Infant Gaviscom and constipation...any connection?

[nobodysfool]

My ds is 8 weeks and was prescribed infant gaviscon on Monday for reflux.
He is bottle fed Cow and Gate so it is mixed with it for every feed.
We also had his first injections done Monday afternoon.
Since Tues morning he has gone from a chilled out relaxed and contented baby who sleeps and feeds well to a very distressed baby who can't settle.
Sorry if TMI but his poos are usually quite runny and there is a lot of it but now he is only doing tiny amounts and it is much firmer.
I have had him checked out by our doctor in case it was a reaction to the injection but all is well there.
Can Gaviscon cause constipation???
Any advice would be great.

Yes Gaviscon can cause constipation, we had the same with our DS who was bottle fed at the time when he took it too. We had to stop giving him the gaviscon at every feed and that seemed to do the trick but then his reflux was only mild.

gaviscon caused my ds's poo to change from normal baby poo to something resembling mashed potato. Caused him no end of problems, but he also had mild reflux and we didn't bother using it much again unless he was really bad.

Thanks bluebump i thought i was going loopy connecting the two.How often did you use it and was it still effective?

Headfairy thats exactly how his poo looks.....pie and mash anybody??

We were given 3 boxes of it and we only used 1 and even then that was by giving him 3 bottles with it in and 2 without. We've had to give it once in a while as it sometimes builds up but he really got better straight away. Hope it works for your DS too!

Thanks for the advice.xx

It's grim, no wonder their poor little guts can't cope. They've only had to digest milk until now and then suddenly there's this weird medicine mummy gives me which turns the milk in my tummy in to mashed potato and it huuuuuurts going through my bowels

The hv said that gently making the shape of an upside down U on their lower abdomen, going from left to right, using the tips of your fingers can help move it through their guts, as the muscles in their bowels aren't yet co-ordinated or strong enough to move anything solid, hence constipation and pain.

Thanks HF is so sad to watch him hurting like this.I have stopped the gaviscon.

It's miserable because the reflux isn't fun either. I used to hold ds upright, his head resting on my shoulder for about half an hour after each feed. It's a faff at night when you just want to get back to bed, but it did help.

YES YES YES - and I wish I had known this before it was prescribed to my DS - after 3 days of being on it he was up every hour in the night in so much pain. When he eventually managed to poo it was like play doh . I was VERY with the pharmaceutical company as the label said "side effects are very rare" but lots of people have suffered from the constipation (and when telling the dr and HV about the constipation they made no link either . My poor boy who was usually so happy was so uncomfortable. (I even wrote to the pharmaceutical company to complain but they didn't even have the decency to respond )

I would say it depends how bad the reflux is - my DS is always sick but it doesn't bother him too much so I decided the Gaviscon wasn't worth it. Instead I keep him upright whilst feeding and sit him still on my lap for 10-20 mins after each feed - it helps but he's still sick a lot.

FWIW it took about a week for the Gaviscon to pass through his system and start pooing properly again - the first post-Gaviscon poo was MEGA .