Can someone offer advice - re reflux

[CJ1836]

Hi
My 2 week old has been very unsettled from the night she was born. It is very difficult to get her to lie on her back and she spends most of her time sleeping on her front on me but obviously this is totally impractical especially as I have a 2 year old too.
She brings up her feeds at least twice a day and hiccups all the time - even when she wakes up.
Poor thing has not been able to lie content at all and I am exhausted.
I started breastfeeding but she seemed very agitated when feeding so now doing mixed but found this has not made any difference apart from the fact I can get a bit of help when doing a bottle feed.
Does this sound like reflux? I will take her to the docs but wanted to hear anyone elses thoughts before.

THanks so much
CJ1836

Hi CJ1836,

I think Reflux is projectile vomiting - do you think she might be lactose intollerant [sp?), or maybe try a milk for hungrier babies that might be a little thicker and easier to keep down?

Thought about trying omneo comfort - I think that is a thicker milk. I am more bothered about the very painful hiccups that she seems to have all the time.

yes. take her to the doctor and get your life back! I waited until dd was 8 weeks old and it was hell on earth. much easier once she had the infant gaviscon.
IME, reflux can be either projectile or lots of little bits of sick so worth taking her.

Is it worse when she is bottle fed or breastfed or no different ? It could be reflux or could be that she is taking in air with the feeds, or just getting used to being fed. In the early weeks it is really difficult to identify it purely from such behaviour as newborns are pretty erratic anyway and spitting up is common. Try putting her in a sling, car seat or angled pram (put a rolled towels under the mattress if need be) for half an hour or so after feeds, so she is more upright, and see if that helps.

DS was 4 months old before reflux was spotted, so I advise you to get something done about it!!!!

We were given Infant Gaviscon, which helped a bit, I think though, sometimes, you need to just sit it out. Just finding out that DS has reflux was a big relief, because at least then I knew what was wrong. He is 9 months now, and is still v sicky, but it has improved tenfold since he has been sitting up and eating solids.

I think Omneo Comfort is meant to be good, as it's thick and sits better in their tummies, and doesnt rise back through the oesophagus. A friend of mine had a lactose intolreant baby, and she uses InfaSoy, which has also helped her DS.

I do urge you to go to the doctors though, so that they can rule out things like hernia (whicgh is very simple to correct apparently) and they can decide the best course of treatment for your baby.

Hi CJ,

It sounds like reflux to me, if you do a search you will come across a number of recent threads about it. Not being able to lie flat is definitely part of it, as well as agitation during feeding. Does she throw up ages after her feed? Are you holding her in a more upright position for either breast or bottle feeding?

Doc will probably recommend Infant Gaviscon, I am using this with some success with my 13 week ds. You can give it to a bf baby but it's easier to give in a bottle (either of expressed milk or formula).

To be honest, if I were you I would try and re-establish bf as it's very early days to mix feed successfully. Mind you, I couldn't get bf started at all so that colours my view on these things; I tend to think that my ds's digestive problems wouldn't be as bad if he was on breastmilk. However, you do have a lot more choices if you mix feed, in terms of being able to try different formulas and things. If you bf and it turns out she is lactose sensitive, I think you may end up having to cut lactose out of your diet so as not to be passing it on to her, I know this happened to some friends of friends of mine.

Have you been signed off by the midwife? If not, I would start with her, but definitely see the GP, it's worth giving Infant Gaviscon a try. (You can actually buy it over the counter, what I did was buy some when I already had an appointment to see the GP, so I could go and report on whether it was already working).

A sling can help to make life easier with a baby who prefers being upright; I must say I don't envy you with a 2 yo a well, our little one has nearly finished us off and there's two of us here full-time to share the burden.

Hope you get some help soon.

THanks for your help. Anyone know where to get a sling?

We have a Baby Björn Active, be warned that these things aren't cheap to buy from new. I didn't use it when ds was tiny because he was just too floppy for it, I think. We also had a fabric sling, a Tricot Slen, but we could never get on with that one as it's such a pain to put on, basically it consists of about 75 metres of fabric which you wind around your body in complex patterns - at least that's how it feels when you're struggling with it!

Although I haven't used one, I think the Wilkinet is probably a good compromise between the straightforward putting on nature of the Baby Björn but maybe not quite as rigid for a little one.

I'd have a look on eBay or similar to pick up one second-hand - you can always go into Mothercare and try a few different ones on first. Tricot do a simpler version, the Tricotti, which is only two loops of fabric, that might be easier to get on with?

Few ideas to get you started

Hiya CJ1836, my ds2 had reflux at 4 weeks and he used to curl his legs up and scream blue bloody murder ALL the time! i went to the Dr's and he gave me some infant gaviscon to make up for him, cant remember exactly how it worked but i now u had to mix it up with something - it worked a treat though and he took it for a few weeks and we never looked back! Hope this helps abit!