Reflux - better and worse?

[Mrs81]

Hi,
I could do with some advice from some other reflux sufferers please.

DS (first child) is 7.5m and was diagnosed with reflux at c6-7weeks. Since then we've been through gaviscon, ranitadine and he's now on omeprazole. We're also dairy, soya and egg free (he's ebf) on advice by gp (he had blood in nappies and if I've eaten egg he's v sick).

His sickiness has been vastly better since we started weaning at 24w which is great but now it's like having Jekyll and Hyde for a baby. By day he is content, happy, playful etc and by night he wakes often (4-5 times is not unusal) screaming/crying and arching his back in pain. A good night is 2 wakenings just to bf (which I'm fine with).

The thing is, until Xmas he would typically sleep 12hrs with only one wakening - this more frequent distressed wakening is quite new. Is this a new (to us) reflux thing? Or something else? Or just what babies do?? (I hope not, we're all knackered!)

Any pointers?

Thank you!

Sounds like reflux but i would check with paed/gp. Have you tried putting him down on his tummy to sleep with the head of the cot raised? I know it goes against SIDS guidelines however all the babies I know (including DS3) were tummy sleepers from a very young age. I bought an angelcare sound and motion monitor for reassurance re the tummy sleeping.

all the babies I know with reflux I meant

Go back to your paed/GP, he may need his dose of meds adjusting, the arching of the back is typical with reflux babies. It may bother him more during the night as he's not upright.

Thanks

He's due back at docs next week anyway. Cot is already tilted; I might have a go at tummy sleeping though... Tummy time usually makes him sick but perhaps if cot is tilted then that won't be an issue?

I hope meds can be increased - he's already on quite a high dose of omeprazole as it is

Anyway, I hope we can find a way of making him more comfortable as dh and I both find it hard to see him in so much discomfort.

Hopefully he won't be sicky if he's tired and settles quickly. I didn't put DS3 down until he was very sleepy which helped and had several cotton covered waterproof mats in case of milk regurgitation.

I think sometimes domperidone is also given to control symptoms, might be the next step if omeprazole isn't working well on its own.

Hang on in there. I know it can seem neverending, as well as exhausting. I look back and don't know how we managed with 2 other DCs to look after but now DS3 is 2.5 it's a distant memory.

I did find having a nap myself in the day was a lifesaver. Hope that's a possibility for you too

I can remember well how upsetting & never-ending it seems. Our DS outgrew it at about a year, but still at nearly 8 won't eat citrus fruit or tomatoes..Hope you are getting good RL support too

Thank you both.

We were using domperidone but not recently as he'd stopped being sick. But maybe it helps anyway? I can reintroduce it in the morning.

We have some RL support but prob not as much as we need/would like. I think it's hard for a lot of people to grasp how it is when they only see him during the day when he's happy and calm. But you're right, it WILL get better...

Have you tried ranitidine? It together with domperidone worked wonders for my DD. gaviscon just constipated her so much that she then threw up because of that. It really does get better. We took our DD straight to A &E on several occasions when she was really bad with it. Seemed to get sorted faster than via GP.

Yes, ranitadine helped the discomfort but the sickiness was bad, even on highest dose for his weight. His weight gain was too slow for gp's liking at that point, which is why we ended up on omeprazole

The different meds do different things - the ranitidine didn't stop our DS being sick but helped dilute the acid so that it wasn't burning his throat. We also used a thickening formula but if you are EBF that's not really relevant. I would advise not being reticent about seeking specialist medical advice, there is a lack of knowledge about reflux at GP level (huge generalisation but...) & it is awful being told they'll grow out of it at some point when you can see they are suffering.

Thanks legoqueen. Thankfully we have a decent gp and there's a referral in the system already for ds at the children's hospital. It could be another 6 wks before that happens though. I'm comfortable pushing the issue when I see gp on Tues, I suppose I just wanted to be confident that our nocturnal difficulties seemed like reflux to others as well.

You're right though, no matter how comforting it is to know that he will grow out of it, it's about as much use as a chocolate teapot right now!