is it silent reflux??

[sweetuphoria]

I took my DD to the GP when she was 10 weeks old as we were finding it increasingly difficult to feed her. She had always been such a good feeder (formula fed) and then started crying and moaning during feeds, pushing the bottle out with her tongue then crying because she wanted it back (every few seconds), seeming so choke on the milk, couging and spluttering. She also hiccoughs quite a lot and her vomit is sometimes watery cottage cheese like and sometimes a long time after a feed.

I suggested to the GP that it may be silent reflux and the GP didnt seem to have a clue to agreed to try her on Gaviscon, 3 weeks later after initially having bad problems with constipation and then been prescribed a laxative to go with it, she seems to be no better. There are a few things that make we wonder if it really is reflux though - she is fine laying on her back, and sleeps very well at night, doesnt cry from it at any other time apart from when she is feeding??

I have also considered teething but cant see/feel any coming through!

I would love to hear from anyone with similar experiences.
thanks

hey, my ds is exacly the same has been since about 7 weeks and is silent reflux. he too sleeps 12 hours a night on his back will play on his play mat happily on his back, nap on his back and is happy inbetween feeds. the feeds sound exacly the same fussing crying taking an oz havisng a cry so on. i eventually got prescribed ranitine which helped alot, gaviscon made him worse as had constpation as well! he now is being weaned early and all symptoms slowly dissapearing! hope this helps :)

oh thanks that really helps :-) - will go back to docs and ask for ranitine, gaviscon is doing nothing. How old is he now then? was thinking early weaning may help for DD?

Hi Sweetuphoria, our dd was diagnosed with silent reflux at 14 weeks old. Like your dd, she is formula fed, was a good feeder, but then started to get really fussy with her feeds to the extent that I honestly thought she would never touch milk again as she seemed to hate it so much!

Her symptoms: waking up screaming, arching of back, hiccuping, excessive drooling (which we initially attributed to teething - turned out it was her body's way of trying to neutralise effect of the acid - first tooth showed up at 7 months!), rejecting of bottle, long feeding times, occasional vomiting (more liquid if shortly after a feed; curdly texture if already partially digested).
She was also very happy outside feed times and slept well, but definite issues just before, during and after feeds.

Her doctor advised gaviscon to be administered with each bottle feed. There was a slight improvement particularly with her evening feeds, however she did suffer from constipation and the reflux was still an issue. She was then prescribed omeprazole (which works in a similar way to ranitidine, but is gentler on tummy). She took this alongside reduced dosage gaviscon for about a month (omeprazole is administered once a day but does take a couple of weeks to kick in hence the need for gaviscon in the interim) and then she had omeprazole solely until she was about 7 months. It was the best thing ever. We went from having a baby that rejected feeds to one who would no longer fight the bottle. Early weaning was also advised by doctor. She is now 11 months. No reflux issues, is feeding well and happily gaining weight too.

Might I also recommend propping your dd up when feeding her. Gravity does help with keeping the milk down. Also, feeding in tranches (ie she has short break(s)during the feed; we found this helped significantly in assisting her to keep milk down as her tummy did not fill up too quickly and reduced the likelihood of her throwing up an entire feed!). Getting her to sleep on her left side, while propped up helped. Small amounts of cooled, boiled water throughout the day in between meal times helped with the constipation, though that really only improves once you stop administering gaviscon.

Sorry for long post, but it was a challenging time for us (first time parents), so I do hope some of this will help. It does get a lot easier when they move on to solids and also their systems are maturing all the time.

Good luck!

oh thank you Chiru, I understand totally where you're coming from, we are first time parents too and it's so worrying when you don't know what's wrong with them. It sounds like DD does have silent reflux then, she also drools a lot which at first i though was teething, and when I asked thr HV she just said it is normal for all babies and didnt attribute it to SR. You get such different advice/info from everyone that you just don't know what to believe.

ds wil be 16 weeks one sat and is a different baby now having rice and purees along with his milk, he now takes more milk and a lot less fuss with the solids then he did when just on milk! hope the docs get something that works for your lo is the worse thing esp when feeding should be the most natrual easy thing to do! well thats what i thought before i had ds. i promise it will get eaiser, i spent a lot of time getting upset about ds but have now accepted that how it is and to go with it best we can :) but so much better now hes on solids :)

oh thanks and so glad that things have got better for your Lo. Fingers crossed I get somewhere with my gp nxt week and I might consider early weaning as she is 13wks now