Whether to try Gaviscon or not... advice please

[RainAndRoses]

Hi all,

Am having a real dilemma as to whether to try Infant Gaviscon with my 11 wk old. He is a really sicky baby, very large amounts after every feed, particularly so in the evenings. Don't really care overly about the more laundry related implications, but he is a small baby (tracking the 2nd centile line) and I've had lots of worry over his weight. Neither HV yest or GP today were pushing Gaviscon overly but GP thought it would help a lot.

We have a complicated feeding story. I have v low supply (

I gave e gaviscon and mixed with water as ebf.

Tbh I was never convinced it did anything at all and made him really constipated. His poos went like little pebbles :(

And was a hassle. So wouldn't recommend.

The only good thing was that he got used to drinking from little cup and now at 9 months can feed himself water!

I have oversupply and fast letdown though so different situation

I was prescribed Gaviscon in A&E due to DS (aged 5 weeks at the time) due to persistent vomiting, however the Registrar wasn't overly pushing it and said it's up to me and DH if we want to give it. She described DS as a 'happy vomiter' in that the sickness wasn't upsetting him and he was still gaining weight really well - just below the 75th percentile. She said that Gaviscon can sometimes cause more problems than the one it's trying to solve. She also acknowledged the difficulty of it being given to breast fed babies. I know on the box it says to mix with 15mls of water but when the nurses gave him a trial dose in the hospital they only mixed it in about 4-5 mls. Me and DH decided not to use the Gaviscon and our HV was in agreement.

I also had a happy chucker, tried the gaviscon and it had no impact, whatsover. More faff than it was worth and at 6 months when weaning it all stopped anyway. If he's happy and gaining I wouldn't bother tbh.

We had gaviscon and it did help a bit. We were also exclusively bf at the time. We just mixed the sachet with a smaller amount of water than recommended...5ml as opposed to 15ml. This made it easier to administer via syringe during feeds. It was a bit of a faff, but it did help a bit. Perhaps you could try it for a few feeds and see how you go? It works at each feed as opposed to having to build up in the system. We found that it was good to get someone else to prep it (if you can!) whilst I was feeding, or alternatively put the 5ml water in a syringe, gaviscon in an eggcup and keep it by the feeding station ready for the feed. Then when Lo was hungry, mix the two in the eggcup and away to go.

Good luck! X

Silent reflux here and we skipped straight to ranitidine. I refused gaviscon because of it's difficulty to administer and because of the constipation issue. We have had a tough time with breastfeeding too, no poo for 9 days as a newborn being one of the problems so the last thing I wanted to do was reduce the amount of pooing going on!

Not sure if it is helpful but when my son was a baby he had reflux due to milk protein intollerance. Was only spotted by my sister who is a dietician but is apparently a really common cause of reflux. Might be worth a google?

Mine is down between the 0.4 and 2nd centile line but was only on 9th when born - they told me that if he keeps following this space that will be fine, as long as he doesn't drop below the 0.4 line.