Silent reflux? Help!

[Becciilouisex3]

Hi all (posted here as well as postnatal as was unsure of the correct category!)

Desperately seeking some advice. Worth noting I do have a doctors appointment for later today but would like to hear from some mum's too as I'm a FTM, not the most confident and fear being palmed off!

My DS is 15 days old. He began screaming as if he was in pain exclusively at night time for 2/3ish hours and so I took him to the doctors last week and he was diagnosed with colic, prescribed infacol and sent away. This doesn't seem to be working and he has rapidly gone downhill.

As a rule he's a very happy, content little boy. We have noticed though that when he has his evening feed around 7ish, he takes a lot more than usual, gets hiccups for quite a while and then won't settle in his crib at all, he just screams when he's laid down. He then seems to get a lot more hungry than usual, crying for feeds every hour/hour and a half up until around half one. During this time, he will scream constantly, for the whole 6 and a half hours. We can't sleep at all because as soon as we lay him on his back he screams as if he's in pain. We can hear the wind in him and he trumps a lot but he is so hard to wind! We can get the occasional one out but it doesn't seem to help his pain much. The only thing that seems to relieve him for maybe 5 minutes is to lay him on his tummy but obviously due to SIDS he shouldn't sleep like this. He is usually settled during the day however, is very very grumpy and unsettled today.

It is so distressing for us to see him in this much pain and I'm worried that the more tired I'm getting, the less I'll be able to focus and look after him properly. He fits all of the symptoms of silent reflux in the picture attached but only suffers badly during the night so I'm not sure what to think. Dreading going to the doctors and it being palmed off as colic again. I know my son and I'm sure it isn't colic.

Any advice would be very very appreciated.

Symptoms

Sounds like silent reflux. Can you hear him nearly bringing up milk after feeds? And does he spit up why you lie him down (even half an hour plus after)? Mine also arches back a lot, and clearly in a lot of discomfort. So different from my first who I could just feed to sleep and pop in cot. It's exhausting. We've started anti reflux drugs (which she spits out a lot too), tho seems to be making a bit of a difference. Lots of trumps too - she's really difficult to burp. Sorry no real advice here, just wanted you to know you're not alone. Good luck at the docs

Thank you so much, just a reply feels like some relief! Yes definitely we can hear it all gurgling inside him so we spend ages trying to bring it up but we might get 3 burps in a 6 hour period if we're lucky! He seemed to vomit once during the night last night when he'd finally gone to sleep, but that's rare for him he doesn't really spit up very often.

It definitely sounds as though our LO's are the same bless them, stiffening and arching their back and honestly when he's in pain he can lift and hold his head up for a good ten seconds which I'm not sure is common for a 15 day old!

Thank you for the well wishes and I really really hope your DD gets better soon for all of your sakes. It's terrible to see them in pain and exhausting as awful as I feel saying it. Good luck

I'm not entirely convinced it would be reflux if it only happens at night. Sounds like relativley normal newborn behaviour and fussiNess but then it could be. Also infacol etc can make reflux worse as it's orange flavoured and therefore more acidic.

Are you breast or bottle feeding? We gave my dd antI reflux milk which helped but I think you are supposed to see a GP before you start down that route.

Many signs of reflux are similar with those of colic...

Mine both have had reflux but not silent. I'm constantly covered in vomit and breast milk. It's shit . But it will get better.

Could be Transient Lactase Deficiency, or silent reflux, or both. Two of mine had TLD. The other had reflux (not silent). (One of them might have had silent reflux as well as TLD.) That means they struggle to process the lactose in milk because they're not quite developed enough digestively to produce the right amount of lactase, which is the enzyme that breaks down the lactose. Fortunately, there is a remedy! Colief is available from the chemist or on prescription and is lactase drops you add to milk (express a bit first or add to formula). It's expensive so if you want to give it a go, buy a bottle, try it for a week (it can take a few days to see the result) then go to GP and say how much it helped.

For getting his wind up, try sitting him up on your knee and rotate him from the waist in both directions before putting him high on your shoulder and rubbing the left side of his back with firm, upward strokes.

Milk thickener mixed in to create a milk shake. it saved us when Baby Gaviscon Renitoin? Etc all failed muserably.

Milk thickener on prescription changed ethg. i reaearched it and begged specialist to prescribed after months of agony for DS.

