Anyone had baby admitted to hospital from reflux?

[lem31]

My 4 mo has bad reflux. He is sick lots but also has some silent reflux I think. I suspect his stomach doesn't empty fast enough either as he will still be sick hours after a feed.
Feeding was becoming a real struggle, Gaviscon did nothing, then he got blood in his poo. The consultant prescribed ranitidine and domperidone which worked great for a few weeks. Then it stopped working so his dose was amended 4 weeks ago. Gradually he got worse with feeding again and so the dose has been upped every week until it was on the max 2 weeks ago.
He still got worse and last week lost weight (he had been gaining very little for about 4 weeks so had dropped 1 percentile already). The consultant said we can try omeprazole but if it doesn't work he will need to be admitted for tube feeding and tests.

I'm terrified of this as 5 days on his feeding is still terrible. He starts feeding and then ends up screaming in pain, arching his back etc. Some feeds he will take brilliantly, then suddenly he will refuse 2 bottles and go 9 hours without feeding. I still hope the omeprazole will kick in and that he is just healing. I think he is taking 2-4 oz more in a day than he was last week, but it still isn't enough to thrive.
Anyone else had this? Did your babies end up in hospital or do the drugs normally work? If you did have to be admitted at what point was that decision made (how much weight lost etc) and what was it like?
Thanks in advance. X

Mine was. Twice. Similar situation to yours as my baby developed a bad feeding aversion and stopped gaining weight (and she had dropped below second centile by then). However, hospital admission was short and really just involved observing feeding behaviour while they optimised treatment. After some faffing around and a second admission, she was put on omeprazole at a high dose (3mg per kg is the max I think so we started at 10mg when she was just about 4kg) and domperidone and the effect was pretty much instantaneous. Within 2 days she was feeding normally and put on more weight in the next week than she had in the previous six!! I am a doctor so probably find it easier to argue about doses etc but I suspect the main reasons people find antacid meds don't work is that (especially GPs) don't prescribe decent doses.

Good luck - and try and think of it as getting the help you need. Bad reflux is truly horrible.

BTW Mine is now 1 and we are in the process of weaning her meds. We are still breast feeding - and it is (and since she was properly treated) wonderful!

PS Are they sure he is not Cows Milk Protein Allergic? Blood in the stools is often associated with that?

Thanks for that. its reassuring. We have been put on neocate for cmpi about 11 days ago now. His skin has cleared up beautifully but no difference so far on the feeding or sick. My consultant is pretty good and as he is losing weight said to go with the max dose of omeprazole so he is now on that. However he is often quite sick in the mornings (its one of the best feeds of the day at the moment) so after his morning nap there is normally a big puddle of vomit with bits of the dissolved tablet in it so not sure how much he is digesting. I'm holding him upright, mattress is tilted etc so trying everything I can. It concerns me that after 5 days he is showing no improvement at all.
The issue as I see it is that he isn't digesting his food properly. If he does feed he is still being sick on me 3 hours later and its definitely milk. One night he fed at about 11 and was sick at 4. I've read this can be associated with relux but don't know if anything can be done (except put him on domperidone which he s already on the max dose).
I have hv tomorrow to weigh him but I'm expecting him to drop another centile line as he will need to gain to stay above the 9th and I don't see how he can have. He was above the 25th following it beautifully so it'll be 2 centile lines he will have crossed :(
I am hoping they will let me try and wean him with some baby rice or something even though it is earlier than recommended to try and keep feeds down him and get some extra calories in him. I'd rather they let me try that than tube feeding which is what they are talking about. Problem Is he is so alert and bright still it seems odd talking about tube feeding him, but I suppose they are concerned he can't grow rarely or something. Fingers crossed for a weight gain tomorrow I guess!

My DS had severe reflux & was below the 0.4th centile. We had some close shaves (IV fluids in A&E) but narrowly avoided being admitted. Often we would see the previous day's food in the vomit. It was like something out of the Exorcist!

I would say the Omeprazole will take a little longer to work, but hopefully it will. It did the trick for us. I didn't feel the Domperidone helped at all. We also tried Erythromycin (didn't help) & the next step would have been Ondanestron.

For us, weaning made no difference - it was just a case of him physically outgrowing it - at age 3.

I realise that most of this probably doesn't help you. I just wanted to say: hang in there, it does get better, there are options, but it's often trial & error.

Hope the weigh-in goes well & you can avoid admission.

3?! Crickey. You must be superwoman!
I think that's the strange thing, that his weight itself isn't too bad, its just that he has stopped gaining so he seems reasonably happy and healthy unless you try to feed him. Maybe they will give us more time then as he is not too tiny.
Thanks for the support and advice guys. Really appreciate it. X

Yes DS had about 3 or 4 visits to A&E for IV fluids or NG tube because he would refuse feeds for 24 hours at a time (he associated feeding with pain), then we were admitted for a week due to severe dehydration and failure to thrive. He ended up on a fairly high dose of omeprazole suspension (which is a PITA since it only lasts 2 weeks and you need a compounding chemist to make it) and that was quite effective. He remained failure to thrive but at least the pain a vomiting were much less, he is still below the 1st percentile for weight & height at six so I think it's more to do with his prematurity than the reflux although the reflux made it worse.

For us we stopped meds around two as that's when he seemed to outgrow it.

Happy to chat if you need to support OP, I know how horrible it is!

Thanks. Must admit I'm finding it hard, particularly when factoring in the lack of sleep too on top of all the worries.
I just wish the omeprazole was working already. He refused 2 feeds yesterday and another overnight. He starts feeding and you can see how much it hurts. It's heartbreaking to watch. I just hope he has taken enough to put on some weight at least.
It's crazy how long these babies are suffering for. I thought they outgrew it by 6 months to a year but obviously that isn't a given. Just hope we can find a solution soon.
Thanks so much for taking the time to reply to me guys. It's really appreciated. X