Foods for refux babies

[Joanne20]

hi all,
Just wondered if anyone coud give any advice on what foods they give to a reflux baby. My daughter is 9 months old now and is weaned but her reflux is still bad. She is on omeprazole, don peridone and gaviscon. She has started going of the bottle again, really hard to get it down her, she is just on cow and gate follow on milk but is there any other milk that is better for reflux babies? She has started to refuse the bottles again and will only really have it if she is really wanting it. I am thinking that some foods that she has may make her reflux worse aswell, I haven't noticed a pattern but do any parents have any advice on what foods to avoid? May make reflux worse? She is still sick quite a lot but I haven't seen a pattern with regards to the foods she eats. Also when she refuses the bottle this usually follows with a chest infection, has anyone else found this? She also sounds quite wheezy aswell when her reflux is bad. Thanks in advance, any advice would be appreciated.

can't help with foods as weaning solved DD1's reflux, but I noticed Boots was selling new milks for reflux babies by Aptamil and C&G. They might help?

Oh great thanks will have a look on their website, it may be worth a try, anything to try and ease the reflux

My DS was also prescribed 'Thick and Easy'. I think it is a cornstarch type thing which makes milk thicker, and so in theory easier to stay down. (though he did also have a milk-free 'elemental' milk which was thinner in consistency than formula).

He also went completely off milk or any food when ill.

I can't really give any advice on foods as DS was tube-fed from 6 months.

If she's getting wheezy when her reflux is bad, have you talked to her doctors about this? I think that may be a sign she is aspirating liquids and it is normally taken quite seriously. (I don't know much about this though, as luckily for us, DS didn't have this.)

I think there is a reflux support thread in the breast and bottle feeding section which may help for more advice. Good luck - it's tough for you.

Thanks, will have a look at the thread. Will have a look into that milk to, did your DS have gaviscon in the milk aswell? Did he find it ok to drink? It's just sometimes with the gaviscon in thickening the milk and she is tired she doesn't suck properly and doesn't get much to drink before she gives up on ten bottle as its quite thick so maybe a thicker milk may make getting tj down her hard, am not sure. She is having a sleep study done overnight tomorrow night at the hospital due to a bit of apnea and her random breathing. Thanks for the help.

Has she been assessed for cow's milk protein- not lactose - allergy? Symptoms almost identical to reflux....

Apnoea, enlarged adenoids and wheezing can all be allergy symptoms.

Hi, now she hasn't been tested for any allergies but maybe she has this aswell as reflux, its something that hasnt ever been mentioned but i think i will mention it to her paediatrician to see if she can look into it, thanks. Do you have any experience of anyone with these symptoms?

My ds had silent reflux and had all the medications your little one is on... We settled with lansoprazole in end which I think I saw most improvement with. He was bad up to about 15 months and things eased off a bit, he is now aged 4 off all his medication.
He had medicated formula which was dairy free, nutramigen or another is neonate. It may be worth a try? My ds was also very wheezy sounding with his reflux and right up until he was 15 months he never took more than a two ounce bottle.. I fed him every 3 hours through night as was only way he could take anything. Food in general made his reflux worse, he didn't tolerate any solids till around 8 months old.
We found out through barium swallow that he had a hiatus hernia, to be honest nothing really helped and believe me we tried every medication and remedy going, it was a long hard slog but he did improve with age. He still eats tiny amounts now and will often say when he is refluxing stuff up into his throat but doesn't seem to be in any pain now.

Sorry I can't offer any answers for you but your not alone and things really will improve x

Thanks twilight81, we are lucky as our dd does sleep through the night but is very variable on the bottle. I am going to try her on anti reflux milk for a bit and see if that helps. Like you said, you will try anything to help them! It does get worse as the day goes and she tends to be more sick in the evening time. Will see if the new milk does anything, hopefully it will ease it even more for her. She is very wheezy sounding most of the time and does cough a lot at night to so sounds similar to your DS. Reflux isn't nice for them is it!

