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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

Reflux or Colic??

2 replies

RachelsFirst · 18/04/2010 00:36

Hi there, I am a desperate first time mum who is getting more and more upset watching my 6 week DD suffer...

The story goes: dd born at term and feeding well on the breast. About 2 weeks ago I noticed that after starting to feed on the breast she'd go red and stiff and start screaming uncontrollably. I'd try and console her or burp her but this would make the situation worse and she would scream more. As she would still be hungry I'd put her back on the breast but she would continue screaming and going red and then squirm and pull really hard on my nipple and kick her legs ferociously.

Once she gets upset it can take hours to calm her down and sometimes it feels as if she is crying continuously...the vacuum cleaner is the only thing that stops her from crying but the second it's switched off she starts again.
She's also had 4 episodes of large volume regurgitation whilst burping.
This has now gone on for 2 weeks and HCV thinks it may be reflux but I think she's also got colic.
It's so distressing seeing her in pain and I'm really not sure how to help her. I've tried infant gaviscon for 2 weeks and switched to omeprazole recently but have yet to see a difference.
With the screaming and crying on the breast I couldn't tell how much she was feeding so I've just started to express BM and she doesn't seem to have any symptoms when she's bottle feeding.

Can anyone explain this?

I would prefer not to give her the bottle continuously but if it's the only thing that stops her symptoms I may have no choice.
Thank you in advance for your advice - I'm not sure where else i can turn to to help the little one...

OP posts:
There · 18/04/2010 02:54

Infacol did the trick for DD1, but DD2 sounded more like yours and Infacol didn't seem to help. You could try different over the counter colic relief medicine, giving each up to a week to see how it works.

It might be that when she's on the breast she's not getting enough milk, or the milk isn't coming down fast enough, and she's finding it easier and quicker from the bottle. My husband worked that one out with DD2. Expressing is a pain I agree, but just the fact that you're expressing will improve the milk flow and might mean you can alternate between bottle and breast. I know you're not meant to do that, but neither of mine had an issue with it.

DD2 was premature and to teach the babies to take the breast, the nursing staff would make the mums express just before feeding so the milk comes out as soon as the baby gets to the breast. You might want to try that.

Only ideas...

RachelsFirst · 18/04/2010 06:16

Thanks there. Tried infacol which def helps bring the wind up. Also started colief drops a few days back. Let's see which helps.

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