Silent reflux/reflux?

[SharpOliveCat]

My baby girl is 12 weeks old and I'm not sure if she has either reflux or silent reflux. She does bring up some milk with winding, sometimes a little and sometimes a lot and is very windy. I burp her during and after feeds and about an hour after a bottle she wakes with wind. Sometimes she has been a little bit sick when asleep. She's worse during the day then at night and doesn't really nap, it's got to the point she wants 5oz every 2 hours and naps for 10 mins after a bottle. Is this normal

She could be comfort feeding due to reflux which causes short relief from the reflux but ultimately makes the reflux worse. I would start by looking at thickening the milk and holding them upright after a feed for at least 30 minutes. It might be worth speaking to your HV or GP for advice. If the thickened milk doesn't help they might need omperazole

Which milk is she on @SharpOliveCat? Is it Kendamil by any chance?

Try her on cow and gate carobel to thicken her formula if you’re bottle feeding, we were given gaviscon thickener by doctors but caused terrible constipation. Make sure you swirl the bottle first when mixing or you’ll clog the teat if you go straight in to shaking it. Also you’ll need much bigger teats for the thick formula.
pop a wedge under the top part of the cot mattress or crib to lift their upper body and help gravity keep the milk or stomach acid down.
try and keep them upright (usually being held) for a while after each feed.
I actually slept bolstered up with pillows all around me so I couldn’t roll over with both of mine on my chest (not at the same time, I mean I did it for both of them 18 months apart) for the first few months as they just couldn’t lie down due to silent reflux. This will divide opinion. I can confirm I don’t smoke or drink and had not one incident where I rolled over or baby slid off.
the longer you leave the reflux untreated the longer it will take to undo I think as the acid is very painful for them to have coming back up.
once is got it under control they were like different babies, so much more settled xx
Edited spelling

She's on cow and gate first baby milk

I have queries reflux with gp but they want to put her on lactose free milk aptimal 1 pro I think it is as her dad has a lot of allergies but she doesn't show a lot of signs of cmpa and I tried the milk for a bit but made her more gassy and spit up milk more

If she's not in pain with it and weight gain is ok reflux can be a variation of normal. Responsive bottle feeding can help- info here https://www.unicef.org.uk/babyfriendly/baby-friendly-resources/bottle-feeding-resources/infant-formula-responsive-bottle-feeding-guide-for-parents/

I wouldn't recommend starting eg thickeners without speaking to a HCP.

Also my partner isn't keen about trying dentinox colic drops or infacol for babies wind but is happy with gripe water which she takes from a clean tear but I'm thinking this sometimes makes the milk spit up worse and also it's not as good at getting rid of wind as it was for my other children although the last time I used it for them was 15 years ago

Teat I meant

Just saw your update- can you ask to speak to infant feeding team/ dietitian? They will likely have more training on this than GP.

My son is lactose intolerant, he was on soya formula and thickener. Speak to the health visitor bur you might have to push for some support and advice as I found not everyone was knowledgable about it, especially silent reflux and was met with a lot of ‘it’s colic, they will grow out of it’

Thanks guys,also I'm tempted to try infacol with my baby for her wind,she's using gripe water at the moment. I did try dentinox colic drops for a few days last week but she started screaming in the evening with wind,I was only giving it to her about 4 times a day with every other bottle and it's like it caused a big build up off wind in the evening,once I stopped giving it to her the wind stopped. Iv been giving her gripe water 3 times a day and it sort of helps but not a great deal. I'm wondering if 12 weeks is too late to be starting something like infacol as iv read that the need for it stops at 3 months as the baby can sort the wind out on their own,is this right? Also I use nuk bottles and iv only just noticed that the measurements are U.S fluid ozs not UK, does this make a lot of difference?

The screaming stopped after stopping dentinox not the wind,that is still a big problem for her

Is oh definitely wind? I know mine used to squirm etc but alot of the time it was acid reflux rather than wind which I found out once I’d got a handle on the reflux.
i really feel for you, it’s awful seeing your baby uncomfortable and upset, it’s also exhausting for you guys

Are you sure it was a Lactose Free formula that thru wanted to try her on and not a Hydrolysed Formula?

Being reactive to Lactose is extremely rare in a baby, although obviously it can happen, whereas around one on ten babies have CMPA so it's much more likely to be that. Just seems odd that the GP would assume a problem with the Lactose and not the Protein.

You can read the symptoms of CMPA here.

Has LO been checked for Tongue Tie too?

I'm pretty sure it's wind,she's a happy baby and will often wake from a nap early really smiley, proper smiles not wind smiles 😁 but when I pick her up she always wants winding. It may have been hydrolyzed formula the gp wanted to try her on bit the milk was awful. Really watery, a funny colour and after a couple of bottles baby refused to take it. She also wanted feeding much more often and were she was easy to calm down for a bottle of normal milk she was frantic for a feed on the different milk, like she was starving and then would guzzle it before getting full of wind again

Also tongue tie was queried by midwife when she was born but the Dr checked at the hospital and said she didn't have it and it was checked at 8 week review and again gp said she hasn't got it

Ok so there are some options. If she doesn't like the hydrolysed formula you can try adding alcohol free vanilla essence and maybe a thickener, like Carobel. I'd only bother tooth if she has the signs of CMPA. You can always tak it through with Allergy UK's Helpline if you're unsure.

And sadly having HCP's check for TT doesn't mean that your LO has't got it. If your DD has the signs of TT then you'll need a Tongue Tie Practitioner to properly assess