Me again, my dd paed rung me today to say that she does have dips in oxygen levels overnight, results from the sleep study on sat night. She said to up the dose of domperidone to 4.8mls 4 times a day and 10mls of 10mg omeprazole. She has also been referred to respiratory consultant and they want her to have a ph study done and a blood gas. Just wondered if anyone elses child had had a ph study done and what it involves? Or what they would be looking for in the blood gas?

Oh grrr, I typed a long reply to you joanne20 but it got lost

Good that your paed is investigating things thoroughly.

With the omeprazole are you giving it on an empty stomach and leaving 30 mins minimum before offering food or milk after? That's recommended to maximise absorption.

I'm afraid I can't help with the PH probe, as DS never had one, nor the blood gases. The probe is, I believe, a small sensor that is placed in the oesophagus to measure reflux episodes and gauge severity over a 24 hour period. The blood gases I don't know about.

I would definitely mention the milk allergy thing - it might be a red herring, but is worth ruling out. Hope you get your answers soon.

Hi Joanne20, sorry, I forgot I was on this thread . To answer your earlier questions, no, my DS wasn't on gaviscon at the same time as the thick n easy.

From memory, he was on gaviscon when he was about 10 weeks, and thick n easy from about 5 months. Also, it was used to thicken Neocate, which is an anti-allergy formula, and is very thin.

I seem to remember putting it in normal formula during one of his allergy challenges and it making it almost too thick for the feeding pump to pump!

Just a couple of things - our dietician gave DS a bottle which could be squeezed to help get the milk into him at one point. (She had seen him fall asleep on the bottle and thought maybe he was just sleepy.) Maybe that might be a thing to ask about?

Secondly, in the midst of battling all this with DS, I read a medical paper on t'internet which suggested that, in refluxy babies, even if cows milk protein allergy isn't proven, anti-allergy milks (may have even been elemental milks, such as Neocate) can help. I didn't mention this in my first post because I can't link, can't even remember the title of the paper I read, but my take-out was that it was worth trying.

Having said that, when DS went onto Neocate Advance (for over 1 year olds), his reaction was absolutely dreadful, and our fab dietician said it was something about the osmolarity ( how concentrated it is, sort of, in layman's terms) that made it hard to digest.

Lastly, (sorry for epic post!) my DS had a pH probe test done. It's fine, really. When DS had it (2008), it was a very thin wire/flex inserted down his nose and set so the end of it hung in his throat. It was then taped in place. At the other end was something sort of big ipod or walkman size - the computer bit.

The probe measures, over 24 hours, the percentage of time the throat is under very acidic conditions - ie how often acid is coming up, and how long it stays there. It gives quite a good picture of how bad the reflux is. So we got a percentage result, and then a definition of mild / moderate / severe reflux.

My DS already had an NG tube at the time, and the pH probe went through the same nostril . They never like getting it put down, but my understanding is it isn't painful, just unpleasant. Once it's in place, as long as it is securely fastened on their cheek, they don't seem to feel it.

Good luck - I too hope you get some answers.

Ragusa, I do try and give omemorazole a bit before she has the milk but I mix it in with the porridge as was advised to do that to get it down her as before she wouldn't have it. I saw the dietician this week and I mentioned about allergies. She said that as her dose of domperidone has just been increased and they were going to do the ph study that they didn't want to change anything at the moment until we saw the results of the study and the effect of domperidone. However she did say that if the reflux didn't seem to get any better then it would be worth a try to change her diet and look for allergies.

Latinfortelly, For the moment the dietician had said to keep the same milk she is on as increase in domperidone but in a month if no improvement she said will look at changing the milk. I may ask about the bottle aswell, may be worth a try! Thanks for the info re the ph study to.

Thanks both, it's the first time I have been on one of these forums and the info, advice I've been given has helped x