All new deluxe reflux support thread

[buttonmoon78]

Welcome one and all!

Hi Hadak, my LO has taken Gaviscon since 5weeks old. This is how we do it which is different to what it says on the sachets (she was hospitalised with reflux and the nurses made up the gaviscon this way).

First get 3ml plastic syringes from a chemist and a 20ml syringe. Make up 30mls of cooled boiled water and the correct number of sachets for your child's weight (6 in our case as she was over 4.5kg) for 24 hours. Syringe in 2.5mls before each feed up to a maximum of 12 doses in 24 hours. Slowly squirt the liquid into the side of the mouth, tilt your baby back slightly so it doesn't immediately dribble out. They learn to swallow it pretty quickly although there is a bit of spluttering and coughing for the first few days. Stick with it. Use a bib.

The gaviscon immediately thickens the stomach contents and forms a layer on top of the milk to keep it in the stomach. It will therefore work straight away. If it is not improving your child's condition to the point that they are comfortable then the next step is something to reduce the acid production in the stomach, ranitidine or omeprazole and possibly a motility drug which speeds the transit of food through the stomach like domperidone.

Read the book Colic Solved: The Essential Guide to Infant Reflux and the Care of Your Crying, Difficult-To- Soothe Baby available on Amazon written by a paediatric gastroenterologist.

Coleif is only helpful if your child has the fairly rare condition of lactase deficiency, their body doesn't have enough of the enzyme lactase which digests the sugar lactose in milk. Not sure it will help unless you know your LO has a lactase deficiency.

Hi all,

yes, the zantac has helped a lot! Reflux by no means gone but he is no longer tortured by it every time it happens (just sometimes, mainly afternoon/evening oddly). He is still putting on weight like a trooper, so I'm a bit anxious about when he will 'outgrow' his current dosage and need it upped. Mainly as I'm getting used to him settling into a pattern where he sleeps (in his tilted moses basket most of the time, hurrah!) and plays on his baby gym or bouncer contentedly - dreading any return to the awful time of him screaming and me trying fruitlessly to comfort him. He is snoring away blissfully atm, while I type this with both hands.

I also switched to latcofree milk and cheese for the past 2-3 weeks, which overlaps starting the zantac and him settling well. Probably just a coincidince but thought I'd mention it. Haven't been anywhere near as good as some ladies on here at excluding things (my heart sank at the thought as cups of tea and naughty food treats were all that were keeping me going!) but have cut caffiene out in the evenings too, again, with a good effect on his general settledness. Still need it in the mornings tho ...

I'm sort of copying your method for making up gaviscon method mamalemoo - 20ml boiling water into a sterilsed tommy tippee storage pot, 4 sachets gavison, into fridge etc. It's good how it dissolves so well standing in the fridge! I've found that eazymed medicine dummy a godsend - was always worried i was going to hurt his wee mouth with the 5ml syringe, so poking a dummy in the cormer of his mouth and squirting in the gaviscon is much less stressful! Mind you, he still manages to spit a reasonable amount out 50% of the time...

Oddly, I'm not frightened by the 1ml syringe for the zantac tho I'm just as likely to poke him in the mouth with it - maybe more so actually, as he bloody hates the zantac! The taste of it is so strong it actually takes his breath away for a few seconds and then he foams at the mouth and is v upset until I can get him onto the boob to take the taste away...

Really hoping either something works for everyone else's poor babies - or that they're helped by passing the 'magic' 4 month period or weaning. Button my heart goes out to you - I remember you from the spd birthing ball thread - hope you're fully recovered from the horrid pgp. Mine is more or less gone 8 weeks on, I could not imagine coping with that on top of just reflux, never mind allergies and eczema...

