Help! Silent reflux causing baby to wake every few minutes.

[Khalilsmama]

I have a 7 week old that wakes squirming and grunting every few minutes once asleep. Doesn’t matter if its day or night and i’m having to constantly rock or feed back to sleep. My partner takes over when home from work but we are shattered! And we have a toddler to tend to.

We suspected silent reflux as he has all the typical symptoms and hates cot, car seat, pushchair. Only sits in baby bjorn bouncer sometimes. I can’t take the lack of sleep and the constant resettling anymore. He is so overtired bless him not really sure what else to do.

anyone experienced similar and what helped? Does he grow out of this? we’ve been prescribed omeprazole so been on that over a week. No difference yet.

Me cutting out dairy (breastfeeding) and ProVen probiotics for babiea helped my refluxy one. None of the meds doctors gave helped. Its so tough, you have my sympathies.

My little one had silent reflux, he cried for about an hour every evening (for no apparent reason) and was unsettled all night - grunting and waking himself up. We were prescribed omeprazol too (breastfeeding so much easier to give than Gaviscon). It did work for us but it can take 10 days for it to fully be effective. I remember being shattered, sitting upright with him for 20 mins after every night feed, so you have my sympathies. I think we increased the omeprazol dose once but then didn't increase it again as it was working well. When I started weaning I stopped it but he may have already grown out of it by then. We found the dispersable one much easier to administer, I put it in expressed milk. We were initially prescribed the liquid one in a syringe but he would cry and spit that out.

@MistyFrequencies I use the biogia probiotics but not sure if it helps or not. Will check out ProVen. Thank you x

@Carshoppingnightmare it’s horrible seeing them in so much discomfort. Especially when he’s tired and trying to sleep. He’s currently on omeprazole, 5mg of the dissolvable tablets and weighs 6.5kg. Think it is on the lower end so might consider increasing but don’t know how long to wait to do that. He’s been on 5 just over a week.

when did you decide to increase? And how long until you noticed a difference?

feel so sad to be wishing away this newborn stage but it’s miserable. 🙁 x

You are on the starting dose of omperazole. Give it another week if no improvement at all go back to the GP, some improvement but not great give it an extra week before going back.

It can take 1-2 weeks to see the benefit as the body initially produces more acid to count the medication telling it to produce less.

My daughter only gets a benefit from omperazole at the maximum doses, she also needed a thickener too. I'm addition to the reflux she has multiple food allergies which made the reflux worse and we only got a handle on her reflux when we were managing the allergies and treating the reflux.

We had to cosleep as she only stayed asleep if she was being held.

Our DD had silent reflux due to a tongue tie.

My DD had reflux. GP prescribed Gaviscon and it was effective almost from the first dose. If I remember correctly, the Gaviscon forms a layer over the top of the stomach so helps with the bringing milk back up whilst reducing acid.

I breastfed and mixed the Gaviscon in a small amount of expressed breast milk so you need to be organised re having milk ready for mixing.

Raising the crib at the end can help. Also have a look at the tiger in the tree hold.

When she was weaned the reflux improved.

The sleep deprivation is terrible, hope things improve for you and your little one

The layer at the top of the stomach is true for adult gaviscon but the infant gaviscon works by thickening the feed so it's harder to reflux.

You can give the gaviscon in cooled boiled water by syringe so it's not always necessary to give with expressed breastmilk

Ah thank you. It’s almost twenty years since my DD was a baby so memory is a little sketchy!

@Khalilsmama noticed a difference in about a week.. can't remember when we increased the dose, I think at the next prescription (so after 4 weeks) then we didn't increase again after that as it was working/under control and I didn't want to give more than he needed.

our DD had horrendous reflux. it was a lot of hit and miss with medication etc etc. eventually investing in a BabyCocoon matress by Red Castle and Optamil Comfort with Dr Brown bottles saved our sanity.