Silent Reflux and Gaviscon in FF baby - any ideas?

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Hi,

I stopped express feeding a couple of weeks ago as not keeping up with DD1's demand, she is now 10 weeks old. She is on Aptamil and since FF has developed silent relux (or it has got worse, I think she has always has it). She screamed with every bottle, takes only 1-2 oz and then the occasional 4oz when I guess absolute hunger got the better of her.

I started Infant Gaviscon on Monday, which seems to help but only when DD1 is hungry, which seems to be only every 5 - 5.5 hours, when she takes 4oz. If I offer her a bottle before this amount of time she will scream and scream. This doesn't seem a lot for a 10 week old, but she does seem happier feeding.

Has anyone else had experience of this lack of feeding on Gaviscon (she was previously taking 5oz of breast milk or top up formula every 3-4 hrs).?

Thanks

it'll be the discomfort from the reflux which will be putting her off her feeds rather than the gaviscon itself

Have you tried
feeding her in an upright position
keeping her upright for 30 mins after her feed
not too much jiggling around after a feed
raising the head of her cot

If it continues i'd take her back to the gp many other things can help with reflux

Good luck

You might need to try a staydown milk like enfamil AR or similar if that doesn't help much you can always talk to the gp about rantinidine (not sure about spelling) it helps as an antacid to neutralise the acid in the stomach stopping it being so painful when it comes up. My DS is 14 weeks and it semms to have helped with the pain so far HTH

Our DD had this too - it was really horrible but the Gaviscon did help considerably. Ours would struggle to feed for any length of time - she'd take a few sucks, then cry. What I ended up doing (and it does sound weird) was alternating between the bottle and a dummy. Apparently a dummy can help with silent reflux anyway, but it seemed to make a huge difference to her feeding.

Basically, I'd give her the bottle, let her drink until she cried and immediately switch to the dummy, which she'd suckle for a minute or two before she'd cry because she was hungry, at which point I'd switch straight back to the bottle. Sounds bizarre but the small breaks meant I could get more milk down her, but she did need the comfort of the dummy in between to soothe her.

You may need a bigger teat? Gaviscon thickens the milk so she will be sucking really hard which is exhausting and will increase air intake!

Was just going to say the same as addictedtofrazzles. Gaviscon will thicken the milk andi f she is trying to take the milk through a normal newborn teat she is not going to be getting much out but expending a lot of effort to do so.

You will need to be using a variflow teat or at the very least a 2 or 3 sized teat.

5 hourly feeds is too long between feeds IMNSHO. On that schedule she would not be taking nearly enough milk to nourish her and keep her hydrated.

Back to the GP I would say. I think if there are already feeding issues developing then you should be referred to a paed and more effective medication prescribed. If it's got worse since being on formula, it's also possible that she has s cow's milk protein intolerance and this is aggrevating any existing reflux. I would ask the GP/ paed about that too.