Mama Thanks for that info re Gaviscon.
We went to GP again yesterday morning after trying Gaviscon since Monday and him seemingly worse. He was crying and in pain when we saw GP who sent us up to the hospital.
He managed to fall asleep on the journey there (about half hour drive away) and was ok whilst we were there!! However the hospital gave us ranitidine 0.3 x3 times a day. Although they said that none of the medicines given for reflux are proven to work (?) and will see us in clinic in 2-3 weeks.
He appeared a lot better today but still a little unsettled although did have a sleep this morning and has sat in his swing for about 10 mins which is great. So we will have to see how we go.
Button I feel for you re eczema. My older son had terrible tummy problems (we were told colic) forever and then as soon as he was weaned got awful eczema. He wass intolerant to Dairy and gluten with a few other allergies. We used to wet wrap him then he went onto pro topic creams which were helpful and we still use. I do hope your little ones eczema clears up soon.

I'm not sure if this helps but we have turned a corner with our ds. He was 7 weeks prem and is now 6 months actual . He used to cry pretty much all the time but we have got it down to about 15 minutes in 24 hours . Only when he is tired or bath time .! We were sent home from hospital on domperidone and ranitidine ( Zantac ) he is now on 3x 1 ml of ranitidine only . We discovered the domperidone was causing pain as it pushes the milk down really quickly so we stopped it . We stopped the ranitidine too but he cried again do we put him back on it . He is very behind on his development , partly because he was prem and partly because he was crying in my arms the whole time do no time/ interest for playing or tummy time etc . But on the whole he is much much better so there is light at the end of the tunnel .

hey it is encouraging to hear good news im glad your babies are happy now.

my baby had reflux bad her first month and a half, started the ranitidine and things have been going fine until the last week or so - we brought her to the doc again and he has given us gaviscon as well as the ranitidine. it helps a bit but i am just worried the whole thing is kicking off again. it may be just as she is going through her 4 month growth spurt and will calm down after, im not sure. she is already on 0.5ml of ranitidine 3 times a day so i don't think there is much more we can do. it seems to be worse with breastfeeding than her bottle at night (thickened formula). this is discouraging for me at the minute as sometimes when i put her to the breast she starts screaming before i even feed her. its hard when you know she is hungry but she won't feed. then she tires herself out and does feed in the end, but chokes on it quite a bit - its mostly silent reflux.

.5ml x 3 doesn't seem like enough -- mine had to take around .75 at 8lbs/8weeks...

wow - i was told that the dose was weight related and would go up if needed as their weight went up. i thought she was on the highest dose for her weight. 0.5 3 times a day? she is now 11lb, i will ask the hv about it again, as the meds really did help. she only increased it from 0.3 to .5 when she went from 8 to 10lb.

Hello,
I'm so glad I found this forum. I have ten week old twin girls who both have reflux but one is worse than the other. Literally after every feed she will projectile all over the place or all over her sister. When feeding them on my own I try to feed them at the same time otherwise i end up feeding babies all day but I'm starting to think I might have to feed them one after the other.
Does anyone else have twins with reflux? It's starting to really get me down - I literally spent the whole of yesterday changing babies and doing the laundry!
Tinks xxxx

hi all, I am new here. My 13-week-old (8 week adjusted) has moderate reflux. He doesn't sleep much (and certainly not on his back), so it's been pretty much a three-month marathon of holding him around the clock. He's on ranitidine, & we're trying to manage the vomiting without using domeperidone.
Anyway, I noticed a little while back that he started farting almost constantly. Everyone tells us that it's "better in than out". great, but it does interrupt the little stretches of sleep that he's finally starting to enjoy. he used to wake up because of acid, but now he wakes up to pass gas...
for a while i was hoping that it was his digestive system maturing, or the fact that i switched him to Hipp formula.
But I've just noticed that sorbitol, one of the ingredients in ranitidine, can cause gassiness/abdominal pain, and the fartiness started after his dosage was upped. I'm starting to convince myself that it's the sorbitol. Anyone have any thoughts, or (if my crazy little theory is correct) know if there's sorbitol-free ranitidine?

