Silent reflux and breastfeeding

[bankie123]

My 7 week old has been diagnosed with silent reflux and he is ebf. He is currently on ranitidine and I think this has helped with the pain but his reflux still bothers him by waking him from sleep, snuffly/mucusy breathing at night, bad farts, general fussiness. A lot of the time he is awake he is generally fussy, crying, on verge of crying etc. I sometimes think he shows signs of sandifer syndrome I have embarked on a dairy and soya free diet which I am not sure is helping although his poos seem much better. It is misery.

I am really just looking for someone to hold my hand and say it will get better. I have been seeing my GP but not hospital.yet but am thinking if going private to try and get it sorted as I don't want to wait. We can't really afford it but can't stand my baby unhappy either.

Any other breast feeders out there been there, done it and come out the otherwise?

Bankie - I can sense the desperation from your post and can fully identify with how you feel. Our ds was diagnosed with SR at about 7-8 weeks and was on domperidone initially before I asked our GP if we could try ranitidine. There weren't any issues with intolerances with ds as far as I could tell but he was miserable, wanted to be held constantly, snuffly, coughing, hoarse cry, arching his back etc. It felt like hell as I seemed powerless to help him.

He's now nearly 8 months and I'm almost scared to say this but things have been controlled for some time. We had a blip a few weeks ago when he obviously reacted to the preservatives in a different brand of ranitidine but once back on his usual meds he was fine. He's weaning now and I'm being cautious with it but so far so good. I'm glad that I stuck with bf though as my GP felt that his symptoms may have been worse on formula; I haven't got any plans to stop at the moment.

Hope that helps as I know how hellish things can be; I cried almost every day for weeks as I hated watching him in pain which can't have been good for my poor dd who's 3. In fact I think the stress associated with his SR has affected my relationship with her, although it is improving now and she adores him. I know there are mixed opinions about this but we saw a cranial osteopath in the early days which I think was helpful. Things will get better but just remember that you're doing your best. Good luck.

We seem to have come out of the other side. DD was diagnosed with reflux at 6 weeks. (Not so silent, she puked, a lot!). She was put on ranitidine at 6 months and it gradually improved. She started sleeping better, we got out of the vicious cycle of obviously feeling sick and non-stop feeding to ease the discomfort. She still needs the ranitidine but she is like a different baby. When she was little she cried, loads. Terrible sleeper and just hard work. Never wanted to be put down! Now she still loves her cuddles but she's quite happy to explore. She also eats solids really well. Also, although we mix fed from 4 months, I carried on BF until she was one :)

I would push for a paeds referral to see if there's anything else that might help (DD was put on a double dose of the ranitidine).