Also it is totally normal for them to be more hungry at night at this age, feeding almost constantly. Are you feeding on demand? Is he bottle fed or breastfed? If bottle, consider using Dr Brown bottles. If breast, try feeding him in an upright position.

My DD was a dream for the first two weeks, then started heaving and gagging, wincing as though she was bringing acid up, then the vomiting started... Dear lord, the vomiting 😌 She's breastfed and at first was prescribed Gaviscon which didn't help and constipated her, at six weeks she was prescribed ranitidine and she became a different baby overnight! She's five months old tomorrow and has been slightly sick less than a handful of times since she was prescribed the ranitidine.

I got so desperate after GP's fobbing me off I took my little boy to A&E. He wouldn't sleep, so neither of us had slept properly for days. They were lovely and sent us up to the children's ward, who prescribed Amoxicillin the same day. Within 3 days he was like a different child. He grew out of it in about 6 months and was fine in the mean time, apart from when I forgot to give him his meds once & once when the pharmacy made a mistake so we ran out. Good luck getting it sorted!

The tricky part is convincing the doctor it's silent reflux! Some GPs refuse to acknowledge it even exists like the twat at my local walk in centre cluster feeding does happen at night but breastfed babies tend to eat more to soothe the discomfort, then it becomes a vicious circle as the more they have the worse the pain, yet it temporarily eases the pain 😌

never your baby was prescribed antibiotics?

YY to vicious circle as described by amy

No sorry not amox! Omeprazole

Hi this sounds exactly how my LB is and he has suffered from silent reflux since he was born. It also mainly happens during the night and I use to hear the acid coming up.
Some things to try as suggested by the doc.
Raise his Moses basket/crib to an angle as they don't like to lay flat. Hold him up for 30 mins after feed (killer in the night but I found it helped).
Small and often feeds. We didn't realise he was comfort eating. Especially in the night. When we told the pead how much he was having they were shocked and told us to cut down as it aggregates reflux.
Try feeding in a more upright position.

Our LB is now on ranitidine. We tried gaviscon too. Gaviscon works just constipates a lot of babies. His is pretty bad and the meds aren't working too well so looking to get stronger meds.
I feel your pain though, our LB is the worst sleeper and it really isn't nice seeing them in pain.
I hope the doctor takes you seriously.

Thank you for all of your replies they all are much appreciated!!

DS is bottle fed, breast didn't suit him at all and I just wanted to make sure he was getting fed! I've been recommended Dr Brown's bottles by a few people so I think I'll invest as there's no such thing as too many bottles even if they don't seem to help!

The doctor seems to think it sounds like a reflux issue because of the, only being comfortable in certain positions, being difficult to wind, lifting and holding his head etc however has never heard of silent reflux and can't understand why he isn't vomiting or why it's exclusively at night. She said it could be a combination of colic and something else as some of his behaviour is consistent with a colic diagnosis but there are some symptoms there that would point to their being another underlying issue.

As of yet we have been prescribed some Pepti-Junior to try him on to eliminate a cows milk allergy/intolerance and have to go back on Friday to let her know how we get on before proceeding down the route of trying other things. She did say it seems like it will be very much a "trial and error" process with him. Hoping we find the solution sooner rather than later and have a happy DS again!

The lifting head up a lot, difficult to wind, lots of wind from his bottom end are all symptoms my son had. He also had hiccups a lot! He was actually better at night though, much worse in the day. The Omeprazole was brilliant, but the GP changed it to Ranitadine (cheaper) and he was really bad again very quickly. Once he was back on the Omeprazole he was fine again.
(Just finished a course of Amoxicillin myself hence me mixing them up on last post...)

The doctor had never heard of silent reflux? What on earth? Very odd.

My son does also have a cows milk allergy which I think contributes to the reflux. But it's promising that they have given you some medicine :) I hope you find your solution.

Poor souls. We had this until 8 months - they do grow out of it but wow Silent Reflux is awful.

We started on Ranitidine then Omeprazole tabs ground up in milk or water but only after we went private at Parkside Hosp, saw a Mr Alsoud. He was the nicest dr i have ever met. We skipped gaviscon as he didn't believe this helped.

Try a WedgeHog, still use it at night, god send.

When you have CMPA, also avoid Soy products, he said the proteins are similar shapes so irritate too.

Good luck!