Hi littletomato - I don't have an answer to your question, but can tell you that we have the same issue with my little boy (20 weeks this week and has been on ranitidine since he was 7 weeks old). He is waking up all night long to pass gas. He seems to settle much better sleeping on his tummy but I am too paranoid to leave him like that, so I usually turn him on his tummy while I supervise (i.e. sit in a dark room counting sheep :)). We are going to see the consultant on Friday for a check up and I will ask the question and report back. Hang in there :)

Forgot to add regarding dosage, we are under the consultant care and my little boy is 4 months old and is on 2mg ranitidine twice a day (4 ml in total) and has been on this dosage for a while.

bischbaschone I was you a year ago. My DS also had significant head lag (although wasn't prem) and was under a paed until recently for what was finally decided was benign infantile hypotonia (e.g., low muscle tone of no significance in the long term, hopefully).

He had reflux too - I wonder whether reflux is common in babies with lower muscle tone. I never asked the paed but I suppose logically it's more likely because a lot of the digestive system is comprised of muscles...

xxx

I should say that DS is now totally fine, no head lag any more (altho it took a long time to resolve) and best of all no more reflux. There is hope, but it is very difficult when it's happening.

OH and sorry for the multiple posts but just to say anyone with a baby who is exhibiting reflux symptoms might want to consider milk allergy, which is not that unusual. Not lactose intolerance (very very rare) but allergy to cow's milk proteins. Same symptoms as reflux. Probably been said on here lots but just re-emphasising in case anyone is coming straight to the end of the thread.

thanks bubalie, i'd be curious to know if the consultant would have anything to say about it.

littletomato asked consultant today if ranitidine causing gas and he said not related directly to medication, usually babies with reflux and colic are windy and unsettled as the whole digestive system is disrupted. I did think about it and my little boy has ranitidine twice a day morning and night and he is ok in the morning/during the day and only struggles with wind at night...

Does anyone else find winding their baby hard when they have reflux. My twins are both on gaviscon and ranitidine.

Hi Tinks30 - my baby is on the same medication as yours. he always winds well in the day, but nighttime winding is a problem most of the nights as it takes ages :(

Hi, is this the most recent reflux support thread? Marking my place if so. DD looks v likely to have silent reflux. She was premature and is now 38 weeks so not even term yet, she is under 6lb and my heart breaks for her as she is so tiny and so unhappy.

She does liquid sounding burps that smell sour, has white bits in mouth, sticks her tongue out, makes "disgusted" faces and chewing faces, hoarse grunts, oh and of course she is not happy on her back and won't sleep unless held vertically.

We have just started today on ranitidine and domperidone, she seems a little better and I am praying this is the answer for her and for us. However we haven't yet hit the nighttime so it may all go downhill then.

If anyone is looking at this thread - did these meds work for you? How long did it take to see a result if so?

Having read the thread I am now wondering if I need to cut out dairy (DD is EBF) or even try putting her on neocate formula (if I can get a dr to prescribe it, and if I can get her to drink from a bottle... Both big ifs).

Anyone tried cranial osteopathy?

hello I am so glad i found this website and this thread! I have had no help whatsoever from my HV with regards to my babies reflux. He is 4 weeks old, and has been showing clear signs of reflux from about 1 week. The crying and back arching after a feed, the constant vomit after feeding, will settle in my arms upright, the minute he's flat in his basket he wakes himself up coughing and choking within half an hour or so, hiccups every feed very severly and the list continues. She suggested a lactose intolerance, and put us onto the Nutramigen 1, which helped to some degree (making his bowel movements more regular etc) but we still had all the above listed problems. This has been 4 weeks of pure grief and distress for both myself and my little man. Because he was waking himself up with the reflux he has been getting more agitated and miserable. As well as us becoming more distraught and exhausted. We have him on the Gaviscon infant now, and we have seen a vague improvement. He is still badly refluxing, but now its thicker and doesn't seem to be as uncomfortable for him, its just the coughing and choking we're struggling with. Thank you so much for the advise on things to try!! Its so frustrating being told 'Its perfectly normal, it will pass, it gets easier!' when all i can see is a brick wall from both my Health care assistance and my own patience! Here's hoping for things to start improving!!!

Is this the most recent reflux thread? If so can we join the club? :)

Hi is this thread still active? Hoping for some help from some of you experienced reflux mums!

My DS had reflux & we're 8 months in now. How are you getting on? Reflux babies are hard work but it does get better