Support thread for all parents with reflux babies...

[PosieParker]

Just thought a pooling of ideas would be useful. Any ideas about meds, symptoms, coping strategies, things to make a baby quiet!!


Symptoms:

Arched back and crying/screaming after feeding
Fussy on/off breast or bottle
Frequent feeding
Little sleep
Constant crying/screaming

(please add)

Meds:

My memory is a little rose on this and I can't remember

Coping

SWING,
pushchair walks
accepting help
Sometimes putting your baby somewhere you can't hear them whilst you have a large gin cup of tea.

[barkfox]

Just wanted to report back that the teaspoon of fresh orange juice a day seems to have helped my 11 week old Gaviscon-constipated baby -

We are currently getting one (massive) soft poo a day, or one (even more massive) soft poo every other day, and while he does still have some big colicky episodes, producing the actual poo itself seems quite a casual and painfree business.

He went from doing umpteen explosive liquid poos a day to zero when he was prescribed IG, so hopefully the orange juice regime has evened things out....

[WhatSheSaid]

Hazey some people I know say Ranitidine made their babies very windy, they recommended gripe water and/or Infacol to help with the wind (both over the counter things, not sure if they're called the same in the UK? I live abroad).

Dd is on Ranitidine, sometimes I think she is more windy, sometimes she seems fine. She is still quite unsettled at night but better than she was. I have tried gripe water but all that seems to happen is she gets really explosive poos.

Ellnol, it's hard hearing how "easy" other people's babies are, isn't it? A few nights dd has been awake every hour and when I hear about someone's baby sleeping for 10 hours it does make me feel quite upset - silly, I know, but that's what sleep deprivation does - makes everything seem worse. I keep telling myself, this won't last forever, she WILL get better/grow out of it at some stage!

[Hazeyjane]

Thanks, whatshesaid - I will watch out for the wind. We are giving ds 0.5ml 3 x a day, I hope it starts making a difference soon - yesterday was a long day of having to carry ds around, screaming a lot, whilst having to look after dd1 who was off school and dd2 who is going through e very naughty phase (probably because ds gets most of my attention).

Ellnol I had exactly this conversation with a mum lst week, and we were saying how hard it is to watch someone feeding their baby, happily, then watch it gurgle and coo, rather than writhe and scream in agony. I know when I had dd1 - who was also a nightmare to feed, I was so happy when I found someone in rl, who also had a hard to feed, windy baby - we are still firm friends 4 years on.

Barkfox - good tip about the orange juice, I wish I had known that when ds was in IG, it made him very constipated, if he did do a poo it looked like a lump of plasticine, and made other mums gasp!

[gaelicsheep]

Wow, what an amazing thread! Someone confirm please, are foaming at the mouth, sticking tongue out and white tongue REALLY reflux symptoms and not just something all babies have/do? If so, then I'm now convinced about DD. We were thinking she'd contracted rabies or something...

I went to bed last night thinking about the possibility she has reflux and I just cried at the thought of her being in pain much of the time. Does anyone else's baby seem happy much of the time but just turn to screaming in an instant for no apparent reason? That's what first got me thinking that she must be in some kind of pain that comes in waves.

DH and I are both exhausted as DD sleeps for no more than 20 mins at any one time, and that's only two or three times a day. The rest of the time she did need holding almost the whole time. Thankfully this is getting a little better now that she can be propped upright. She's been spending the last 3 or 4 weeks (she's 15 weeks) absolutely determined to get herself upright come what may.

How did people find it getting their GP to recognise the problem? My HV has already dismissed the possibility weeks ago, hence my only considering it again recently when my mum said that her behaviour really was not normal.

[gaelicsheep]

Sorry, should have said 20 minutes at any one time during the day. At night she'll go longer - thank God!! Otherwise we'd both be in the loony bin!

[ellnlol]

We also had 'random' extreme cries/screaming as if a sudden pain had come on which broke my hearts. Not sure if all babies foam and stick out their white tongue (this is our first), but our consultant said the writhing/back arching and 'barking' definitely gave silent reflux away. We got referred to hospital by GP for unrelated eye infection and he picked it up immediately - no help though if your GP isn't interested, though I think you can ask for a paed referral if you're not happy. Our HV also dismissed anything more than colic and said most babies were difficult to settle in the evenings - don't think she heard any of what I had actually said!
Our dd also headbutts my shoulder and rubs her face into my clothes frantically like a dog with a bone after feeding. Does anyone else have this?
Keeping her upright helps, as does frantic bouncing/dancing/silly walks across the kitchen and making up songs about the rare and long awaited appearance of poo - helps us keep our sanity too (sometimes) :o We were managing 40 minutes at a time (better at night) for a while, and were so tired we were seeing double, but she's a little calmer recently. She's 8 weeks and I can't find a pattern at all - 2 days running is a trend for us! People keep saying you'll look back at this phase in your/her lives and laugh - here's waiting .

