Gaviscon is impossible! Silent reflux help needed

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Hello,

I need a bit of help please!

Ds was prescribed gaviscon for silent reflux a few days ago. I am finding it so hard for a number of reasons:

1. The volume of the gaviscon I have to give him is huge! It us very difficult to get my ebf baby to take 15ml of liquid off a spoon 6 times a day!

1. It is already making him constipated!! Not nice as he seems upset by it.

So, would ranitidine be any easier to administer? Would my gp prescribe it after not very long on gaviscon? Do you still have the constipation as a side effect with it? Or is there another thing that I could ask for him to be prescribed instead?

Also, I had a super fast birth with ds, and gave read that this could cause reflux. Had anyone tried cranial osteopathy to help? Would you recommend it?
Sorry for the long post, for anyone who can help. Reflux really is so stressful!

If you are bfing, has Lo been checked for tongue tie?

Hi, gaviscone made my baby very constipated and in pain. GP wouldnt prescribe anything else, so I took baby to childrens A&E, got prescribed renitadine. Very easy to administer (they give you a little syringe) and no constipation!!! Works very well too :)

Hi my dd had reflux & was given gaviscon & then ranitidine. The gaviscon works by keeping the milk down & the ranitidine by neutralising the acid. Gaviscon made my dd constipated too so I looked for alternative ways of relieving reflux & am now following a dairy free diet - this appears to have got rid of the reflux so it might be worth following that?

I am always amazed at how clueless a lot of GPs seem to be about reflux. AppleCrumple has it absolutely right. So, if the reflux is silent (I assume that means no vomiting, merely pain from acid) then gaviscon will do absolutely nothing. Ranitadine is a wonderful medicine for reflux for a lot of people. It worked wonders for our son.

I am not sure whether Gps are allowed to prescribe ranitadine. They were not when we had it, you need a referral to a paed.

Thanks for all your replies. He vomits a little bit, but just normal possetting I think, so dr said silent reflux seemed to make more sense.

It seems ranitidine is the way to go then, but I will need to referral to a paed for this then, or had anyone had it prescribed by their gp?

The dairy free thing is something I had heard before. Had that alone cleared up your dc's reflux, or was that in combination with the ranitidine?

My mw checked him when he was born, but no other checks. While reading online I had been about tt, that is definitely something to consider.

Thanks again! V helpful stuff here.

Hi,
Agree ranitidine works well. My GP prescribed it when I asked for it though probably helped that I have worked as a GP. But they can definitely prescribed it, doesn't need to be a paediatrician. For me cutting tomatoes out of my diet made a huge difference too - have a think if anything you eat seems to mark it worse. Good luck - silent reflux is hellish but it does pass.

Sorry about typos - fat fingers!

GPs can (and do!) prescribe Ranitidine.
You may need to have a conversation about indication and licencing (not sure from what age it is licences, but it is certainly used from newborn, even premature, onwards).
If it works, it works almost immediately as in within a couple of days.

DS4 was also tried on Omeprazole (capsules you break open and then feed the granules within). This is a very stong acid suppressor, works great for reflux (sadly not on DS4 who was simply as Very Screamy Baby).

We also tried cranial osteopathy which made no difference.

And changing my diet made no difference.

Him getting a bit older did, thank the Lord .

I am just trying to say, every baby is different, it is often really difficult to figure out what ails them (I wish every baby came with a monitor that displayed what it wanted/needed like that doll that is advertised everywhere at the mo').

Hi, cutting out dairy alone got rid of the reflux. The first few days after cutting it out, her symptoms worsened & then they started to subside. A week after cutting it out, I had completely stopped both gaviscon & ranitidine. I've cut out all types of dairy, even things like cakes, biscuits & choc. It's actually not that hard, but I could kill for some cheese! A lot of GPS aren't licensed to prescribe ranitidine so you may well need a referral to a paed

It is not true that GPs aren't licensed to prescribe ranitidine. They can, and do, but they are prescribing the medicine for an off-label usage and some are reluctant to do so because it's a bigger deal for them.
I would second and third the cutting out dairy and soy thing, but you need to be rigorous - no hidden whey powder etc.

What symptoms other than the 'silent' vomiting are causing concern? Is there anything like eczema, excess mucus in stool etc.?

My ds is on gaviscon, omeprazole and domperidone for silent reflux - the last drug is great as it is already liquid and you just squirt it in (no need to express milk to make it up like I do with the omeprazole). It speeds up the transit of milk through the gut. The gaviscon doesn't really do much for ds.

All of the above were prescribed by a hospital consultant as ds was prem and has been in and out of hospital a bit - but the gp is more than happy to do the repeat scripts and was familiar with the cocktail of drugs - possibly would have prescribed it in the first place?

Ds also had his tongue tie snipped which has helped. Cranial osteopathy doesn't appear to have done much for the reflux but I still go as he seems to enjoy it!

Any dr can prescribe ranitidine or omeprazole or domperidone.
The use is off licence and needs to be discussed with the parent and the potential for an unknown risk needs to be accepted by the parent. Often licencing is a regulatory thing, and not to do with drug safety although some drugs have simply not been tested on very young infants due to ethical concerns.
It can be a bit scary for a dr to prescribe (and thereby be legally responsible for the drug) a drug they are not familiar with in a certain set of circumstance.
Having said that, if they are not comfortable to prescribe they should most certainly refer to somebody who is.

FWIW, cutting out dairy made absolutely no difference for my preemie DS2 - getting older and being weaned on more solid foods did. Sometimes it's just a waiting game, I am afraid. If I did not know any better, I'd swear the the Barium meal and follow-through he had a the age of 6 months (3.5 months) corrected) 'cured' him... in fact I think it was a coincidence of him maturing a bit and the very start of weaning (this was 8 years ago, before anybody start jumping on me re early weaning!).

My DD has reflux and cranial osteopathic I think made her more comfortable and she's always slept well. She has the fountainous sick sort of reflux... which is now under control with domperidone.

Has anyone suggested you slightly raise the head end of the cot? Helps keep the acid in their tummies where it belongs. DD was v hard to wind and we found keeping her upright ish (propped on a shoulder) for at least 30 mins after a feed also helped.