Silent reflux advice

[stargirl1701]

Hello. DD (20 weeks) was diagnosed with silent reflux at 10 weeks. At that point, her feeds were a nightmare - screaming, arching, refusing more that 2oz. She was prescribed Ranitidine.

Over the last 3 weeks we have been seeing new symptoms that concern us. She is vomiting a lot - both quantity and number of times in a day (25?). She is refusing to nap during the day and will sleep 10-20 min x3. She often starts screaming in her sleep and when we lift her we have to shout her name and tickle her feet to waken her - once awake she vomits.

I have 2 GPs who have told me not to worry. Both DH and I are worried. Her weight is checked frequently so the dose of Ranitidine is correct. She was 6.7kg this week and dose is 0.4ml.

Are we crazy? She is pfb.

She's been awake most of the night so far. Damn.

Is Portland hospital in London? I think I may have a seen a TV programme on it. We are in northern Scotland so that would be a fair old trek.

Star girl, please get yourself referred to a consultant. I had to get my DS on omeprazole and until then he only slept for max an hour at a time, and needed constant motion when awake. The right meds really helped.

Hang on in there.

I'm having similar problems with DS2. He's been diagnosed with CMPA. He's ebf so I'm on a dairy free diet. He also has ranitidine which has helped with the pain of the reflux. Does your DD also have eczema or colic? Apparently if they have at least two of the three things they can be diagnosed with CMPA. Things are slowly getting better for us (DS2 is 5 months now). I've had loads of support from the ladies on High Needs Baby Support thread in Sleep so it might be worth looking them up if only to vent. It's such hard work. You're doing great though stargirl.

Up and crying again :(

She does have eczema but no one has mentioned intolerances. I have eczema so there is a genetic factor at work.

She's now refusing to eat more than 1oz out of the last 2 bottles.

Just been to OOHs regarding her refusal to eat. Doc has given us syringes and we've to syringe the feed in.

This sounds a lot like my DS but he is not sick.

He screams, when hes awake he needs motion(i walked up and down my road 30 times to settle him last night), i lay him upwards in moses and on his side. He has colic, gulps when drinking like hes never been fed, thats EVERY feed.

What milk do you use?

We are now (since Friday) using SMA Staydown for Reflux. It has significantly reduced the vomiting but dd is now constipated.

We are phoning GP first thing to get an emergency appt and insisting on a referral to paediatric gastroenterologist.

My son is constipated and is on SMA extra hungry, he was on aptmail comfort for colic and constipated babies but he took a 6oz.

My son is sick sometimes but not always, as you said in my thread. I will ask the doctor tomorrow for either of them and refuse to leave until something is done!

The HV said it was colic so i changed the bottles, infacol(which i read can cause reflux due to the ingre) i used infacol a lot and it worked but we bring his wind up when you put him down to sleep in his moses he screams, when hes in his pram/sofa/bed hes okay.

If you have a moses basket i tilt the whole thing up as the acid cant travel up his throat.

This is what ds does every feed.

Sucks like hes never been fed, arches his back, turns red, bouts of inconsolble crying, grunts. When i settle him after a hour of calming him down he goes into some sort of crying fit after each feed.

What does you DD do? It sounds like i need to change the milk again, i will have a look tomorrow for that milk!

Star girl you are doing brilliantly. Reflux is an absolute nightmare to deal with. I am on my 3rd silent refluxer!

A few things to speak with your gp about:
Your ranitidine dose can go WAY up from 0.4mlx3. The guideline max dose is 3mg/kg and even that is just guesswork and some babies are on more. My ds is 6.9kg and he is on 1.5mls x3.

Omeprazole can be a wonder drug. It is a once a day dose. It worked wonders for my second child but gave ds such awful bloating and stomach cramps that we had to abandon it and go back to ranitidine.

Ask your gp to try hypoallergenic formula. If your dd has eczema there is a chance that she may be intolerant to cows milk protein. A gastro referral may confirm this.

....and it DOES pass, eventually.

Thank you hobnob

GP has upped the Ranitidine to 0.9ml x3 daily. The HV is coming round tomorrow and the GP is going to talk to her (checking I'm not a crazy mum?).

GP then phoning me on Thursday at 10am - if no change then she will refer to a paediatric gastroenterologist. I'm just hoping for improvement.

We've added some cool, sterile water, in a cup, to her daily intake to see if that improves the constipation.

She's 5 months this week so weaning soon. Maybe that'll help.

Weaning can help reflux but can be bad news for constipation initially. Getting her used to water is a good thing ahead of time. Good news on the ranitidine.

Huge sympathy
Ds had sr and whilst everyone else was loving new baby time i was besides myself BUT hv said I could gently early wean at 17wo and it started to make a big difference fairly quickly
Is this something you'd consider?

Hope things are looking up stargirl. Weaning helps a lot of reflux babies but it wasn't easy for us. In retrospect, I think that's cos we didn't have him on the right meds so he was still experiencing discomfort :( and maybe because we didn't start it early enough (we waited until 6 months). Try to get as much info as you can about weaning reflux babies and the sort of foods which may aggravate. You'll get there in the end and you're doing the right things x

So, HV came today. She is going to phone GP as she feels a referral is the way to go. She's phoning me back tomorrow.

Fingers crossed!