HELP! Is this silent reflux?

[seekingsomeadvice]

Hi all, any advice would be really appreciated.

I have a beautiful 19 day old son who I adore, but sadly we've had some issues from start which has made the first few weeks of his life very tricky. He arrived by emergency c section, following this we struggled to breastfeed (though we are persevering and he's fed pretty much only expressed breast milk with the occasional formula top up atm) and on Thursday we had to take him to hospital after developing bronchiolitis. He's now home and was doing well getting his appetite back until about 24 hours ago.

Here's what I've observed since yesterday morning:

• In the past day he has been crying out in pain and squirming during and after feeds. He can barely do a minute on the breast and howls in pain when bottle feeding, but appears to be voraciously hungry. Sadly because of the pain he's in, he is consuming very little.
• Regularly arches his back and body goes rigid like a board when crying.
• Prefers to be held upright.
• He is increasingly hard to settle, struggles to sleep in crib. He cries out in pain every few minutes while asleep.
• He hasn't thrown up but he has become a messier eater.
• Quite grunty and hiccups at least once or twice a day, though this has been the case since he was born.
• Only settles when given a dummy.

From some research I feel like this could all be signs of silent reflux. Has anyone got ant experience? Thinking of phoning GP first thing in morning.

@seekingsomeadvice
I had/am still having very similar issues. My lo & I are currently on night 4 of a hospital stay due to poor weight gain & dropping two centiles.
Lo has been treated over the past month for silent reflux with omeprazole & although we did see a drastic change, we've still had ongoing issues.
It's looking like my lo has cmpa which causes reflux.
We were started on Carobel which she refused to take. We were then given infant gaviscon & she would spit this up immediately.
The omeprazole definitely did the trick but although symptoms minimised, things still weren't great.
How are your LO's nappies? My lo always had green mucusy nappies.
Have you noticed any spots/rashes coming up?
My LO is teething so the dietician explained the rash away as a teething rash but we had started formula top ups & within 48 hours my baby was passing blood in her nappies 😩
We're day 1 into our dairy free diet & the blood has already stopped.

I'm so sorry you're experiencing all this - it's so difficult going through this with your baby. I hope it gets better for you! 🥰

Hi @Lianna93, see you're part of the early morning anxiety club! Thanks for sharing your story. I'd read about cows milk allergies and it sounds like a nightmare. So sorry you're in hospital with your daughter. Honestly by this point I thought we'd be braving our first coffee outing or baby class but instead I feel like we're just trying to figure out the basics still. I never thought having a baby would be as difficult as this.

Nappies are still good and regular atm. Poos are yellow and loose/runny. Though my partner had noticed the dirty nappies were more mucousy in the past day, don't know if that means anything?

No spots or rashes!

Do you mind me asking how long it took for you to get a diagnosis for the reflux? And was that through your gp?

@seekingsomeadvice We're 16 weeks in & honestly the anxiety around trying to take her places is awful because I never know if I'll get a settled baby who'll feed or a baby who's starving & refusing feeds because she's in pain 😩

Took us until she was 12 weeks old for doctors to listen to us about reflux. That was another hospital stint for us but had we not gone in, we'd never have gotten the medication!

Mucus in the nappies can indicate cmpa unfortunately. That's really good they're still yellow though! My little one was only taking in the foremilk during her feeds because she could never manage to stay on long enough to get the hindmilk.

Honestly feel for these wee scones with all their tummy troubles 😞
I honestly feel you though. I knew it'd be hard having a baby but this has been something else. I feel so guilty because I'm wishing it all away & I'm not enjoying my daughter but it's difficult when my whole day is just screaming 😩

Push for omeprazole but if they suggest cmpa don't let them try & treat baby for both because when we went dairy free when she was 8 weeks old we literally saw no change because the reflux was just that bad and now here we are, 8 weeks down the line & having to do it all over again.
Took us 3 nights of being in the hospital for them to change formula & put me on a dairy free diet too because they upped her omeprazole & wanted to see if that changed anything but after a whole day of blood in the nappies, it was very clear there was more than just reflux

We had a similar experience and were prescribed baby gaviscon which worked for us. I combi fed formula and breast so it was easy to give gaviscon in the formula feeds. My little one was never constipated which can be a side effect of baby gaviscon I used to give it every other feed. My little was also tongue tied which was missed by the hospital and she struggled to breast feed until that was sorted.
The early days are miserable but as their tiny tummies get bigger things do improve. I do remember my little one screaming all night and sleeping all day. We were also treated for a milk allergy but looking back I think it was silent reflux.

Congratulations on the birth of your baby boy! No one actually tells you how horrendous the early days can be but it does get better I promise.

Certainly sounds like it could be reflux or CMPA. It’s difficult to tell which - the mucous is a classic CMPA sign though. Call your GP in the morning, be prepared to be pushy!

Hang on in there all, both of mine had CMPA and I know how desperate it feels when you’re struggling with a new baby who won’t settle, it does get better I promise, you’re doing fine.