Reflux tips....please

[Hazeyjane]

ds is 6 weeks old, has just been diagnosed with reflux. He doesn't vomit loads, but is very gripey and unsettled. He grunts, and whoops and screeches and hiccups all the time.

We have just moved onto formula, and he is on infant Gaviscon.

I just wondered if anyone had any tips to help, especially with getting him settled at night.

thankyou

hi i'm struggling too with our ds2, 19 weeks, silent reflux.

gaviscon in his formula seemed to be a magic cure when diagnosed at 8 weeks, but its gradually got worse again. he now won't sleep in the day unless held by me (hence my poor 1 handed typing), or in the sling. he can stay awake in the car and buggy for an hour before giving in to sleep.

just (yesterday) been prescribed ranitidine and enfamil ar (sp) formula. he seems a bit better but still not right. i'm encouraged to see that it can take several days for this to work, it gives me hope!

interestingly he sleeps well at night in his natures nest hammock(sold in the uk by amby). not that he will sleep in it in the day....

for weeks and weeks my gp told me it was colic. i should of been more persistent.

not sure if it helps but a paed has told us it won't be milk allergy as this would make him vomit lots.

peasizedbladder - I think there is a difference between a milk allergy and intolerance. I had quite a bad milk intolerance which caused vomiting and diarrhoea, but one of my friends DS has a milk intol and he never vomits. He also had silent reflux, but I think it is better now.

Loads of good advice on here anyway, but one thing we tried was acidophilus/lactobactilus powder (from the adult capsules) in milk. DS responded very quickly when gaviscon had only limited effect.

(In this case, I think that bf baby + me being on antibiotics could have meant that he didn't get the bacteria he needed to process milk naturally.) There is a NZ reflux website which mentions it (although I don't know whether I can find it now). DS was dairy intolerant until about 1 year.

That is very interesting Chaotica ( BTW, are you the same Chaotica from the 2 under 2 thread? If your are 'hello'! My eldest is starting primary soon and we now have 3 under 5!!). I have had 3 courses of antibiotics in the 6 weeks since having ds, and he was on a course when he was born, because he they weren't sure that his lung problems may have been caused by an infection. I wonder if it has any bearing?

I wondered about the vomiting thing, he really doesn't vomit, if he is laid down after a feed it kind of trickles out of the side of his mouth. It does come out of his nose though, sometimes with quite some force, it isn't a great deal, but it does seem to cause him pain when it happens.

Pioneer, that list is very helpful, I am working my way through it! I have great hopes for that swing!

Bunnies, that is a very kind offer (of the wedge), we live in Wiltshire, otherwise I'd pop round and pick it up, but at the moment we have a wedge cushion under his mattress. Is it a special sort of cushion at more of an angle?

peasizebladder - This is the first time today i have been able to put ds down, and the first time I've typed using capitals!

I have an appointment to see the dr on Monday morning, and have left a message with the consultants secretary at the hospital.

Thankyou again for all your help and advice, I don't know where I'd be without the wonderful world of Mumsnet.

by the way, i am looking at the rainforest fisher price cradle swing, does anyone have any other recommendations?

Hi Hazeyjane - yes it is me. And congratulations! Good to see you're still around (I have avoided the urge to join you with 3 under 5 and we just got a kitten instead.)

It does sound a bit suspicious with all the antibiotics. To add insult to injury, DS got full-blown thrush when he was a baby and had to be treated for that too. (All of which gave him constipation - the indignity of it!)

I hope you get some sleep and you find something to help your DS.

helenwombat - my ds was exactly the same - he would drink and drink and drink - from both the breast and the bottle. I didn't want to stop bf, but he was literally feeding constantly and as a result my breasts were not getting a chance to fill up again.

He would drain a bottle in a matter of minutes.

HV and family/friends said he was just a hungry baby, but I read somewhere that reflux babies are very "sucky", and also I think the milk soothes the acid.

However it is a vicious cycle, as the overfeeding causes more reflux and so on.

When I moved to bottles, I could give him x amount, know he'd had a good feed, and then sort out the crying some other way - see list above!

It was hard at first, but after about a week I saw a massive improvement in his temperament and for the first time I saw a happy baby who wanted to play, cuddle and sleep, rather than a red faced screamer .

Reflux babies are well known for overfeeding. Unless she's gone more than 3 hours I limit DD to 15m feeding, used to be 20 but we're more efficient now. She will feed endlessly, but if I let her she will become too sickly, windy etc.

Also for any BF reflux mummys, try to block feed. Only use 1 side for 2 hrs then switch. That way there shouldn't be a fore/hindmilk inbalance. Too much foremilk can make reflux worse. It may take a while for your supply to adjust to this style, but it's worth it, means baby gets lots of the good stuff. Even though my DD is throwing up loads, she puts on about 10-11oz per fortnight consistently.

Aw, fiveisanawfullybignumber, I wish I'd known all this when my ds was little. There's not a lot of support out there for people with reflux babies.

this is the wedge from sootheyourbaby

happy to send it to you if it helps, hasn't been used :)

you can mail me on triona_ok AT hotmail DOT com

thanks bunnies, that is very, very kind, i'll e-mail you.

couldn't get to see the dr on Fri, after an awful night Thurs. Paed at hospital needs a referral, i keep on thinking,'oh maybe things are improving', and then i realise that having to carry him around for hours after a feed probably isn't normal!

thankyou to everyone on this thread, its so helpful, having somewhere to come to vent, and get advice.

DD slept on a severe slope for about the first 6 months. We put a lot of books under one end of her bed, and she was sleep on about a 30 degree angle and that seemed to help a lot. To stop her slipping, we got a tip from the hospital, put a rolled up towel in a pillowcase to make a U shape and she slept resting her bottom at the bottom of the U (hope this makes sense).

dr has referred us back to hospital urgently, and although she thought reflux was a problem, she was concerned about ds's chest and wheeze, so wanted that checked out as well.

The letter sent by the paed was full of mistakes, which is rather worrying.

in the meantime dh and i are taking it in shifts to sit up with ds, who now has a cold and is grunting even worse than usual, poor little scrap!