[gaelicsheep]

All I can say ellnol is that my first didn't foam at the mouth. He didn't stick his tongue out either, but then it later turned out he had tongue tie so that doesn't mean anything. DD definitely doesn't have tongue tie!

[WhatSheSaid]

Gaelicsheep yes my dd foams at the mouth and sticks her tongue out too. Def signs of reflux (though not all babies with reflux will have those symptoms). Sorry your GP not helpful - I was lucky with mine, her special area of interest is children's health so she was really on to it .


Ellnol yes dd headbutts me and rubs her face on me (leaving a trail of regurgitated milk sometime - nice ) - she usually just does it at night,when she is going back to sleep (or I am trying to get her back to sleep).

Dd much the same here, ok in day but quite unsettled at night. Am co-sleeping from about 1am onwards as it's the only way she'll go abck to sleep and stay asleep. Not a huge fan of co-sleeping but just have to at the moment, only way any of us can get any sleep.

[mangomilkshake]

hello, so pleased to find this thread!

I suspect my little one has reflux, he has following things going on:
hiccups after almost every feed (he used to have hiccups everyday in the womb too)
difficulty burping, and when he does do burps they sound kind of 'wet' if that makes sense,
foaming at the mouth
white tongue, and sticks tongue out
wants to be held upright most of the time
he pukes once or twice a day, sometimes yogurt (digested milk) and sometimes along with a burp after feed,
arches back.

However, he is sleeping well in the night (at least 6 hours stretch) and napping in the day and is not screaming and crying as describedby a lot of others here so that's why i am not sure if this is really reflux, or is it a mild case of it? he is putting weight on, feeding and pooing and weeing, and cos of this i've been told that the symptoms i've described are just normal? e.g. white tongue cos he is breastfeeding, hiccuping cos his stomach is growing, arching back cos he's stretching??

has anyone managed this problem in their babies without drugs?

[gaelicsheep]

OK, so I spoke to HV who (finally) agreed and sent me to GP to get IG, which I now have. Is it normal for GPs to talk about colic and reflux as if they're interchangeable. DD, of course, was the model settled baby while we were there. She's actually been more settled generally today, so I'm wondering if I should or shouldn't try the IG tomorrow.

She's EBF - no bottles as I can't express enough just now - and it sounds like a right faff. The GP said give it on a spoon or in a bottle after feeds. She will take a bottle but I can see her spitting one out if it contains IG. So that leaves a spoon, but I nearlt choked her giving Calpol that way.

What do others do, and do you reckon it's worth it? I read that breastmilk itself is a natural antacid so am I better to just feed her when she gets an attack? She doesn't spit up that much - it's a wahing problem, no worse.

[gaelicsheep]

I should clarify, the spitting up is a washing problem, but the pain is clearly affecting her. She will barely sleep in the day and cries a lot if not being held.

[Jacanne]

I tried IG with my EBF baby but it just made the sick slightly thicker - didn't help with the acid at all - it kind of felt like something we had to try before they would consider giving us something stronger. Anyway - dd won't take a bottle so we gave it in a nurofen syringe I think.

BM is natural antacid - I think that's why some BF babies with reflux get quite big or are very sucky.

[Jacanne]

gaelicsheep, your dd sounds alot like mine - she barely sleeps at all during the day - and then only on me and she hates being put down. Can you asked to be referred to a paediatrician?

[gaelicsheep]

The GP seemed to poo poo a syringe - not sure why. I think we'll probably try that - can you just get one in a chemist?

I guess I'll need to give the IG a go before asking for a referral, but interesting to hear your experience. I was in two minds whether to say anything, as I'm so used to DD now I didn't realise anything was unusual. It was my mum pointing out that I had nothing like this with DS, and then reading everyone else's experiences that made me realise something was up. It's exhausting isn't it?

[ellnlol]

gaelicsheep we got syringes from the hospital but needed more to rotate the sterilising so just bought them over the counter at a supermarket pharmacy. It works best for us if we squirt the IG into the inside of dd's cheek, about 1/2ml at a time, rather than aiming for the back of her mouth which causes her to cough and splutter or onto her tongue cos she just spits that out! We only make it up in 5ml of boiled water so it goes in quite quickly and she seems to quite like it. We've just moved from 6 times a day to 4, on our HV's advice so she's pretty loud just now but if we can reduce it will make life better for all of us - seem to spend our lives clock watching, calculating when she last had/can next have/should feed etc. My brain was exploding . She also only seems to sleep well if being held on a shoulder, otherwise it's really restless, grizzly sleep. Spent that last 2 nights sitting up holding her as she's exhausted - so are we, and going slightly mad!! Hope tomorrow's better.

