Reflux, colic, intolerance or completely normal?

[Phew96]

First, a little background. DD (now 16 months) was entirely ff from 3 days old. She was a very sicky baby and used to projectile vomit after every feed. She was never in any pain or discomfort and still gained weight, albeit quite slowly. HV and doctor agreed there was nothing wrong with her and she eventually outgrew it.

DS was born 7 weeks ago and is bf. He had prolonged jaundice so I had to wake him every 2 hours to feed. He was discharged from the hospital at about 4 weeks old as the jaundice was clearing so I've been able to demand feed ever since.

He feeds often, with no particular pattern, and very quickly, rarely more than 10-15 minutes at a feed but I seem to have a lot of milk and quite a fast let-down so maybe this is long enough. He is winded after every feed and almost always does a burp but he still seems to have trapped wind. He's a very 'farty' baby.

He vomits quite a bit, after every feed and often inbetween. Sometimes it is 'fresh' milk and sometimes it ts very curdled. For the past week or so, he's sounded very congested but it's like it's at the back of his throat iyswim. Sometimes he vomits up some of the mucous. He coughs quite a bit, both during and between feeds.

He's now doing 2 or 3 dirty nappies a day, which are mustard yellow, but have recently turned very runny and slimy looking. When he's trying to poo he's extremely uncomfortable, often crying in quite a pained way, until it just explodes out then he's fine.

He's become very fussy, it seems like the only place he's comfortable is when he's upright on our chest, sucking on our finger (he seems to have a constant need to suck). I've tried him with a dummy and although he will sometimes keep it in for a couple of minutes, it invariably falls out and he starts crying again. During the day, he sleeps either in his bouncy chair or propped up on a v-cushion. At night he goes in his Moses basket (on his left side as it the only way he seems comfortable) which is already tilted but he usually ends up in our bed. He's not really sleeping for more than 2 hours at a time at night and an hour at the most in the day with catnaps of 15-20 minutes. Last week he often went 4 or 5 hours at night.

Despite all this, he's gaining weight well. He was 6lb 3oz at birth and is now 10lb 6oz. He gained 1lb 13oz in the past 2 weeks and his record is 1lb 4oz in a week. I've tried infacol which didn't help and am currently using gripe water but I can't tell of it's helping or not.

Does anyone have any experience of this, or any idea what could be wrong? Is it worth a trip to the doctor or HV or will they be uninterested as he's still gaining weight? Sorry for the essay

Hi Phew

I can't really offer much advice but my DS is 15 weeks old now and had very similar feeding problems around 5-8 weeks. We did try gaviscon (but I found it really difficult to get into him) but it didn't really make much of a difference. I did find that colief helped a bit (rather expensive but you can get it on prescription)

Does the vomiting bother him or is he happy despite it?

Tiktok suggested that we may have had a problem with oversupply and an over active let down and therefore may be getting too much foremilk.

I would have a look at kellymom to see if anything sounds familiar, they have lots of EXCELLENT advice. If you are really worried do chat with you HV/GP although in my experience they don't really help much!!

Suffice to say that DS's is still very windy and now extremely distractable so only really feeds well at night (still feeding around 3hrly at night) and always ends up in our bed after waking at around 1am. I find it much easier to just co-sleep and feed lying down for the second half of the night.

Good luck

Don't think I can really help as in similar situation with my DD. Have posted but no replies.

But i do sympathise with the worry!!

Also, not breast feeding so i'm no help in that department.

But if you want my 2p worth, your DS is thriving. A very important point.

He is also very young and his GI tract will be immature, maybe this is a factor.
You sound like you have a good idea about reflux, intolerance and colic, what do your instincts say?

Colic will settle with time.
Probably someone more experienced with babies than me could tell you whether the amount of vomiting your DS is experiencing is a lot. It sounds quite frequent.
As for the poo issues, runny and slimy does sound like a change from mustard. I can see why you are a little concerned about intolerance.
The congestion could go with vomiting or intolerance

(I really am being no help)
If i were you I would keep an eye on things, make sure nappies are wet etc
maybe a trip to the docs won't hurt.
If you are really worried about intolerance maybe try adjusting your diet to see if it helps.

