7 week old suspected reflux

[Nikki93]

My 7 week old has brought up his milk since he was around 2/3 weeks. He’s constantly throwing himself around his cot & when I try to wind him he screams and throws himself everywhere & refuses meaning he’s sick all night and then begs for more food. He recently got put on omeprazole for reflux which I don’t feel is doing much especially not at night but just before he started the omezaprole he started pooing every 2days & it’s like liquid sat on his nappy. He passes really smelly gas & really strains himself to the point he screams and is sick. I’m not 100% convince this is just reflux, has anyone experience similar? It’s heartbreaking watching him :( We’ve also just changed from Aptamil powder to the liquid as health visitors say it can help but he seems to be bringing that up too.

My baby had reflux so I was reading your title and thought here we go another FTM freaking out at reflux……. But OMG that sounds horrible for you all!! My jaw dropped!! You must be absolutely exhausted!!

Don’t give up keep going to the drs till you find something that works or hopefully your baby grows out of the reflux fast. You are doing an amazing job mumma

That does sound like it could be CMPA. I have it and definitely can thrash around a bit on pain at night if I'm having a bad reaction.

Do any of his symptoms sound like these?

Hi op, I was in the same situation as you.
When my son was around 3 weeks old I notices his belly had swollen slightly and had discolouration to his stomach. I immediately took him hospital. Doctors and nurses were trying to figure out what was wrong with as rheu were pumping his little body woth 3 different antibiotics. I was breast feeding him and he had be nbm for 24 hours.

I had to self diagnose him myself with reflux. I kept giving him warm water every now and then and made sure I did belly rub and cycle motion with his legs in order for him to pass wind and go toilet. I gave him gavascon(baby one) and his antibiotics they gave him for home.

I would recommend you take him down to a&e to have an overall check and explain to them what is happening. Reason i say this is because you mention he keeps bringing up there milk and you don't want baby to be dehydrated.

Please keep us updated x

Hi everyone, thanks for all the advice! I spoke with the GP and we’ve been given nutrimigen to try. Fingers crossed it helps him!

Let us know how you both get on

So far he’s only been on the new formula for 24 hours as he refused it the first night so we kept him on Aptamil.

He’s had very loose toilet 3 or 4 times since changing, not as gassy as he was before & feel like the foul smell has gone but very very unsettled in between & after feeds. The formula is very watery & whilst he was wanting more on Aptamil there was a point where he’d stop and was satisfied for a while, this formula he’s not at all and screaming for pretty much the 3 hours in between feeds if not asleep. He’s still waking himself up inbetween sleeps when his dummy falls out or when he’s straining (not as bad as before) & being sick.

it’s so hard to know if your doing the right thing or not :(

Can you add caribe to thicken it up? Have you tried talking to Allergy UK?

Hello, my little one is currently 7 weeks old and feeding on cow and gate. He has terrible trouble burping (we use infacol) and never seems to settle and have a peaceful sleep. Always grunting and straining and never really sleeps longer than 3-4 hours due to this. Was thinking of swapping feed to hipp organic. Any suggestions or recommendations?

Hi OP. My baby is five months old and has CMPA and reflux which is currently medicated.

Re the CMPA if this is what is affecting your baby, my baby is breastfed so I'm not entirely sure re formula but I believe (from my many many hours reading online forums) that nutrimigen still contains cow's milk protein so many CMPA babies don't settle on it and need to be given a milk with a different protein base. We've actually been referred to a paediatric consultant for other reasons but she mentioned neocate as an option when discussing CMPA. From what I've read, it's pretty expensive so nutrimigen tends to be prescribed first. We had a similar vomiting experience and going CMP free we saw a difference virtually overnight.

Re reflux and omeprazole, my baby was prescribed omeprazole at approximately 5/6 weeks (can't quite remember) and it never worked for him. I think he was under dosed from the beginning (causing a constant acid battle) but also that it didn't agree with him generally as it caused digestive/gastro issues. Unfortunately I think you need to give it 2-4 weeks to see if it works. We so desperately wanted it to work so we persevered and had the dose reviewed as he grew but he was never comfortable. Once we hit the maximum dose with limited improvement (about 17 weeks) we made the decision to take him off it and he was like a new baby - he still had reflux but was so comfortable and settled by comparison to before. Reflux did cause pain though so we were referred to a paediatrician who prescribed an alternative to omeprazole and things improved within days, a change we never saw with omeprazole. I also think things like gripe water and infacol interacted with omeprazole so didn't work for us either.

I think the point of telling you this is to say give these things a chance but follow your gut if you think they're not quite working for you. I read so much about how reflux and CMPA are normal and baby will grow out of them in time. They're common but certainly not "normal" and should be treated if they're causing pain.

Can you speak to doctor about adjusting the omeprazole dose? It took a few adjustments for us to get the right dose, also carobel to thicken food. Keep him upright for 30 mins after a feed, also try keeping him slightly raised at night using something like a reflux pillow, good luck I had 2 with this, it does end xx

*Carobel

Hi all! We were on nutrimigen for 2 weeks with no difference to LO other than the stomach rumbling stopped & it made him poo upto 7 times a day & ended up with nappy rash!! He ended up so much more distressed and was never content after a bottle. After arguing with 2 doctors a 3rd doctor has finally listened today & put us onto Aptamil pepti 1 as she said it’s better to try this before going to an amino acid based formula. She went through a symptom checker list which I thought was quite helpful for anyone who may be going through something similar.