Baby Gaviscon... How do I get it in the baby!!

[MummySparkle]

We're breastfeeding and DD has had terrible reflux. Been prescribed gaviscon today and even after 1/2 a dose she is so much happier.

But getting it in her is proving tricky. I made it up as the pack suggested with 15ml of water and used the calpol syringe. It was incredibly messy and runny and most of it went down her front...

Any tips gratefully received!

I use calpol syringe for gripe water (which ds hates!) Just a little bit at a time, sit him up, make sure he swallow but have muslin at the ready. Keep going if it works its worth it

Yep. It gets easier. Try to get it in the side of cheek and lean baby slightly back so that gravity assists!! As long as dd doesn't have any swallowing complications, you should be fine. With dd2 we worked out that if we puffed a little bit of air (blew a little puff of air at her face) it would trigger a swallow... Not that I'm recommending that, but it worked for us. (Dd2 had significant oromotor issues and struggled with swallowing).

It's definitely easier with expressed milk later, though

Could I make it up with less water or is that going to cause problems?

And have I got to sterilise everything every time? (Major reason for breastfeeding is that I'm useless at that sort of thing!!!)

I made it up thicker so there was less to get into her. I used boiled water, but didn't sterilise anything. Didn't occur to me!

Hmm, not sure - the idea is that it essentially floats on top of the milk and causes a barrier, so think there is an optimum fluidity for it to work properly, but presumably it will dilute inside!!

We did sterilize everything including syringes etc, but tbh she was quite vulnerable so we were having to sterilize loads anyway...

I've just thought, if I'm using the double sachet, does that mean I should be using 30ml of water?! Cripes I'll never get her to take that!!

Did the gaviscon affect the consistency of your LOs poos?

DD has had really runny mucous poo for a while. Since the gaviscon it now has the consistency of smooth houmous. It was too runny, now it seems too solid!

I used to give all my meds whilst they were laying flat on changing mat, I'd give dummy straight after to make get the sucking going. All meds are tricky until you can stick them in a yogurt :-)

I also found switching to goats milk for my tea/coffee cereal a massive help . I gave up all chocolate and cream that also made a massive difference. X

bedsheets I'm now pretty much dairy free here (unless I forget!)

I will try the changing mat too, they are supposed to be given mid-feed which might make that hard to remember!

We found that Gaviscon didn't help enough and was a nightmare to do so my GP prescribed ranitidine instead: much easier (eg initially

I dissolved 2 sachets of gaviscon in 5 mls of cooled boiled water, got a proper syringe from the chemist (they give them out for free if asked), my go told me it was fine and his wife had done the same thing