My DD is almost 10 weeks old, and the last 10 weeks have been the biggest rollercoaster, so I will start from the beginning!
She is exclusively breastfed, and was born at 39+2 weighing 6lb 12oz, and during the first two weeks of her being earthside she was a fairly content cluster feeding booby baby (as my DS 3 years old calls her). She would always feed extremely often, 10-30 minute long feeds, settled well, good nappies, steady weight gain etc.
I then noticed when she was about 10 days old she was grunting and straining a lot, really congested, had hiccups often after feeds, a lot of bubbles from the mouth and generally couldn’t be laid flat without being in clear discomfort. The feeds went from 20 a day to about 30+ a day as this was how she would keep content. She also projectile vomited a few times so I suspected reflux/silent reflux and was prescribed gaviscon. I was reluctant to use it due to fear of constipating her, and tried alternative methods such as inclining her bed, spending longer winding her, keeping her upright for 30 minutes after feeding and things got a little better, so I didn’t need to use the gaviscon.
She then got a severe case of RSV at 15 days old (I assume nursery germs from DS) and ended up in hospital but luckily her feeds stayed constant so she wasn’t dehydrated. Since then,
some of her feeds started to become ‘fussy’, maybe just one or two feeds a day she would latch for a minute or two and scream in agony, grab/hit my boob, sometimes root to latch again and scream again straight away. We tried gripe water and infacol, in case it was wind related but this didn’t make any difference at all, in fact made her reflux worse I’d say. It was getting me down, so I tried to introduce a bottle of formula, so it could relieve the pressure off me as I just kept thinking my milk was hurting her, but she just would not happily take a bottle or a dummy at all. She took 1oz of aptamil in one sitting and about 3 hours later when I went to bathe her, I noticed a red spotty rash on her chest, so I did the glass test and it faded and so I decided to use no more Johnson’s bath products and stick with just water for a while at bathtime to see what happened/if there was any change in the rash.
The feeds then worsened and by 3-4 weeks old, it was almost every feed she had (while awake) that was fussy, and she would choke and splutter and they were only lasting a maximum of 5-10 minutes at a time. A lot less than her previous feeds. When she had just woken through the night for her feeds, she would latch well, feed well and go straight back to sleep. I really wanted to try and quit breastfeeding as it was all just getting too emotionally draining and I felt like my milk was hurting her, so I tried every day replacing one feed with a bottle and eventually she happily took 3oz of aptamil during a paced feeding session and I was over the moon… For about 5 minutes… then, after winding her, she came to be extremely unhappy, and for about two hours she was clearly in pain, curling her legs up, going bright red in the face, passing a lot of bottom wind. It broke my heart.
The next morning at 5 weeks old, I took her to a weigh in clinic to make sure she was getting what she was needing as although she was doing plenty of wee’s and poos, her feeding was becoming an issue for my mental sanity, I couldn’t even go in public or meet up for coffee with friends without getting anxious that she would need a feed and I’d have to deal with her in public, and her stools also had started to go a sort of runny rather than loose consistency, and turned a more green/brown tinge with mucous with no seeds, rather than her normal mustard coloured with seeds. Her reflux symptoms came back with a vengeance too, and although her weight gain was slight, the HV was not concerned at all, except she noticed the red spotty rash on her chest and then suspected that actually she could have a milk allergy.
I cut dairy from my diet for 3 weeks until she was about 7 weeks old and noticed little to no changes really, the rash would come and go, the fussy feeds continued, the poos started to get more and more mucous looking/runny and the only time she was peaceful was after eventually falling asleep for the night for her first stretch of sleep, until she became wide awake in the morning at wake up time, and then would be unhappy/in pain again.
At 8 weeks, I had a HV appointment to which again, her weight was slowly going up but when observing a feed my HV suggested that actually the dairy allergy was unlikely to be any issue at all, as there were no changes being seen, and in fact it seemed she may be tongue tied. I was referred to a specialist who said she scored the lowest in terms of physical appearance and it looks to be tongue tied but because she could stick her tongue out and was constantly fussy feeding and I couldn’t guarantee a latch after the procedure, they wouldn’t cut it.
By this point a reintroduced dairy and kept trying bottles of formula again which continuously made her unhappy (I can’t seem to express well so pumping isn’t really an option) and I eventually caved in and gave her the gaviscon. This improved things slightly for about 3 days. She was feeding well again, something I never thought I’d experience again, although, only 9 times a day roughly compared to her normal clusters of about 20-30 feeds, but was told this was normal as my supply had been established and therefore she was getting into more of a routine. She began pooing once every two days instead of two or three a day, but again, I was told this was normal also, due to her gaviscon intake.
Since then, at 10 weeks old, the gaviscon doesn’t seem to be doing anything for her anymore, and all previous problems such as fussy day time feeding no matter what position or environment we are in, mucous green poos every two days, arching back and seeming in pain after feeds, inability to be put down flat or in a bouncer/car seat without being hysterical, bubbles at the mouth and A LOT of excess saliva, as well as now chomping her hands and my fingers to bits, have all returned and I’m just at a bit of a loss. She had only gained 2oz in a 2 week period at this point during her GP check up and injection appointment, but the doctor didn’t seem worried as he said any weight gain is a gain and 100% reassured me that the rash/mucous poos had nothing to do with a milk allergy as she would be severely unwell by now. She is now weighing just under 10lbs at 10 weeks old, so slightly lower than where her original percentile line should be.
Do I need to ask for a different reflux medication?
Should I be pushing for further allergy testing or tongue tie investigations?
Should I try and change formulas/bottles/quit breastfeeding?
A few people have commented saying she looks as though she is teething… My DS was born with a tooth right beneath the gums so is this actually possible and could it be causing these issues? Surely starting to teeth at 4 weeks old is not common or likely?
Am I just overthinking? What on earth could be causing these fussy day time/awake feeds and her clear discomfort?! 🙁
Any advice is very much welcome! 🙏🏻
TRIGGER WARNING - I will attach some pictures of her original rash (which has actually been gone for about a week now but will probably come back at some point again as I haven’t given any formula for a while) and her changes in poos as well. The smaller quantity poos are the most recent ones.