What could this be?

[IslandGirlie]

Hi,

My sons 5.5m old, the last 2 days hes been bringing milk back up, projectile style. He's breastfed and sometimes its while he's latched on, all of what he took comes back and it so instant milk feels warm. He's also got runny tummy. Hes become the most whingy / clingy / crying baby too.
We started weaning a week ago and he didnt react to it. I fed him half banana today and he didnt bring that back, just the milk.

What could this be? Reflux (never had it before, not like this anyway) / Bug or stomach upset?

He seems OK, not him cheery self but not too off colour either. Just clingy and crying.

Should I take him to the docs?

Any thoughts?

Thank you.

Speak to your health visitor or doc if this is out of character for him, he may have a tummy bug.
Try drinking herbal teas such as peppermint or fennel as these will pass through your milk.
Have you been having an unusually high amount of dairy products?

Vomiting and loose nappies most likely a bug, keeping him well hydrated is the main thing so keep offering lots of feeds to keep his fluid intake up, make sure he is still wetting plenty of nappies.

You can offer rehydration solutions eg dioralyte if you want but breastmilk is very easy to digest and better for him. NHSDirect can give you some advice from a nurse if you want to discuss it with someone.

Thanks for the replies.

Bingy, Ill try the herbal teas, I have them at home so will start on it. hmmm I have been having lots of ice cream hmm I feel a bit stupid for it now. I'll try diary free.

minnie, I'll carry on feeding him, he does bring back all of it or what seem like all of it He seem hydrated, I keep checking for dehydration.

Not sure how long I can leave it before going to the doc. I could always call the HV / NHS Direct like you say.

Should I give him purees or give him a break from it? Worried about him loosing weight.

bingy - I disagree that extra dairy will cause vomitting and illness in an otherwise healthy breastfed baby. I know of no evidence this would be the case. Also, how much peppermint or fennel would the OP have to drink to create a therapeutic dose sufficient to deal with a baby's vomitting and diarrhoea?

OP - sorry, I think your best option would be to speak to your HV or a doctor, which I do agree with bingy about

bingy, thanks for the reply.

Well, DS may have a milk tolerance as we tried formula once and he was really ill, may have been a bug but we are not sure, never tried formula again. I have been overdosing on ice cream past week so I'll cut out anyways and see if that helps.

I will talk to the HV tomorrow and see what she says.
Wondering if I have been overfeeding DS, he was having puree once a day only.
What confuses me is that I did give him half mashed up banana today and he kept that down .
I'll just have to feeding (Ive been feeding him on demand) whenever he wants it and get soak in sick

I forgot to ask if I can give him cool boiled water or bottle water.

Thanks

cool boiled water would be a good idea, but not too much that it would prevent taking milk.

tiktok - It was just a question for elimination purposes - I'm not suggesting dairy can affect all babies, nor am I suggesting Island's DS may be intolerant, but I know from experience that if a baby is intolerant it can have an effect. My DS was lactose intolerant as an infant. My Health Visitor said for months that there was nothing wrong but when he eventually saw a consultant was found to be exactly that! He didn't tolerate normal formula and if I took too much dairy he didn't tolerate breastmilk either so I had to go lactose free to reduce his vomitting. It's unusual but there is supporting evidence out there. Thankfully he grew out of it.

In my experience breastfeeding advisors advocate the use of herbal teas for numerous complaints - not for a cure but maybe a soother to some extent. Good for the mother if nothing else!

Island - its still early days and he may have a tummy complaint that will rectify as quickly as it may have arrived. Good luck with the h/v.

bingy - I don't think your baby can have been LI. Primary LI (from birth) is really, really rare, and babies who are LI cannot have breastmilk at all, because lactose is the milk sugar present in all milks, inc human milk Going lactose free makes no difference to the baby. Primary LI babies show up as seriously ill from birth.

What is possible - and fits the description you give - is that he was cows milk protein sensitive/intolerant and these babies do react to CMP in the mother's diet - to check for this the mother would have to eliminate all dairy from her diet. It would not show up as vomitting after the mother has had ice cream.

Yes, I have heard people recommend herbal teas to mothers to deal with complaints in the baby. They have no real evidence that this works, and any therapeutic effect on the baby has to vanishingly unlikely - the active ingredients of the tea just wouldn't get in, in sufficient amounts. I agree - if the mum like the tea, then of course she can have it and she might find some benefit

Clarification: it's possible for a baby to develop temporary, secondary, LI, sometimes after a tummy bug.

tiktok, thanks for the replies.

Well I spoke to the HV who thinks it could be a bug. We did see few children over the w/e and one of the had D&V that night.
Its strange that its lasting this long.
He manages to keep a couple of feeds down but the rest comes out and also still having diarrhea too. He is not himself either

HV said we could give him tap water, better that mineral water.

I am keeping off dairy and see if it helps, also with the tea as well. I'll do what I can.

The worse case is pyloric stenosis

Thanks.

island - hope little one is starting to pick up now. The following comments are probably of no use to you so don't read anything into it for your situation, sorry for hijacking : tiktok - I understand that LI can occur to varying degrees due to the amount of lactase that the child is able to produce. DS showed symptoms from birth but was badly advised by a Health Visitor and so battled on until it became intolerable (scuse the pun). He didn't require hospitalisation but was struggling to gain weight, with copious vomitting and diarrhoea. I actually gave up breast feeding shortly after diagnosis as the situation was difficult and impacted on the whole family, so my lactose free diet + breastfeeding was only shortlived. It was however advised by the paediatrician (which is the only reason I mentioned it), along with the use of lactase drops and eventually prescribed formula when I stopped breastfeeding. This was a few years ago now and I do remember him saying that little was known about LI at the time! Perhaps he knew too little! Thankfully DS gradually grew out of it around 10/12 months and we were able to introduce dairy foods. He does still occasionally have symptoms with certain foods a few years on, but nothing problematic as he has a balanced diet and is out of nappies.
A friends child had true milk protein allergy which was an entirely different situation to ours.
Sorry if my mentioning dairy has caused any confusion - guess I'm a little sensitive to the situatin due to bad memories . I know people who swear by herbal teas though, particularly for colic. Babies change so readily though that it is probably difficult to pin-point the reason - perhaps the reason is just that the mum's have relaxed with all that camomile !