Infant Gaviscon and breastfed babies

[CantSleepWontSleep]

Any bf'ers got tips on how to get gaviscon into a 5 week old?

Have been using one of these, and have ordered one of these, but are there any other methods I can try, or tips on getting them to swallow it rather than spit it out?

Also, it's a total pita to have to mix up the gaviscon in the middle of the night whilst ds lies screaming, so I was wondering if anyone has tried mixing up a load in advance to get them through the night, and then dispensing as needed?

Sorry no help but bumping for you

Hi there - I found it easiest to give from a spoon

So each morning I mixed 6 feeds worth of powder with EBM in a bottle. Then at each feed I would give 1 feeds worth of the mixture by spoon. This worked best for me

I just used a syringe and DS quickly got the hang of it. It was a bit of trial and error working out where to place the tip in his mouth but I generally found placing it at the side resulted in less being spat out or running out. Also, I found that laying him flat on my lap, with his head towards my knees, was a better position than cradling him in my arms as it gave me more control.

Re the middle of the night: tbh I gave up on that one and just gave him the gaviscon at the daytime feeds. You may not want to take that approach, of course. I decided to skip the night feeds partly because of the but also because, for us, the gaviscon was a bit of an add-on (belt and braces approach) as during the day my LO was also taking Motilium and Ranitidine for his silent reflux. HTH

Hmmm, appear to have missed out the word "hassle"!

Thanks ladies.

Sariska - how are the other drugs administered - orally too? Just wondering whether something else would be just as difficult or not. If you know of any potential side effects of the other drugs then I'd be interested in hearing those too.

Unfortunately if I miss out the night feeds at the moment then he seems to want to feed every hour or so, which I presume is just a comfort thing. Hoping that might not be the case once he's been using it for a while, as I presume it builds up in the system a bit.

Hi Cantsleep - I used to mix the gaviscon in with a little EBM and give him that in a bottle before putting him to the breast - (otherwise it all just came straight back at me.) Never caused him any confusion.

Also, during the night (i.e. those feeds after midnight) I did not give him the gaviscon as those did not appear to be the times that the feed caused him problems (and tended to be shorter feeds)so he just went straight to breast then.

Hi CSWS, don't know if you've worked me out IRL yet, but we used to make it up and syringe it in before the evening feeds rather than after, as the end of the feed was signalled by the vomiting so it wouldn't have helped then anyway. He hated it so much and he would scream so widely, so we'd just squirt a bit in each time. We used to make up a double lot at the basic strength because so much came back out. We didn't use for middle of the night feeds as it was the 6-10pm slot that was hideous for us. Thankfully he grew out of it pretty quickly.

Making up in advance - not sure about this as unless you can give post feed I suspect it'll gel too much to be effective in binding the stomach contents together. It works primarily by creating a heavy layer on top of the tummy contents to prevent it refluxing back up the oesophagus. Giving pre feed isn't as effective but definitely better than nothing.

Hope ds gets on with it, it def helped us.

CSWS- just remembered... when dd wouldn't take the syringe anymore... I just mixed up the gaviscon in a little glass, and used a spoon to put it in... though she would always take it tbh. She was like an animal in pain- she 'knew' when you're trying to help her... however, I think she was a little older than DS is.

Can'tsleep - I do exactly the same as Elffriend - mix it to a paste with a little EBM (not water as per pack instructions) then add more EBM to about 1 fl oz and give it from a bottle. I do this towards the end of a feed, and then put DS back to breast afterwards. Also don't seem to need it during the night, his worst time was early evening (until the stuff started working). Good luck!

Also meant to say I make it up in bottles in advance and put them in fridge - they do 'set' but once warmed up they're fine.

Agree with Sariska, get free syringe when you get your gaviscon and squirt as far as you can into cheek (they find it much harder to spit out if in cheek).
Our DS actually liked Gaviscon after a few months! I think he started to think it was part of his feed But that did make it easier to administer.
I found it a pain to start with, but soon it just became part and parcel of our daily routine and didn't even think about it, just did it after a while.

I've been using a nurofen syringe today, and we've managed to get 5ml in ok, though he clearly hates it, and it's obviously less than a full dose, but I mixed up 6 sachets this morning and have just been sucking it up from the pot each time, so it hasn't been too tedious from that point of view.

The tip re mixing with EBM is prob a good one, but I can't face expressing as well as feeding 2 children directly!

sparkle - I've sussed who you are now .

Will be interesting to see if ds sleeps any better tonight for being drugged up. He's certainly been calmer the last couple of days. Am aiming for him not to wake for a tiny feed every 80 minutes.

Sorry have been away so only just back on MN. Yes, we administered the other drugs by syringe too. DS really got to like the Motilium and would open his mouth in happy anticipation of it! Side effects: none that I noticed but the Ranitidine suppresses acid production in the stomach so I was uneasy about him being on it for too long. He came off both it and the Motilium at about 6 months (our decision but paediatrician was happy with it). We still give the gaviscon occasionally but it makes him constipated so use it as little as possible.

Thanks Sariska. We seem to be doing quite well just giving gaviscon 3 or 4 times a day now, so I suspect that his symptoms were made worse by the dairy still clearing from our systems.

Unfortunately he has a nasty cold at the moment, so is waking approx hourly for feeds, but hopefully once that has cleared we will see better effects from his improved health!

I tried giving it every which way after lots of helpful advice from MNers and not so helpful advice from doc (He suggested i mix it with EMB for every feed, when is there time to do that much pumping?!)

I found it didn't really dissolve in EBM so I finally settled on mixing it with just under 1oz of water in a bottle at the beginning of a feed. After about a month DD got fed up with that and started gagging on it. She now has it mixed with just under 1oz of formula in a bottle at the start of her feeds.

Have heart - she's gone down from 6 double sachets per day (at 4 weeks) to just 2 (now 10 weeks). You won't be doing it forever.

disolve

also, dd takes the boo like tommy tippee bottles but just gags on other normal teats.

best of luck

I wouldn't mix it up in advance - it says on the packet you should mix it up at the time you give it. I forgot this instruction and for a few days mixed DD's Gaviscon in advance, and it took me a while to work out why her reflux had got worse again.

As soon as I resorted to mixing it up at the time of the feed again, she improved.

I mixed it with 5mls EBM and squirted it into her cheek with a syringe at the end of a feed