[WhatSheSaid]

Mangomilkshake - yep all those symptoms sound like reflux! Some cases are more severe than others. And it can affect some babies more in teh day than at night - I have friends whose baby has reflux and is really unsettled/sleeps badly in the day but then sleeps 10-5 at nights

Gaelic we use a plastic syringe for dd's ranitidine, just bought a couple from the chemist and wash/sterilise them every day ( have a v quick microwave steriliser). Actually (baad mother alert) I wasn't sterilising them at all at first, jsut washing them...then I realised it could be a good idea to sterilise them now and again...

One of the reasons my dr didn't give us Gaviscon was because she said it is such a faff to administer to a BF baby - expressing etc. I expressed quite a lot with my first dd but I'm a bit shorter on time now with a 2 year old to look after too!

[WhatSheSaid]

Oh I meant to add..this is quite a useful site, from New Zealand (where I live) all about reflux - lots of info about symptoms, case studies etc... don't know if all the medical info is the same as the UK but still worth a look

www.cryingoverspiltmilk.co.nz/

[ellnlol]

Help/advice question, please... Has anyone tried any of the sleep positioners, and did they work? JoJoMamanBebe advertising one that looks as if it stretches their back rather than just stops them rolling over. We HAVE to get more than 40 mins snooze at night, for all our sanities. 9wo DD will only drop off upright on one of our shoulders, then we might be able to put her down kind of propped on one side with rolled up blankets (she's in a sleeping bag) in a crib propped at one end. She's ok for 40 or so minutes, as long as we keep rocking the crib, then starts making the awful retching/barking noise again, which escalates if we don't pick her up. Can't believe a sleep positioner will actually help, but willing to try anything if people have found them useful? She's asleep just now on her front over a cushion, which I know is a big no no, but I'm watching her like a hawk - no help for my sleep/stress level but she's relaxed .

[gaelicsheep]

Ellnol - I thought about a sleep positioner to allow DD to sleep on her side in the early weeks, as it was the only way she'd settle. But I read something, I think it was on the FSID website or similar, saying they were risky because baby could slip down and suffocate between the side wedges.

I can't find the thing I read now, but google "sleep positioner risk".

[driedapricots]

hello, i too am SOO pleased to find this thread. all the symptons match and i'm going straight to the docs tomorrow to demand some baby gaviscon! i've not read all posts, but does refusing to feed also figure amongst the symptons. my ds has about an ounce at a time if we are lucky ...fortunately he is still putting on weight (slowly) for now, but it's a miracle as he seems to feed so little. but it's as if he's not hungry too...rarely cries for a feed... he has also had a runny nose since birth pretty much and i see that's related.... i think my ds has only a mild case - although it seems to be getting owrse..not sure he was so bad a few weeks back, is this normal for it to develop over time rather than something they're born with?

[gaelicsheep]

Hi driedapricots. Yes to feeding problems (due to pain, poor wee things). And yes it often gets worse than at birth before getting better.

[katiecubs]

Hi - wondering if anyone can help? I'm having terrible feeding problems with an increasingly grumpy baby and it's breaking my heart to see him like this!

It all started 4/5 weeks when he would start fussing at the odd feed, pulling off the bottle screaming but still hungry. It's gradually got worse and is now like this at all feeds and he will now only take 2/3oz at a time (he's 9 weeks) where as he used to take 4/5oz.

i've asked the HV and GP but they don't seem to think it's reflux because he is still quite happy to be laid flat - he always smiles and coo's when i take him to the clinic the little trickster!

Over the last week things have been increasingly bad and he has started being sick alot more, not huge amounts just a few mouthfuls of undigested milk after feeds. He also splutters, coughs and gets bad hiccups which seem to upset him. I'm at a loss as what to do as i can't bear to see him in pain.

He is still putting on weight, or was, not sure now as things have gotten worse. Does this sound like reflux to you or could it just be a fussy phase? I've got a GP's appointment on Tues but not sure if they will help unless he is losing weight?

Katie x

[lucyflawless]

Sorry to come along and interrupt. I have some Dr Browns bottles for FFP. I'd really like people to have them who are struggling with their baby's feeding (as mine did). They really worked for us (along with comfort formula). Happily my 11m old grew out of it some months ago but I can remember the agony. Please PM me if you're interested. I don't have this topic in active convos.

I think I have 8 bottles so could split them up?

[Jacanne]

My dd's reflux has taken a sudden turn for the worse and she seems to be experiencing many of the symptoms that she had pre-medication. She has also suddenly developed frequent watery poos (she was one of those BF babies that could happily go 5 days without a poo previously). She is teething (judging from the amounts of drool and constant hands in mouth) - could this be the cause - I have read that it can make reflux worse?