You sound like you know what you are doing. This may all pass.
But as I keep telling myself everyday, if they are thriving do we really need to worry?

What you're describing is very similar to what I'm experiencing at the moment with my DD who is 5 1/2 weeks. For the past week she's also started latching off and seeming upset after a couple of sucks when the milk starts flowing, almost as if it's shocked her. I've tried a two things over the past few days that I think are helping:

• positioning her more upright rather than horizontal across me when I'm feeding her
• not swapping sides as frequently - instead of changing sides at each feed I've been letting her have 2/3 feeds from each side before swapping, so she's not always getting so much milk gushing at her.

She has been noticeably less sicky and farty over the past 48 hours so fingers crossed this is working. This is my first time bfing tho and I'm no expert, just trying to work out what works for us. I would speak to you HV or GP if you're worried if only to put your mind at rest - I'm planning on doing this if the improvement doesn't continue.

I seem to remember being told that runny and explosive poos (especially if it is greenish) can be a sign that the baby is not getting enough hindmilk? Hindmilk is the fattier, richer milk that comes through towards the end of a feed. The foremilk, which they get at the beginning of a feed, is more watery. If he's doing quick feeds and you're swapping sides every time, he may not be getting to the hindmilk at all.

If that sounds like it might be the case, you could try keeping him on the same side for longer - ie not to automatically switch sides every feed - just as potteringon describes. The thing is to feed until that side is empty.

(oh and also, personally I would speak to a BF counsellor not the HV or GP if you're worried, as HV and GPs have no formal training in supporting BF).

Phew96 - my BF DS 6 weeks is the same, I could have written your post! I saw a ped last week and they said its most likely wind but we have some anti acid to try.....don't think its made any difference as he still gulps/crys/farts etc!Feeding every 2 hours is killing me - I feel your pain!

Thank you ever so much for the replies. Sorry I haven't responded sooner, haven't had a chance to get on MN since posting. I'm on my phone at the moment so can't repond properly.

Things seem to be getting worse. He hasn't done a poo in 3 days now but is constantly passing really smelly wind. I think it could be either an intolerance to milk protein or an oversupply issue although he doesn't have all the symptoms for either if these.

I do tend to put him back on the same side if he's only had a short feed before he wants feeding again but it doesn't seem to have made much difference. I may try avoiding milk products for a week to see if it helps but I don't know if it's ok to do this without medical advice. I suppose if I make sure I get plenty of calcium it can't do much harm can it?

Phew96 - as you asked in your first post, I think it would be worth a trip to either the HV or the GP. I don't know what your area is like, but I have a health visitor questions service number in my red book where they take the details of your problem then get an HV to ring you back, and they might be able to set your mind at rest.

The one time I rang it and the HV told me to go to the GP just in case. Turned out to be absolutely nothing, but the GP said they were always happy to see little ones for a health check even if nothing is wrong as setting the mother's mind at rest is as important as anything else. So might be worth a try?

Hi Phew,

I have similar probs with my DS2 who is now 6 weeks. a couple of weeks ago DS1 had to go to the OOH Drs service and we saw a doc who does work at Gt Ormond Street on infant relfux and lactose intolerance (how lucky?!) He looked over DS2 and said he seemed very healthy but told me to try cutting out dairy from my diet. He didn't suggest at any time any negative health factors for me, but I have been having calcium enriched oat milk instead.

I'm not sure if it is working. He does seem to be less gassy and uncomfortable, so i'm sticking with it for now It hasn't however made him much calmer - in fact his colicky evening crying is possibly getting worse! His nose is still quite congested but I did read that the milk proteins can take 3 weeks to leave the mothers system so we shall just have to wait and see.

It's so hard isn't it?