dr brown has let me down!!!!

[taytotayto]

my 4 week old dd has terrible reflux and suffers terribly from wind and what i can only assume is colic. her worst time is 9pm to any time around 1am. i went to the gp who told me to change bottles to dr browns as dd tends to gulp her feeds, i did as i was told and paid out in excess of £34 but the bottles are messy and leak for no reason, and dont seem to be helping. i am back to using Avant bottles with the anti colic rings and they dont help either.
i am living on 5 hours sleep a night and have a 2 year old to deal with as well so im like a zombi.
i am using infacol and gripe water and was given colief to try but i find it hard to wait 30 mins before giving her milk as she screams and screams when she wants feeding and the results werent all that cracking anyway.

what i would like to know is 1. is all gripe water the same or is some better than others
2. are there other bottles i can try
3. what else can i try to help with her cramp and
wind?

i also think her reflux is much worse at night and although baby gaviscon work during the day would it be possible to ask gp for something stronger at night?
and finally would alternative medicine work at all for this condition and if so what ?
im willing to try anything to get some sleep and to not bite my husbands head off!!!!!

Dr Brown bottles sort of worked for my dd, only just stopped using them actually and she's nearly 2. She still suffered with colic, just not as severely when using them.

I found a few tricks to stop them leaking; do not over fill, have the lid loose when heating the milk and if milk gets into the tube bit then unscrew the lid, wait 'til the milk leaves the tube then screw the lid back up.

As for other medicines, Dentinox was quite good, as was gripe water in some cooled boiled water.

I've also heard cranial osteopathy is supposed to work wonders, unfortunately I heard that one too late to help me!

Hope this helps.

Is it possible she could be allergic to cow's milk? This is quite common in babies and can produce reflux and colic symptoms.

hi fizzy thanks for the trick re leaking bottles. ill give it a try. off to get some dentinox worth a try i suppose and ill definately try to find a cranial osteopath. rita how would i go about finding out if she is allergic to cows milk. should i change brands do you think? she is on sma at the moment.

I don't think they test for cow's milk allergy, but you can ask the gp to prescribe either a hydrolysed formula (where the milk protein is broken down so easier to digest) or a hypoallergenic formula that has no cow's milk in it.

The gp might be reluctant though if she is gaining weight.

There are other reflux meds you can ask for too.

Hi I ebf my v coliccy and silent reflux ds but use ex bm in tomeetipee anti colic bottles sometimes which seem to make things no worse
I ve just stopped giving ds gavisgon as I doubled up the dose when he hit 10lb as per instructions and it's given him the worst constipation bless - but the reflux is no worse.. Infacol didn't work & I've just tried cranial osteoathy, 2nd session today so to early to tell
gripe water no longer had alcohol unit and isn't as effective as it once was(!!) as a result
colief if meant to be good but I've only just bought some £12 abd no prescription available!!
Hth

Personally I really don't believe in 'colic' - there's usually something else going on. I think all those fancy bottles are a complete swizz(voice of bitter experience there!). Yes, there's definitely something else you can try for reflux - gaviscon is useless IMHO. Next step is ranitidine and if that doesn't work, omeprazole. Both of these are 'proper' medicines though and before going down that route you really would be as well to try ritamorgan's suggestion of ruling out cow's milk protein allergy first. It's confirmed by exluding the potential allergen from the baby's diet. A test can be performed but only generally shows positive in the case of true allergy (e.g., hives, itching, swelling, possibly anaphylaxis- so-called IgE-mediated allergy) and may well be negative even when there is a definite intolerance. Hydrolysed milks are available on prescription as rita says - be warned, GPs are not exactly forthcoming with the prescriptions as these formulas are expensive and I think some think them faddy, but really, cow's milk protein problems are common. You can gently direct your GP to the Clinical Knowledge Summaries on cow's milk protein allergy if they are not co-operating.

Neocate is the least allergenic but tastes godawful and your baby may reject it. Nutramigen is still made from cow's milk but also tastes pretty vile. Aptamil Pepti is still cow's milk based too, tastes of horlicks and you may just be able to persuade your LO to drink this unflavoured. You need to give it a good 2 weeks to see if it makes a difference and completely exclude normal cow's milk formula during this time. Also, if you are BF at all you will need to exclude dairy products (not egg) from your diet, including hidden sources (think whey powder in biscuits and all manner of other wierd and wonderful products).

thank you all for your replies, plenty to think about. going to ring gp at 11 to see if i can get an afternoon app to nurse practitioner. she is great and as she is a mother herself she really understands the worry we go through, ill let you know how we get on.
thanks again