Reflux/intolerance

[Abouttimemum]

Hiii! Sorry if posting in the wrong place. Just after a hand hold I guess :(
First time mum, with a little boy 12 weeks (6 weeks corrected) suffered hideously in the first few weeks at home after previously being tube fed (was in neonatal for five weeks) - we couldn’t put him down, screaming, not feeding or sleeping etc. We were told repeatedly it was an immature digestive system and would rectify. It didn’t. I knew something was up so took him to a&e, they diagnosed silent reflux and told us to try a comfort milk.

To cut a long story and several gp visits short we eventually got things much better using ranitidine and hipp organic anti reflux milk. He’s sleeping in his crib, much more settled, feeding well.

Anyway when the health visitor was here yesterday she said we still have a very unsettled baby on our hands. She has been brilliant with us so far. He is generally grumpy when he’s awake and grunts and strains all the time and does cry out in pain as if permanently trying to pass wind. We just don’t really notice any more and because it’s significantly better than a few weeks ago we count our blessings!! I just spend a lot of time out with his pram etc which settles him.

Anyway She said he might be Lacoste intolerant temporarily which may actually be causing his reflux. She suggested trying sma lactose free to see if it helps settle him and if it doesn’t we can eliminate it as an issue. So we switched and now he squeals through his feeds - he’s had 5 since we changed - and barely takes any. We’re using the right size teat etc. He slept horribly last night. We’re going to persevere until the hv comes back on Monday but I’m worried we’ve ruined things for him!!

Also I was researching and actually it seems lactose issues are really rare and it’s far more likely that he has a cmp allergy although he doesn’t really have any symptoms of that either other than the fussiness and cramping / stomach pains etc. I feel between a rock and a hard place trying to sort his top end out and his bottom end - it seems that one or the other is causing him bother and I can’t sort them both out at the same time!!

Anyone had similar? Any ideas?

I’m exhausted with trying to sort this out for the poor little thing and feel like I’ve really not been able to enjoy him, and that the whole of these first months of his life have been wasted!!! It makes me so sad

Hi OP, that sounds tough. You might get more answers in the Infant Feeding section - let us know if you would like us to move this for you.

Hi yes please if you don’t mind! Thanks!

Hi, i couldn't find this thread in the infsnt feeding section and didn't want to ignore your post.

Your baby sounds JUST like mine was. Those symptons smack of allergy. My boy has been doing the grunting groaning straining thing since he was 8 days old - basically acting severely constipated although his stools were very soft (even diahorrea like sometimes). He also had copious amounts of mucus in his stools - have you seen that? He has also always been really unsettled and irritable. I gave up dairy and soy first, then egg, then wheat. Although we did have improvements the mucus and cleanliness remained so I eliminated more and more out of my diet until I gave in to the paediatrician a month ago and gave up breastfeeding and started him on prescription formula. The cha be was sudden and drastic- within 24 hours he was a much happier baby and the mucus was gone. He was blissful for 2 weeks and it was amazing. Then he cut two teeth, got an awful cold and got a double ear infection which he still has so he's been cranky again lately... so I can't quite tell how he is now in terms of formula. It did seem like something I/he was eating was bothering him. A gasto expert suggested fruit - that he might have an issue with fructose. Anyway, allergies are worth looking into. We had a significant improvement using ranitadine from 8 weeks (he stopped screaming all the time!!) But he was still cranky and whingy which, although a huge improvement, isn't what you want long term - take it from me! Hopefully you'll get to the bottom of it quicker than me... he's 8 months old now!!

My son also had these symptoms and after 4 weeks on ranitidine without it making any difference it was suggested to me that he was CMPA and it turned out he was.

Hi I had similar problems with DD.
She was breast fed for first 3 weeks, then my milk dried up

At 7 weeks she started showing signs of reflux, I switched her into an anti reflux milk and she was fine then started refusing her feeds, arching her back but the screaming. I was broken.

I tried gripe water, infacol, then I tried dentinox and within a day it stopped. There was no messing with the syringe in her mouth, I put it straight into the bottle with her milk before I shook it up.

I hope you’re getting on better and have found something that works, if not, do give the dentinox a go