Bf - reflux- apnoea & gaviscon.

[WorzselMummage]

Ds (27 weeker) has always had terrible reflux,the scbu nurses call him a horrid refluxer as it was sooo bad at the beginning and every tim ehe'd feed he'd have bradycardias and desats) He was on gaviscon, Domperidone and Renitidine which kept it fairly well controlled. We dropped the gaviscon on saturday as he was due to be discharged on Monday, we stayed in the flat all weekend and bf was going well then during out last bf before we were free, after getting the carseat and all out of drugs ready to go ds had a apnoea and when i look down he'd gone blue we ended up back in intensive care. They are pretty sure the apnoea was caused by reflux so want me to restart the gavison.. Its just such a faff i dont know if i have the energy. he clearly has to have it but the few times i have adminintered it the 15mls i've had to mix it with and they syringe it in to his mouth seem to have taken the edge off his hunger and he wont latch. His latch isnt great anyway and we have to use nipple shields and i am so worried about my supply i'm pumping too and i have to try and pump the feeds i miss.

I really want to Breastfeed but feel as if everything is against me.

The apnoea scared me so much i doubt i'll ever be able to relax during a feed again and since it happened ds doesnt seem to have been as satisfied by feeds so i dont know if the shock of it has affected my supply.

I am contemplating formula, it just seems that it would be easier and less emotionally fraught. Df is as much use as tits on a bike when it comes to emotional support but very good at night feeds . I dont know if i can shouldar all the responsibility of watching to see if ds stops breathing.

Sounds v stressful WM - poor you! If you want to bf then do stick with it. Even if it's a lot of faff now it will be a lot less faff than bottles in the long run! Also, bm is easier on little tummies for the reflux. Re the apnoea - I am a worrier and I invested in some Babysense monitors for DS1. They have two panels - so you can use one in the moses basket and then both when they move to the cot to cover the bigger area. I would def recommend them. I know some people worry about false alarms etc but we never had any and TBH I would much rather be woken up by a false alarm than not woken up and have something awful happen!

Hi Worzel, have followed your other threads and your ds sounds a lot like mine, although he was a 34 weeker. Terrible silent reflux, constant desats, occasional truely horrible turning blue episodes, aspiration pneumonia etc etc. In SCBU for 7 weeks before we managed to get him off oxygen. He came home on ranitidine, domperidone and gaviscon. Was terrible for desatting during feeds and was actually hooked up to the desat monitor until the day before we came home. He would also stop breathing during a feed - don't know if your ds does this? I trained myself with the desat monitor to unlatch him when his oxygen levels started dropping, wait for him to take a few breaths and then latch back on again. May have also helped with the reflux as he wasn't gulping so much, although if your ds finds it hard to latch this might not be an option.

Re Gaviscon: 15mls sounds like an awful lot for a little tummy. We made up each sachet in 5ml cool boiled water (as instructed by SCBU); you can give at the end of a feed instead of the beginning, although near impossible if the baby has fallen asleep, so I used to give half at the beginning and the rest halfway through. For ease, we made up 24hrs worth in one go (6 sachets in 30ml water) and kept it in the fridge (also instructed by SCBU). Then had a cool bag with gaviscon and several syringes (you can buy more from pharmacy) upstairs for night feeds. Also fed ds in rugby ball position, when he was very little it was easy to keep him pretty upright like this and I think that helped too.

It must have been awful to have been so close to taking him home and end up back in ICU and I really sympathise with the apnoea panic thing because I felt just the same! Especially as dh was never there to witness any of the turning blue. You have done so well to get this far still bfing. We were lucky, it was well worth battling on and I ended up feeding ds for 2 yrs, but only you can know what decision is best for you. If it makes you feel any better ds grew out of his reflux quite quickly and was off all meds by 4 months corrected. So the faffing, whilst seeming all consuming at the time, didn't last all that long!

Sorry I have rambled on for ages . Do hope your ds is doing better now and you are able to take him home soon.