8 week old reflux and will not sleep.

[angel05]

Hi i hope im posting in the right subject. im exhausted. basically my dd is 8 weeks old. have had terrible trouble with her since she was three weeks old. back and fourth to the doctors and she has reflux ao was given gaviscon when she was six weeks. She still cried constantly and has juat came off the gaviscon today and started ranitidine today. for about 3 days now she has had alot of trouble going to.sleep. She is absolutely exhausted will go to sleep for ten minutes maximum and then wakes up either crying or just staring into space. today has been the worst. she has had about an hour broken.sleep since 6.30 this morning. I try not to let her get over tired. i try rocking her, put her in moses basket, take her for a walk in the buggy with her light up sea horse. push her back.and fourth in the buggy at home. im exhausted and i dont know what is wrong with her. she just cant seem to sleep. alot of the time she just stares. i had a traumatic birth and dont know if that may have affected he. x

Ranitidine worked really well for us. It took two or three days and then the reflux just stopped. It doesn't work in 100% of cases, but fingers crossed it will do the trick for you. Hang on in there - sounds like really tough times. Really recommend talking to doc or health visitor if you find it hard to cope. Parent and baby groups also great for getting some moral support, in my experience.

Thank u for you reply. i now have some hope that the medicine will work. hopefully. i am such a worrier i must admit. Hopefully this medicine will kick in over the next couple of days xxx

My DD had awful reflux, it was soul destroying. I took her to a cranial osteopath & that really really helped. I also went to baby massage & pretty much any sort of baby group I could find! Good luck xx

Thank u. im a nursery nurse and my manager has said im allowed to take her into the nursery when.i need too so i might do that now and.again. it is absolutely heartbreaking and the worse thing is my partner just dont understand and thinks we shud leave her to cry it.out herself which i would never.do which we argued over. but thank u. i was beginning to think there was more to it so feel abit.more at ease now xxxx

Ranitidine worked wonders for us too. Didn't get rid of the reflux but reduced the amount that ds brought up and made him sooo much happier because he didn't have the constant heatburny feeling. Before he got prescribed ranitidine at 5 months he would only sleep upright on our chests and sometimes we managed to move him into his cot once he was asleep. Ranitidine works by cutting down on the acid produced I think, and I seem to remember we saw an improvement pretty quickly. Will she sleep on your chest? Do you have anyone that can sit and cuddle her while you have a nap? It is exhausting dealing with a refluxy baby. There used to be a reflux support thread on here as well I think. Maybe in breastfeeding and bottle feeding I think? Can't link as I'm on my phone. How are you feeding? And how is her weight?

Please try to explain to your partner that she is crying because she is in pain and is trying to tell you this. Unfortunately the hardest thing is not being able to make it stop but at least by having someone there this will comfort her.

I really feel for you OP as I've been there too. My DD (now nearly 4) had terrible reflux and never slept. We thought the gaviscon did no good on its own so we saw a paed and went onto renitadine and domperidone, stopping the gaviscon per docs advice. Within a few days we had a horrendous day where she cried the whole day, feeding wouldn't even soothe her. We reintroduced the gaviscon and she improved a lot.

Do you have a sling? We often found this the only way to get her to sleep. Get one where the baby sits upright like a baby bjorn. She is a little too young for it but you can support her too.

DD (and DS) wouldn't settle in a Moses; they both slept much better in a cot. Do you have the head of the Moses raised, this helps with the reflux; eg a phone book underneath the head end.

We found white noise really helped too; we struggled to find a CD that worked but used to put the hairdryer on the floor on a cold setting near her then gradually move it away,worked brilliantly!

Have you tried a cranial osteopath? They can help sometimes esp after traumatic birth, eg if you had forceps.

Are you co-sleeping? If not, then do so! Seriously, it's the only way to get some sleep! My DH slept on the couch downstairs for the first few months after DS was born as he didn't like being in the same bed.

Big un-mumsnetty hugs for you. It is truly a shitty time and it will improve xx

Thank you everyone. im formula feeding as couldnt breast feed at all. couldnt even hold her for the first two days.of her life as i was so unwell and had to have blood transfusions after birth. and also was on alot of medication as they wouldnt induce me until nearly a week of waters slowly breaking. her weight is on target so far. her nises basket is raised on the head end. but shes so exhausted she has slept for three hours now thank goodness. i should have slept too but had so much to do. i feel very anxious leaving her with oh after his attitude about just leaving her to cry but i have sat down with him and explained exactlt what reflux is. hopefully he will learn to have.more patience with her xxxxxxx

My 9 week old son had reflux and we also found gaviscon to be rubbish and gave him awful constipation. In the end we switched him to the aptamil anti reflux formula which has worked wonders. When he was bad with it we co slept and if really baonce slept on one of our chest's which really helped. Now the reflux is sorted we have weaned him off this and he is back to his crib. The sling also worked wonders. Dh and I were just commenting tonight how suddenly this week ds has got a lot easier, hopefully it will happen soon for you too.

If you have an iPhone you can get free 'whitenoise' apps. (sorry I have no other advice, I have no experience of reflux).
Fingers crossed it eases very soon! Sleep dep is horrendous you poor thing.

DS1 developed horrible reflux when he went from breast to formula (at HV's insistence). Totally understand how soul destroying the sleep issues are - plus it's heart-breaking to see how much pain the poor little souls are in too

We found raising the mattress helped.
Ranatidine was a life-saver.
Special "stay-down" formula
and
Baby massage.

Best of luck OP x

DD 1 suffered terribly with reflux until a combination of things helped her.
We tried gaviscon but it didn't help. In the end it was the following that really changed her from a screamer in to a smiler.
Ranitidine
Cranial oesteopathy
Cow and gate comfort milk.

By the time she was fully weaned she didn't need the ranitidine either.

Hi there.. My LO was 6 weeks early and has terrible reflux (on gaviscon and neutriprem milk) It is tiring but it will pass hunni xx Keep strong you are doing all you can do XX The only other suggestions i have is putting pillow under mattress so head is slightly raised as this helped my jorgia lots esp with feeding during the nights but i see that your already doing this XX During the night when feeding feed in smaller bouts i know that it isnt easy i had not much OH support but i found it helps a little as they not as 'full' so maybe reflux isnt as bad i dont know but it helped Jorgia in the end.
And i agree baby massage helps relax baby (if ya do it properly teeehee)
Hope this all sorts itself out soon angel xx Keep ur chin up :)

Thanks everyone. dd has slept so well today just hoping she will sleep well tonight :-) she is always full of wind bless her. i notice aswell when she is asleep sometimes her eyes open a little and flicker and also mouth twitches and breathes heavy. is this a sign of wind? I do spend ages winding her. xxx