Reflux/Milk allergy?

[Empusa]

DS is 10 weeks old, from a couple of weeks old he has been throwing up a lot of his feeds. Often projectile. He's also been throwing up clear liquid.

I've read a bit about reflux and have noticed he also coughs and hiccups a lot.

He does seem to be in some pain/discomfort as well, I've started to recognise his "in pain" cry as opposed to his "hungry" cry, and I'm hearing the former more frequently. He also wants to feed almost constantly, often every half hour or so, and I'm wondering if he's actually hungry or just feeding for comfort?

We've tried changing his formula to Cow and Gate Comfort, which seemed to help at first, but he's now back to being sick most of the time.

He is putting on weight though.

The other thing I was wondering is if it's a milk allergy/intolerance, as I was allergic/intolerant to milk when I was a baby. Is it likely to be hereditary?

Would you take him to the doctors? Or would you wait and see if he grows out of it?

Should also add, we've tried sitting him up for 20 mins or so after feeds, which doesn't seem to make too much difference, and he doesn't seem unduly bothered by lying on his back.

Blondieminx can I ask what drugs ur daughters on? My dd has been on ranitidine and domperidone and they've been faffin about with the dosages but it's made no difference

Melliebobs - we have domperidone.

Sorry for slight tangent there OP.

I agree the weight issue is rubbish, ds was 10lb 6 oz at birth, regained his birth weight within two weeks and has been steadily gaining, now 5.66kg, weight was never discussed as a main factor of reflux, just one of the possible problems.....your doctor needs to go and do some research.

Just to say please go back to the GP if you are still concerned.

My DS2 was put onto infant gaviscon at about 8 weeks after suffering many of the symptoms you describe - his reflux was relatively mild (a happy chucker during the day) but I found the fussing during feeding, poor sleep and lots of vomit really difficult. I saw my HV first and she suggested reflux and sent me to GP who agreed to try the gaviscon. DS2 was ebf and gaining weight extremely well (staying on 75th percentile) - please don't believe that a reflux baby can't gain weight.

I found several reflux threads on here in the breast/bottle feeding topic which helped me and may point you to sources of more information to persuade the GP.

The good news for us is that the gaviscon did help a bit and he improved significantly from about 6 months on - feeds became much easier almost immediately but sleep didn't really improve until he could roll over onto his front.

Good luck.

Yes, to the poos you describe. Dd2 didn't have normal poos until after the nutramigen started. Green and runny, sometimes with orange seedy things in, clay consistency at times etc. Once when I was changing her I gently bicycled her legs as she seemed bloated...a horrid projectile squirt of poo came out so I knew her stomach wasn't normal.

Trying the over the counter formula won't hurt her if you're worried. The only difference is it doesn't taste very nice.

YY to the poos. Especially if there is ever any mucus in it and your baby doesn't have a cold at the time.

Sounds exactly like amilk allergy to me.

I would try hydrolysed formula yourself. Contrary to what many people think, you can order it in as a special order in Boots pharmacies (or others I suppose) although it is quite expensive. You will know quite quickly whether it's the milk tho (e.g., probably before one tin's run out). They make it in a big tub, 900g, or a small tub, around 450g. I would go for the bigger one, it's more economical while you're trying it out. If it improves things, then your baby will need a script for it from the GP.

We have sampled many and I can say with some conviction that aptamil pepti 1 is the best tasting. Neocate is absolutely disgusting. Nutramigen not much better.

After the doctors reaction this morning, we decided that it was the final straw for us. We've had a lot of problems with that surgery!

So we've signed up with a new surgery, DS is seeing the doctor on Tuesday. Hopefully they'll be more helpful.

Good for you. There are some really enlightened ones around but you have to be lucky. In my experience very very few docs are even aware that babies can be allergic to cow's milk protein if they have not had any specialist paediatric training. You might have to make it clear that you are querying whether she has a cow's milk protein allergy as they may just hear milk allergy and think lactose intolerance.

I really hope the new surgery will be better. yes, my ds2 had green poo too - for ages! I remember everyone fobbing me off and saying 'well all babies have green poo now and then' but they didn't realise it was ALWAYS green.

Yes I also agree with narmada that some doctors think you are talking about lactose intolerance, which is really extremely rare in babies.

Good luck for your next appointment.