8 w/o not drinking much milk / reflux issues

[cookiesaurus]

Hi all,

I'm really worried about my baby and the GP isn't really helping much at all.

She has classic reflux symptoms and has reached the stage where she simply won't feed. She's having approx 300-350 mls of milk each day at the moment and the GP checked her out and says she's looking good but to keep an eye on her weight.

Surely, if she's having half the milk she should (based on her weight she should be having about 750 mls/day), she will lose weight !

We were prescribed gaviscon and whilst it helped a little, she's still not drinking milk unless I get it into her via a dream feed.

So far today she has had 25mls since waking at 7am and it's how 2.40pm.

I tried her with anti-reflux formula last night and she fed really well on it but now I think she's in pain from having that milk hence now won't drink

Sorry for the essay but I'm so worried and no one else seems interested at all! She cannot sustain herself on this little milk!

Also, I gave up pumping a fortnight ago and feel like I should have continued. I now feel really guilty and could literally cry over how this has all turned out but it's too late to go back.

Any suggestions are welcome!

Hi, didn't want to read and run. Have you contacted your health visitor? They maybe able to help in regards to the GP. Have they been able to weigh her to make sure her weight isn't affected? Is she having wet/dirty nappies? I suggest if you get no were with the health visitor and are still worried to take her to A&E or a walk in centre to get her properly checked. GPs are normally really fussy about prescribing anything with regards to reflux as the medication they use is not greatly tested on little ones. When my daughter was diagnosed 3 years ago with it at 8 weeks old it was via the hospital and I had to get the prescription from there as my GP wouldn't do it. X

Thanks for coming back to me and taking the time to reply.

We've seen a dr again and have a prescription for omeprazole and another appt with the GP on Friday as she's unhappy with DD weight loss. If she loses more weight we will be referred for admission to our local hospital on Friday.

Hopefully, it won't come to a hospital admission but obviously if it's needed it's for the best.

The GP today was brilliant!

So glad GP has prescribed omeprazole. We had very similar problems with our baby, now 16 weeks. Combination of omeprazole with reflux milk seems to have eased her discomfort. I wouldn't say it's solved all of her issues but certainly stopped the projectile vomiting. Fingers crossed omeprazole helps. Glad you had a good experience with GP today and best of luck going forward

Hi @cookiesaurus

Has the situation improved for you LO?

We are having a similar issue, our LG has dropped her feeds massively from around 800 to 900 ml to just 400-500 ml. GP has said to up Gaviscon to three time a day to see if there's improvement. She also spoke to a paediatrician and they said the amount she is currently taking only keeps her hydrated so we have to keep monitoring..

This is so stressful and I can bear feeding her at all because I know she stops at 60ml everytime and just refuses to drink anymore no matter how long it's been she last drank milk and how hungry she is. I can hear her tummy grumble. And it just upsets me too much that I have to get DH doing the feeding.

@cookiesaurus how are you and your LO doing now? I'm in a very similar situation...hope all goes well for you. Keep us updated if you can!

Hi all,

Thanks for your kind words and sorry to hear you're also facing similar issues.

My DD has now started omeprazole and is also on gaviscon. We saw a little improvement a few days after starting the omeprazole where she drank almost 500mls of milk on 2 separate days but since then her intake has dropped back down again. On a bad day, she's drinking around 280mls and on a good day she is drinking 450/500 mls.

Given her weight, even her good days are still quite low as far as total milk intake goes. She's dropped from the 75th %ile to around 45-50th %ile and we have a referral to the local hospital's paediatric department but the appointment hasn't yet come through.

I'm just concerned as I don't know how long we're meant to continue with such low milk intake. I just feel like with a new born initially the MW/GP/HV are all like - they must feed every 3 hours etc but now when my DD is going as long as 8 or 9 hours without a feed they're just not really bothered.

I'm not sure what else I can do other than wait for the paediatric appointment. I'm open to suggestions if anyone has any!
I'm hoping that perhaps the omeprazole might really kick in a bit more this week 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

I hope your LO's have seen an improvement too and sorry I can't be of much help re advice!

