Hi everyone,
FTM struggling with my almost 4 week old. All was well for a couple of weeks - feeding well and gaining weight but for the last few weeks we’ve had a very upset and irritable baby.
Lactation consultant observed us for 90 minutes and thought he might have silent reflux. No other evidence of CMPA/tongue tie.
GP put us straight on omeprazole as doesn’t recommend gaviscon for Bf babes / can cause v severe constipation. I’m now second guessing if he should be on this so young and if it’s “normal” baby behaviour.
Symtoms:
- frequent feeding between 17-20 times a day (often short feeds)
- sometimes gets distressed during/after feeds but think this may have been oversupply related after a growth spurt
- hiccups, bubbles at the mouth and some spit up
- crying periods where he seems in a lot of pain that come out of nowhere - include waves of pain which he dips in and out of. Some screaming and will be very very hard to soothe. The lactation consultant thought it was odd that she observed one of these straight after a feed when he was full and otherwise content and then he just switches
- These periods aren’t always consistent but seem to be 3-4 times a day for eg 9am, lunchtime, early evening and before bed. They may go on 30 mins or up to 1.5 hours on an off. Waves in and out of crying.
- Initially I thought he was struggling overnight because he got very hoarse and mucus like but he does go down for between 45 mins and an hour and tends to go back to sleep easily ish after a feed. He does have periods of active sleep where he’s grunting/red and seems bad on his back but equally he will go down for a bit on his back
I’m really confused because I’ve heard reflux should be worse at night and if anything I would say we are worse in the day really (unless you count the short sleep cycles which could just be normal)?
Please help I hate seeing him in pain and don’t want to be missing something but equally don’t want him on medication if this is normal. A few people have said normally with a newborn you should be able to “find out what is wrong” and I do find he’s hard to console when he’s having his bouts even with feeds etc.
TYSM!
