Reflux hell.

[GripingPain]

5 week old DD has been displaying silent reflux symptoms since she was a week old. I've finally reached breaking point and I need a hand hold.

Started with gaviscon which made her constipated. Then Similac which she refused. Still undecided on cmpa but she does have eczema on her face.

Ranitidine 0.5ml from 3 weeks which stopped working on Sunday. A day of screaming and bringing up every feed. Monday call GP but no appointments. Ended up calling 111 in the evening and sent to out of hours. Excellent diagnosis of "babies cry" and sent away.

Sleepless night. She's either comfort feeding, throwing up or screaming/arching. She hasn't slept since Saturday. So we presented at the paeds assessment unit yesterday morning on advice of 111. Left with omeprazole after an initial "it's colic, do you wind her?"

Yesterday evening. Another feed came flying out curdled. Inconsolable baby for an hour. Called PAU and sent back in. Given calpol and left to wait. Sent away at 2am.

I'm absolutely at breaking point here. She's cried since 2am and I'm exhausted. DH at work. I feed her, she regurgitates. She cries for more which I don't give her. She fights. Punches, flails, screams. Three hours later I feed her again.

I want someone to take her away. Writing this one handed as she writhes in my arms.

Will this ever end? I can't do it anymore.

I don't have much in the way of practical advice but didn't want to read and run - your post really struck a chord with me. I was in a similar place a few weeks ago (DD is now 9 weeks). I too felt like I wanted someone to take her away on one particularly bad day; ended up sobbing in the street. Can you get your DH to come home from work? Or get some other adult company? Inconsolable crying is so hard to deal with.

We thought DD had silent reflux but gaviscon made no difference. Also tried lactose free milk with little success. I have come round to thinking that her problems are trapped wind, which has reduced now we are using Dr Browns bottles (took about 24 hours to get used to them though). Plus lots and lots of burping her. She is more settled now though still gets the screams if she can't get a burp up. Infacol seems to help a bit too.

Keep your chin up. You never have to live through the last 24 hours again. And it will get better!

Big hugs - I had this with DS3. The ranitidine will help - she has outgrown the dose she is on. You need to go see a paediatrician consultant who specialises in reflux to get the meds set right - and find out if it is actually reflux or something else (CMPA often gets misdiagnosed as reflux). If you or your DH have private medical insurance, get DD added on and get a referral from GP and go down that route to be seen quicker.

What helped me with DS3 was

• never ever lie him down flat - we had a wedge in cot and pram and used the sling a lot
• I bf him - I went totally dairy and soya free which was bloody hard going but the results were worth it - much less discomfort and vomit. And I lost a lot of the baby weight v quickly.
• keeping him upright against me in the sling massively helped the discomfort.

-feeding little and often seemed to make the reflux worse - some people recommended dummies to help. Ds3 wouldn't take a dummy but I know other reflux babies it really helped.

• burp really well after a feed and keep upright for at least 20 mins post feed - baby bean bag or baby bjorn bouncer was fabulous for this.
• know that there will be an end to this hell. Ds3 was off meds by 6 months - weaning on solids and him sitting up more helped massively.

-take it in turns with DH to sleep at night so you get a good 4 hour stint and he does too. Get family to help if possible.

You will get through this

Oh yes, DS3 reacted really badly to omeprazole, ranitidine was what worked for him. Also worth trying cranial osteopath (did with DS, if nothing else it knocked him out for a couple of hours post treatment so I could get some sleep in!)

Thanks, got a wedge for her crib and picking up a carrier from argos this evening. Booked into a cranial osteopath on Friday too. At this point I'm willing to ry anything to help her!

Griping I've just posted basically the same thread! It's absolutely horrendous and I completely get where you're coming from about wanting someone to take her away. It's horrible knowing that your baby is in discomfort too and feeling totally helpless. I hope that this doesn't last long and our babies get better soon.

Sympathies, we have similar.

Have you tried colief? Works better than infacol/gripe water.

Instead of gaviscon have you tried carabel or a thickened formula?

We are still in hospital and are having domperidone - I know some hospitals aren't keen, but I think it's this that has made the difference. He's still sick but not in as much discomfort.

You have all my sympathy, OP, reflux is bloody awful.

DD1 had silent reflux, and these things worked for us:

• sleeping in shifts. I used to got to bed at 7pm after the bedtime feed, DH gave a bottle at 10 and was on duty til midnight. I got at least 5 hours that way and he got 7 before work.

• prop them up. We went way beyond a wedge - DD1 slept practically upright for the first three months. We made a cone of pillows and dropped her down it

• swaddling

• dummy. It will help neutralise the acid

• sling at all times

Video baby if you can - it helps if the paed can see what's happening. I was able to film the milk literally rising in the back of DD1's throat

It will get better, hang in there

I remember even my 4 week old DS started with the signs of reflux and I felt awful for feeding him as I felt I was making things worse. I was in tears to my HV and she said that breast milk is actually really good for reflux as it can help ease the burning pains so as weird as the logic was did encouraged me to put him to the breast even if he seemed in a lot of discomfort.

She also advised a dummy which I reluctantly agreed to but it made a huge difference and DS was so much more settled.

He was also started on Ranitidine and I saw a huge improvement straight away.

You have my sympathy because it's really, really hard to emotionally deal with it

How has today been op?
Really agree about the dummy as a concrete thing that will help in the short term while you're getting there with the meds . I often ended up just refeeding my dd as boob was the only thing that would settle her it was hell but she did grow out of it, and so will yours. Do everything you can to get a break x

I would ask for the Ranitidine to be increased and maybe try neocate milk. I would be concerned about dehydration if she is being sick that much. We bought a concord rocker and let our DS sleep in that, as you can raise the back. I slept next to him in that until the Ranitidine kicked in.

Dummy didn't help for us, in fact he kept losing it and made him more unsettled.

Push for an allergist consultant appointment, rather than a general paediatric consultant review. And do sleep in shifts, take any help from family offered.