful but they do grow out of it.

Reflux is horrific - I had pnd for months because of it but never told the GP cos they already had me down as an over-anxious 1st time mum making a fuss about nothing, and I was scared that if they diagnosed me as having pnd they'd definitely not believe what I was telling them my dd was going through. She was in agony, exactly as you describe, spasming, arching etc, and literally could not sleep lying down - we ended up taking it in turns to sit up with her during the night, holding her asleep on our chests. I only found out about reflux from the internet, recognised all her symptoms, and took a list of them, and her, down to A&E, where they reluctantly confirmed it. Ranitidine and domperidone helped a bit initially, but it was only at 5 mths when they replaced the ranitidine with lansoprazole (similar to omeprozole) that it really eased up. Then amazingly they started weaning her off it at 8 mths and she was fine. There's a great book that saved my life as it confirmed everything she was going through - "Colic solved"(title's ironic - he doesn't believe "colic" exists, it's all reflux),by B Vartabedian. Good luck - keep fighting for your little one (I wish we'd gone to a private consultant, looking back), and you WILL get through it

Thanks ladies for all of this advice, my little boy has had reflux since birth, he's 13 weeks now and is suffering from colic with screaming, arching his back, coughing. Lying flat on his back only makes things worse and tummy time is a very short affair.

Over the last two nights I have been putting him to sleep on his side using those long round supports you get with sleep positioners and it at least helps him get off to sleep at night. I have tried infacol and gripe water for the last couple of weeks, but they don't help at all. He has always finished his bottle of formula very quickly, eventhough we break him every couple of minutes. He's also sucking his fingers, drooling and smacking his lips - do you think he is also beginning to teethe, on top of everything else? Do you think that the long Dr Brown's bottles are better to keep his air intake down?

I just want him to be his old chirpy self soon...