Follow on milk and reflux

[Embmum]

Does anyone have any experience of switching to follow on milk after 6 months with a baby who suffers from reflux? Weighing up whether or not to give the 2nd stage milk a try and wondered whether it might help, or possibly make things worse, for my daughter. Thanks!

Follow on Milk just has added sugar in it so don't know how it could help.

Follow on milk is mostly a con really - it's so supermarkets and retailers can place them on 'offer' because the law prohibits offers on first stage milk.

It certainly wouldn't help reflux - there are special reflux formulas which are heavier to digest in the hope less will come back up. How severe is the reflux? You can try on shelf remedies like gripe water and infacol, or if it's pervasive reflux and your baby is unhappy when bringing milk up/lying down etc, you can get infant gaviscon or things like ranitidine prescribed by a GP.

Have you started weaning yet? A few mins in my antenatal group found that weaning, whilst made their babies a bit windy to start with, helped with reflux.

Thanks for your replies! You're right - I've read that the follow on milks are made purely for marketing purpose however I've also heard that they contain more iron so could be good for providing nutrients for babies who are a bit slow to wean? I was just curious as to whether it might be thicker due to different composition which could possibly have helped her keep things down, but doesn't seem to be the case based on what you guys have said.

We have started offering small amounts of puréed vegetables once a day, and she's slowly increasing the amount she takes, however she's still bringing up food after solid meals even when she hasn't had any milk for a while so I have a feeling we'll have to wait a while longer for her to grow out of it. She's also on the highest dose of ranitidine for her weight which does help her to take more milk without fussing and crying but hasn't really helped with the vomiting. She was originally on Gaviscon but had terrible constipation so I'm worried that would occur with the heavier milk as well.

Just one of those things where I'm at a bit of a loose end of what to do really. Possibly just a matter of waiting it out 👎🏻

Oh that's rough - sorry to hear you're still not having much luck. Have you tried the reflux milk? How much milk per day (oz) does your little girl take?

You can get another medication prescribed for really chronic reflux called omeprazole. Doctors are sometimes reluctant to prescribe it as there are higher costs involved to surgeries but if your little girl is really struggling it may be worth having another chat with your GP and explaining how bad it's getting.

How is she when she's bringing up milk? Is she what I called my son, a happy chucker?

There good evidence to suggest that the added iron is linked to developmental delay.

We've just been advised by HV to stick to stage 1 milk from birth to age 1. She's adamant there is no value at all in follow on milks etc. Just more likely to cause constipation apparently.