Severe Reflux can this cause developmental delays

[Madfizz]

DS1 is 12 1/2 mths was officially diagnosed with severe reflux at 10mths although had been on some medication since 3 mths. Started being very sick before official diagnosis,paed says that delay in moving - (not yet crawling or pulling himself up)is due to his severe reflux his body was coping with survival not developing. Also not sure his understanding in general is that good) His sleeping is also not that great He also doesn't poo without suppositories. We thought he was cows milk protein intolerant,but had blood tests which said he wasn't however lack of pooing has got worse since we reverted to cows milk. He bumshuffled about 1 foot yesterday for first time. Does anyone else have a baby with severe reflux with these problems ?

I know people who have. Are you in the US, if so I know somewhere that can investigate.

if in the uk you need ruty- she's been through similar...

I am in the UK

Hi, my boy is now 10.5months old. He doesnt move himself around by himself at all, doesnt sit up from a lying position and has generally been slow in all areas of development including sleeping and eating and yes he had both reflux and cows milk colitis. We also have a constipation issue and have been trying lactulose which is a stool softener. I am sure that Saac concentrates so hard on what is happening to him internally in terms of discomfort that he doesnt spend as much time on developmental milestones, I am trying to stay as calm about it all as possible as I feel I am doing all I can to encourage his development and to help ease his discomfort, I know he will acheive things at his own rate and in the mean time I will keep on in survival mode.

Saacsmum - don't mean to worry you or anything but if ds is intolerant to cows milk luctulose may not be the ideal as it is lactose based can gp recomend anything else for him? Only reason i know about this is that i have a friend who has to children with galaxacemia (hope i spelt it right) and we have to be so careful what we give them as dairy in any form will kill them.

Have they been prescribed anything to relieve the symptoms of the reflux such as gaviscon? If not go to gp and nag as it may help make them a little more comfy.

Hope i have helped and not hindered.

Good luck and keep us posted.

thanks for the suggestions DS1 is on ranitidine for his reflux and is on maximum amount for his age and weight. My GP hasn't been overly supportive which is why I ended up seeing a paed privately, but she is now suggesting a bowel biopsy as she believes he should be pooing without suppositories but I am not convinced this is the right route to follow. Saacsmum how has your DS coped with lumpy food and do you think he is grasping the meaning of some words ? What medication is he on ?

Yes we know about the dairy base of lactulose, Saac has colitis which is a reaction to the protein in cows milk and different to an intolerance to the sugar (lactose, when he was younger he did react to lactose as well but after extensive tests this has proven to be a tempory condition which he has grown out of. and was given extensive tests before being prescribed lactulose. Saac is still not particularly interested in food at all and gags on most lumpy foods managing some better than others. We tried gaviscon and ranitadine but had difficulty with severe vomitting on both of these. Currently we use probiotics to help promote his gut flora and just manage the reflux as best we can with elevation of the cot, upright during feeds etc. I feel as far as understanding goes that Saac is still much more like a younger baby and does not seem to grasp what is going on the way others his age do. I keep stimulating him and challenging him and he will get there in his own time.

madfizz, if your son is intolerant to cow's milk protein rather than being allergic to it, the intolerance won't show up on blood tests. Lots of doctors don't seem to be aware of or acknowledge the difference between intolerances and allergies. Other parents on this board or on other specialist discussion groups are often far better informed and more helpful (in my opinion).

Here's a few websites I've found useful although I'm aware you might have seen them already

PAGER (Pediatric and Adolescent Gastroesophageal Reflux Association - US based)
InfantRefluxDisease.com
webgerd.com with information about the medications used in infants
intro to infantreflux.org forums

Has anyone tried motility drugs for your son as opposed to suppositories? My ds2 (1yo) has been on ranitidine and domperidone (brand name Motilium) since about 7 months old. The domperidone is supposed to help move things along the digestive system. There's info on the webgerd site about the different kinds of drugs.

sorry, not much help on the developmental front but I would expect you'd get lots of advice from the forums on the pages above

hth a little

saacsmum, sorry to hear your ds is still having difficulties. Ds2's reflux recently got a lot worse so I'm feeling rather drained and worse for wear at the moment - parenting can really be a rollercoaster ride can't it?

I actuall decided to stop using lactulose about a week ago as I figured that it wasn't helping the situation so no point carrying on and since I've stopped it he has started pooing on his own so I am wondering if he has a lactose intolerance which my DD1 has but hers is ENT related. We tried domperidone but he reacted so badly we stopped it. He has only been sick 2x in 2.5 mths since the ranitidine was increased so I am hoping he will start moving soon !

Hiya,

Just started my 12 week-old on infant gaviscon after trying for many weeks to get help for what I was convinced was reflux. He is sick after every feed - probably 2oz from 5oz bottle. He is also sick continually for next couple of hours - but it is sort of leaks out as he plays on the play mat. He can even be sick as many as three hours later but the sick is more curdled. He hasn't dropped a centile on the chart but the hv says he should be putting on more weight. He has also just started with the fussing with the bottle and the back arching with a peak in what seems to be pain at about 4-5pm each evening. He doesn't settle till his bath at 6pm ish. GP has been supportive but does he stay on gaviscon indefintely? Does it stop working after a while?

He also has all the other typical symptoms -very bad wind (both ends) and frequent hicups.

Any help/ advice greatly appreciated

Hi there, don't know that I can give much advice but maybe a few things might help. Our son had terrible reflux (yes, the wind and hiccups are par of the course and pooing was guaranteed to have him being sick) The curdled milk a while later is typical too.

We tried our son with Gaviscon. It worked fantastically for about 2 days - I thought, hey, a miracle. Then he got really constipated and would have to push so hard so the sick came up again just thicker as he would have trouble coughing it up and was more dangerous than normal milk. Lots of kids are fine with Gaviscon though - I'm just warning you so you konw to look for the signs.

Childcare books always tell you not to feed before sleeping as they'll look for it. We foudn that if we fed him and he went to sleep there was more chance of him keeping it down once he got to about three or four months. You can sort out the sleep habits afterwards - it's pretty painless once they aren't in pain or vomiting.

We started weaning at nearly 5 months with baby rice and it helped tremendously. By this time our appointment with the paediatrician finally happened and they offered us medication but we discussed whether as baby rice was helping whether it was worth keeping doing that for a couple more weeks before giving him anything as everything as its repercussions. Well, he still vomited when drinking only but kept down food and milk when fed food. At almost six months to the day he stopped vomiting. One of the most amazing times - after all the stress and tiredness he has - to date at 11 months - been fine, brilliant in fact. He's not a chubby baby, but he's tall now and livelier than most. Just saying this so you know to hang on and fingers crossed you'll be sorted out soon. Keep him raised at 30 degrees, keep him upright as much as you can - that's all you can really do for now and if the gaviscon or other medication works for you then fantastic.

Hi all,

Sorry for hijack of original post, but have sim issues to poppetcat. ds has just started on ig for (undiagnosed) reflux.

Madfizz, as the parent of an older child could you rec anything to assist with devel in a child with reflux as i hadn't heard bout this aspect.

Also has this had an impact on when you decided to wean? either earlier/later?

Hope things get better x x