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Infant feeding

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

Restless/painful feeding sometimes - reflux?

7 replies

Clarabubs · 10/05/2010 12:35

Hi there - I'm a first-time poster so I'm hoping you can help!!

My wee girl is 10 weeks old and was a great little feeder until the last week or so (FF). She doesn't take huge amounts but enough to be steadily putting on weight and keeping active and sleeping well at night (sleeping through the night from about 6/7 weeks).

She was up to 6oz bottles (about 5 a day) and finishing most of them but about 2 weeks ago she started falling asleep at the bottle then crying when I woke her up (by lying her down - this wakes her up during the day) to give her the rest of the bottle. I'll then have to fight to give her the rest - mostly just giving up after a couple of ounces. For the last couple of days, mostly mid-day feeds, she's been painfully crying after an ounce or so and not settling to feed. Some feeds we battle through, taking about an hour at times. Others I have to give up as she wriggles and cries until I put her down - either into her bouncy chair or simply on her mat where she happily kicks away.

I read that these might be symptoms of acid reflux (arching back, crying during feeds etc) but she doesn't spit/throw up after feeds and doesn't seem to be bothered when I lie her down to play on her back after a failed feed (in fact, this seems to appease her). She'll sometimes spit up a bit of clear liquid with a wee bit of curdled milk about an hour or two later, but just a mouthful and it doesn't bother her.

Sorry for the long-winded post! First-time mum so no idea if this is normal. Any thoughts before I run up to the docs like a neurotic mum?!

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LaTristesse · 10/05/2010 12:50

Sounds like silent reflux to me - I'm in a similar place with my DS. From what I've learnt so far it does need to be treated even though it doesn't seem to bother the baby as it can cause trouble if left untreated (what kind of trouble I'm not sure).
At the moment we've been prescribed Infant Gaviscon which he hates, and which makes him constipated, resulting in painful crying for hours. It does however seem to help the reflux.
Sorry not to have been more help, I'm sure someone else can give you some better advice, but I offer empathy at least!

Clarabubs · 10/05/2010 19:16

Thanks - gave up and took her to docs this afternoon and he prescribed her Infant Gaviscon. He didn't seem to be sure what was bothering her but I mentioned reflux and he agreed that might be the problem (great, eh?!) So we'll try her on the Gaviscon. First dose got her through her last bottle but she's a bit uncomfortable now. Hoping she's just tired and grumpy rather than in pain.

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Igglybuff · 10/05/2010 19:21

My DS has silent reflux - he started to refuse feeds altogether. It can also cause choking incidents - not wanting to scare you, but DS was flat on his back and the acid must have come back up and he couldn't breathe for what seemed like forever. We picked him up and he eventually took a breath.

Infant gaviscon was useless - best thing for silent reflux in our case was ranitidine. It neutralises the acid and made things much better for DS.

The sooner you treat it the better, as it could result in them associating feeding with pain.

Clarabubs · 10/05/2010 19:31

DD has choked a few times as well - mostly during feeds so I put it down to gulping to fast. It's frightening though. She's also dribbling A LOT, sounds quite congested and has the hiccups several times a day since birth (before, actually - my pregnant bump was constantly jigging away with her hiccup fits). I've discovered these are all symptoms of reflux. Funnily enough, the pain/discomfort has only appeared in the last few days while all the other symptoms have been there for a few weeks. IF the Gaviscon doesn't work, I'll mention ranitidine to the doc or hv.

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Igglybuff · 10/05/2010 19:50

We didn't realise it was silent reflux until 12 weeks - there had been similar symptoms to your DD - it was the choking which got me thinking. Also he'd wriggle about from 2/4am til he woke up and we thought it was wind. Turned out he was in discomfort and it stopped as soon as the ranitidine kicked in. We found the gaviscon just made him constipated and didn't stop the writhing at night.
I think reflux gets worse then peaks at 4-6 months which might be why you've not seen any discomfort until now.

LaTristesse · 11/05/2010 09:41

You could both be describing exactly the thing with my DS - even down to the ante natal hiccups! I'll mention the Ranitidine to my GP today - me and the boy are both hating the Gaviscon - Igglybuff, are there any side effects with Ranitidine that you've noticed?

Igglybuff · 11/05/2010 11:55

Hi LaTristesse, no side effects we've noticed. DS didn't like the taste at first but is fine with it now.

They did offer domperidone too which is "anti-vomiting" but it just gave DS a dodgy tummy so we stopped that and stuck to the ranti.

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