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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

Original poster

Reflux???

2 replies

louloupoo · 09/10/2010 20:01

What exactly is reflux, what causes it and how do you know if your baby has it?

Esp if they're not actually bringing anything up after their feed?

OP posts:
Suzihaha · 09/10/2010 22:12

Reflux is when the sphincter muscle that normally keeps stuff in the stomach isn't very strong and so stuff comes back up (sometimes stomach acid). Very common in babies under 3 months and can sometimes last until they're 2 (like DS1). Although most get over it by the time they're 1.

Can also be silent reflux, ie they don't vomit. Signs can be:

  1. Hate sleeping on their backs, especially after feeds.
  2. Have bad breath in the morning.
  3. Seem to cough a bit in the middle of the night
  4. A lot of hiccups
  5. When they do vomit, they're usually quite happy afterwards and can carry on eating/feeding (unlike vomitting when they are ill)

The strongest sign though is poor sleep and frequent night waking. Spent months going back and forth to GP complaining of DS1 vomitting at the slightest big mouthful, lump in food, running a while after eating, etc. Got fobbed off by it's just a virus etc etc. Eventually, at 15months we started giving him Gaviscon and within 2 weeks he was falling asleep quickly and sleeping through the night! He was on it for 4 months.

ConcreteElephant · 09/10/2010 22:29

DD had silent reflux. She hated sleeping flat on her back and used to almost growl the whole time,a sort of throaty gurgle... She didn't posset at all but she was very unhappy and clearly struggling a bit.

We had to hold her upright for about 20 minutes after a feed to help the milk stay right down..I also used to try to feed her as upright as possible. We were given Gaviscon by the GP but as she was breastfed and not keen on bottles it was more hassle than it was worth to get it in her and I'm not sure it really worked.

We were very fortunate that as DD gained weight (she was born just pre-term at 6lb 4oz but ran up the centiles fairly enthusiastically) it definitely eased and was gone by about 13-15 weeks I think. It wasn't very fun and I really sympathize with anyone whose DCs suffer from this for longer.

There's some basic info on this page

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