reflux or colic???

[fishie]

I'm worried about 13 week old bf baby - he often screams in pain after and occasionally during feeding, cries/feeds all evening and is a very poor daytime sleeper. Daytime feeds every 2/3 hours on both sides. Hv says colic, but I am starting to wonder whether its reflux, as its in the family. He doesn't usually vomit, but is hiccupy and has started to dribble and chew fists a lot. He is struggling to gain weight, is on bottom centile, but was at 50th at birth and still is for height and head circ. I know everything I've described is normal, but all in one baby?

I've already had problems with milk supply, now improved but I can see that things still aren't right, altho a very happy baby when not in pain. Gp knows nothing about bf. Advice please!

sounds like colic i think you would know for sure if it was reflux
try homeopathic chamomila (nelsons teetha) to soothe and take the pain away its very effective and perfectly safe for newborns
also try very weak fennel tea or the new fennel baby drink by hipp organic baby food

dont worry everything is normal exactly like my ds (3) at that age as soon as he started gaining weight at 2 weeks we never looked back !

watch what you are eating also

a good tip is for you to take the chamomila/teetha too and drink the fennel tea i found this worked brilliantly
good luck hth

fennel tea will also help your milk supply

and you could also find a homeopathic remedy to boost milk supply try this site here

sorry should have been clearer, i think he might have silent reflux, where they don't vomit, but acid comes up and goes back down again. anybody know about this?

have you seen a breastfeeding counsellor to make sure he is latching on and feeding effectively?

also, i would really, really recommend seeing an osteopath. We took ds when he was little and it worked wonders. he used to get hiccups ALL the time, but she massaged his diaphragm which was really tight... and they stopped! She also found that the muscles down one side of his head were really tight and sorted that too.
It may be that your baby is in some kind of discomfort which could be fixed by an osteopath

try infacol first, and if no change go and see doc with your concerns. there are no side effects to infant gaviscon and docs are usually happy to prescribe if they/you think it will help. horrible to have baby in pain - my dd had reflux and she would never lie on her back - does that happen for you?

have tried infacol and gripewater and dairy free diet - this has been going on since he was about 4 weeks old. have seen bfc several times, latch not absolutely perfect, but certainly good enough and he is putting on some weight. now that i'm more confident about milk supply and bf generally, think that there really is something else wrong, but there are no clear symptoms apart from this awful screaming. and a bit of mucus in his poo.

ds born by cs, i thought osteopathy only good for vaginal birth? i was really interested to see it mentioned on the bf/colic thread. any recommendations in east london?

i think osteopathy can be good for anyone tbh!
stuart korth is renowned for his work with children, but i think he has a 6 week waiting list (he's in london)... he cured my debilitating migraines! fantastic!

it's definitely worth looking into

been to baby clinic /gp. ds screamed the place down, hv said i should give a bottle - that would settle him and increase my supply too

got fastest ever gp apt (they could barely hear me over the yells) and now have infant gaviscon. hv attitude to bf absolutely typical - stubborness and mn the only reason i'm not bottlefeeding.

hi fishie
good for you! i have no time for hvs at all. i was made to feel incredibly guilty for not bfing, even though each time I sat dd up to give her the infant gaviscon, she threw up her feed! the main thing is that your child is getting food, it is staying down, and he's not in pain. b*gger what the hv thinks.
you've gone with your instincts and it's working so it must be right.
am dead chuffed for you!

fishie....I think you should follow up the suggestions for C/O and also think about whether feeding your baby on one side only for several feeds on the trot might help (expressing to comfort on the unused side). Try this for two-three days and report back

tiktok, do that to increase the fat content? thing is, i've had supply problems, been on domperidone and usually do both breasts at each feeding, so am a bit scared of starving the poor blighter. will have a go tomorrow, prob best to avoid doing during the evening feedathon.

Hi fishie,

You've already had some excellent replies here so mine is superfluous really.
Firstly, I have a theory (and it really is no more than that) that many babies have episodes of silent reflux in that while they may not actually be sick there is slight internal regurgitation and accompanying discomfort and pain. I think your theory about reflux with your son are correct - especially given the family history.
Secondly - someone has to be on the bottom centile and if he's following that line then that's absolutely fine. Centile charts are not designed for breastfed babies but based upon a mixture of breast and bottle fed babies - it's normal for them to adjust which centile they are on - admittidly your son has made a bigger adjustment than many but this is likely to be perfectly normal given that he is otherwise a happy baby.
Thirdly, your HV is talking out of her backside if she thinks giving a bottle will increase your milk supply. I'm a HV too and get fed up with hearing HVs giving such crap advice regarding breastfeeding.

Hope it goes a bit better for you now.