If I learn anything, I'll pop back and update this thread. Good luck x

Hi @cookiesaurus

I'm sorry to hear that the situation has gone back to square one and hopefully the referral would come through very soon!

Sorry if I haven't read properly or if anyone else has suggested, it's pretty late/early at the moment but Have you tried different formula and bottles rather than anti-reflux milk? My DD didn't like anti-reflux at all so I'm just thinking is there anything else you can try. Can always use the ready made bottles rather than buying a whole new tin just to try things out, or even a different temperature. I understand reflux may have made everything worse but it might be worth try of something else as we are doing so with DD ATM. We are also trying to have me out of the room completely whilst DH feeds DD which seems to help a bit. Maybe my face is making it not too appetising for DD 🤣🤣 Trying Hipp Organic as well as she doesn't seem to fancy Mamia now.. clearly, this is all experimental for us in the current stages but just thought I'd throw some ideas in!

I also sort of stopped pumping very early on due to various reasons but recently started again. It might be worth looking into stuff like fenugreek, mother's milk tea and also lactation cookies too. But ultimately, I Think what helped a lot is keeping hydrated and power pumping. It's not like I have enough to feed DD all the time but it's improved to the point where I can provide around half the days supply.

I hope things improve for you guys soon, it's so, so tough

I know this will sound out of left field but would you consider seeing a private lacatation consultant. While they are primarily breastfeeding specialists they are really good at looking for feeding issues to. It maybe there are some physical reasons your baby is struggling to feed and an IBCLC might be able to help.

It sounds like you are working so very hard to help your baby. She is very lucky to have you fighting in her corner.

Really hope things turn around for you soon.

Sorry for the lack of an update.

@Mochiface I've tried so many different things - bottles, formula including goats formula milk , teats, methods of making it etc and nothing seems to work.

I've tried her on the mamaroo (just for comfort) which she didn't like - she just won't lie on her back. She's more than happy on her front - chest to chest - though. Although saying that, she's becoming increasingly upset - my guess would be that she's starving hungry.

She's settled into a routine - she will take a good feed (120/150) mls during the night whilst she's dream feeding (3/4am ish) but then will only take 10 - 50 mls during the day until about 3/4pm. Yesterday she had 10mls of milk from waking up until 3pm. I try to feed her and she won't take it. She's been on omeprazole for about 3 weeks now and the dosage was increased a little yesterday.

We saw the GP yesterday who said that because she's maintaining her weight trajectory she's not overly concerned. 🤦🏻‍♀️ she's lost about 40 %iles since being born which I just don't feel is right for a baby who should be putting weight on.

@ICJump I hadn't considered a lactation consultant so thanks for the suggestion. We have an appt tomorrow with the paediatrician at the local hospital and if we don't make progress, I think I'll contact one. We were due to have this appt last week but they cancelled it at the last minute.

Thank you all for your advice/kind wishes.

Fingers crossed she makes some improvements soon 🤞🏻🤞🏻

Really hope that you get to see the Paed tomorrow, all if this must be very distressing.

I've got Cow's Milk Protein Allergy and it does sound very much like CMPA. Has the GP/HV suggested that this might be an issue? There is some info on it here

Thanks @JiltedJohnsJulie

So the paediatrician appointment was cancelled this morning due to them being too busy which was really annoying. As it stands they have yet to reschedule. The advice I received from the receptionist was to head to A & E which is frustrating because that is not really what we need.

I have spoken to the GP and she has prescribed the cow's milk allergy formula so that should be ready to collect either tomorrow or Friday. Thanks for the suggestion.

Ironically, she has massively upped her intake today and has had 3 bottles of 100mls so is already on a daily intake of 475mls. Perhaps the omeprazole has really kicked in?! I'm so relieved that she's actually taken milk!!

Thanks you all so much for you kind words and care towards my DD! I'm not cancelling the paediatrician appointment when we get it as there is obvious something wrong but she seems to be fairing a bit better for now.