11 week old diagnosed with (silent) reflux - tips?

[Nightfall1983]

So on Monday 11 week old DS was diagnosed with reflux (GORD) at A & E after failing to gain weight for 2 weeks. He started eating less (FF) around 5 weeks and with a couple of exceptions this slowly got worse. Repeated trips to the GP but they weren't interested as he was still gaining, just slowly. Then around 10 weeks he started screaming at the bottle, only whilst feeding and this escallated to more screaming fits and completely refusing several bottles a day.

The doctor in A&E was very good and finally took us seriously - he put DS on to infact Gaviscon, ranitidine and domperidone and made an appointment for us to go back on Friday (this was Monday). The meds seemed to make an instant difference, the next day he finished all his bottles with no fuss, no screaming. The next day was even better and he demanded bigger bottles. The third day was less good with a reasonable amount of screaming and only finishing half his bottles. Took him in to the appt on Friday and he had gained 10 oz in 3 days!! The doctor said that the meds take a while to be fully effective and might need adjusting as he grows.

Fine, but how to cope in the meantime? So far I've heard about:
Keeping him upright after feeds
Rubbing not patting for burps
Dummy to keep sucking action going after feeds
Inclined cot and changing mat

Any more???? Also, he currently has a cold and I think this has made the reflux worse - is this common? He gets constant colds so I hope not!

Sorry for waffling, feeling a bit desperate tbh...

my GP and HV were fairly useless in that the GP didn't discuss milk at all, HV recommended Comfort formula. But I think it's a fairly new product so they may not be aware of it.

Just wanted to come back to this thread with an update:
DS never really improved further after the initial boost from the reflux meds, at the next weigh in he had gained an oz and by the next weigh in (yesterday/wednesday) he lost 2 oz . Took him straight back to the GP who was v. dismissive and basically said oh well, lets wait and see what happens . Babies aren't supposed to loose weight, grr!

So I took him straight down to a&e, felt a bit guilty as it wasn't an emergancy plus i was ignoring the GP but couldn't stand it. As with out previous visit a&e were outstanding, the doctor listened to my discription of all his symptoms (reflux, ezcema, constipation, colic-y screaming, constant blocked nose - and ofcourse weight loss) and suggested it might be a cows milk allergy and prescribed Neocate formula which is cows milk free.

It'll take a couple of days to know if its working but fingers crossed...

(PS thank you again to Ginshizz who sent me some cot-raising blocks which have made a definate difference to putting him down at night for you...)

Oh I am so pleased you got the Neocate.

Don't worry about going to A and E. It's often the only way to get any action. I think a lot of GPs just do a sum in their heads which goes like this: babies + unsettled behaviour + feeding issues = overanxious first-time mother. Grrr.

Is he drinking the Neocate? It's not the best-tasting potion in the world :)

The doctor warned us that most babies don't like the Neocate and take a while to get used to it but he doesn't seem to mind much - still not drinking loads but no different from the usual formula. Hopefully when the inflamation in his gut from the old formula dies down we'll see a big difference. Back to a&e for a check-up tomorrow, they really are very good.