Breastfeeding and reflux - at my wits end. Please help!

[wolfear]

My dd is five weeks old and constantly bringing up milk after her feeds. When she's lying down so constantly grunts cries out in what I assume to be pain. It seems to be a lot worse at her first feed for the day at 7am-ish. I have a very string let down and am not sure if she's getting too much milk. we are using Gaviscon (mixing it with a bit of breastmilk and giving it to her in a bottle straight after each feed). It doesn't seem to be working very well to be honest. I'm also giving her Infacol on the doctor's recommendation as he thinks it's colic.

For the first three weeks she was a little dream. She was so placid and slept and fed beautifully, she was only feeding once through the night. That's now increased to three times a night. By the time I've fed her each time, given her Gaviscon, burped her and settled her after much grunting, I'm hardly sleeping at all and am a walking zombie. I have two little boys, 3 and 5, and feel I have no time for them. can anyone please offer some advice? I just don't know what to do.

The pharmacist told me gaviscon and infacol work against eachother do we stopped the gaviscon . There are other meds you can get for reflux of it is bad

Keep hassling the gp and maybe keep a record of feeds and symptoms

At five weeks lots of babies are refluxy. It may turn out to be reflux but at the moment she could just be a newborn and they do often wake up a bit at weeks 2-3. They also have a growth spurt development thing at 5/6 weeks so can be unsettled and feed more (though once in the night under about ten to twelve weeks is unusual in a bf baby).

I would recommend the following if you have not tried then.

Give the infacol before a feed.
Wind her gently but thoroughly after each feed. Dd2 needed two burps. Wind her during a feed too if needed.
Keep her upright for 20 to 30 mins after a feed
Prop up her Moses cot and changing mat at a slight angle so she is not lying completely flat
Keep her in baby gros for now - nothing tight on her tummy
Don't make her wait for feeds so she is hungry
If you can lean back as you feed to stem flow
Take her off if you spray then put her back on when flow slows
Block nurse so do all feeds in 2-3 hour block off one breast to settle supply and let her nurse off a slow flow

Just my opinion. If still bad at 8-10 weeks then medicalise it and push for more intervention. I just think it sounds very standard newborn. I have 3 all bfed.

Also it is a short period and fine for your older boys to see that newborns need lots of care and attention. Or I have always felt that.

I meant we stopped the infacol sorry !

My baby has had reflux from about 3 weeks old. The doctor prescribed gaviscon and it didn't work at all, just made him horribly constipated. He then put him on ranitidine and it is the best thing ever! He's been on it since 4 weeks old and it completely stopped all of his reflux symptoms. Took a few days to work but it has made everything so much easier!

He also had problems bringing up wind so we used infacol as well. Both worked fine and we were able to stop the infacol at about 14 weeks. He is still on ranitidine though :)

yes, you can get stronger meds if necessary. I would change gp if they think this is 'colic' or lactose intolerance. You can get actual tests for reflux if the doctor refuses to believe it (but need to get refered and usually not necesary if you get proper treatment). don't know why so many gps have an issue with diagnosing it.
It sounds identical to my dd's reflux- vomiting and grunted 7am-10am was the worst. also looked really uncomfortable though at first i thought all babies made faces I was so sad I couldn't just feed and put her down to play like other mums. Improved a lot at about 4 months.
We had gaviscon (didn't want to dose with other drugs really), cot on a big tilt and I held her upright for 30 mins after each feed. i was fighting falling asleep doing this 5/6 times a night. Think she had been waking in distress and wanted to feed to help but made it worse. Then I used dummy; i held it in for as long as to get her to drop off (15 mins sometimes) and then took it out. This got better night sleeping habit and feeds reduced at night so pain did too. I feed very frequently in day and used uprgight babybjorn type sling.