Silent reflux HELP!

[superchicken]

My 3 month old has silent reflux, he's EBF, does anyone have any tips from having a reflux baby? Trying to do everything I can to help him (drs won't give medications as still gaining weight)

Oof, sympathies. DD slept more in her bouncer than her crib at that age. Not recommended, but she was so much happier being upright.

As I'm sure you know, holding upright after a feed and tilting the crib can help.

Honestly the only thing that helped was ranitidine. I'm surprised the GP won't prescribe anything - silent reflux won't particularly affect weight gain, I wouldn't think. DD fed LOADS as it was comforting to feed,but of course made things worse. Maybe try again and make clear to the doctor that you're worried about pain and disturbed sleep,not laundry.

You can get carobel over the counter which thickens feeds but tbh it's an utter nightmare to get into bf babies, we were never successful.

I remember people saying the muscle strengthens at 12 weeks which helps and it was true for us,hopefully it will be for you too.

in the meantime,it's so so hard.

@LivLemler thank you I will go back again I think and be more pushy, I didn't really know what to ask for last time. I do hold him up between feeds as much as possible and feed him quite upright. It's so hard so hopefully it will get better soon

We were prescribed gaviscon first but, again, couldn't get it into ebf DD. Fortunately my GP is lovely, and listened when I explained this, and that I needed something that's a small volume. Her ranitidine dose was only 0.5ml so much easier to get into her than 15ml of gaviscon.

Just something to consider when speaking to doctor.

Try and GP and push for Rantitadine. Ask your HV who is the most sympathetic GP.

Moving to pushchair so DD could be tilted up rather than flat helped.

Feed with him as vertical as you can

Regular breaks in the feed

Invest in a sling/bouncy chair/jumperoo when bigger to keep upright after feeding

Same with crib/Moses basket/cot. Keep the head end propped up

DD was referred to gastro paed and he recommended a dummy. Something to do with saliva and the acid. I didn't go down this route but for my sanity deffo would if there was a next time

Also worth trying cutting out dairy from your diet incase there's also a cows milk protein intolerance too. We did this too and it helped alleviate symptoms but we really did need and ended up on meds

I'm not suggesting you do it early but the only thing that helped my DS really was weaning. Im not sure why, and we waited until six months as per the guidelines, but it made a big difference.

He was bottlefed so getting gaviscon into him was easier but I'm not sure how much difference it made.

We were eventually prescribed Gaviscon, I used to express a little milk, mix up gaviscon, syringe in and then feed. It made for a much happier baby! A sling was also super helpful as he rarely slept well if horizontal. We did try a few of the old parenting books under the feet at the head end of his cot, although I'm not sure they made much difference?

Agree with pp. prop up as much as possible so use proper pram attachment rather than carrycot (you can get inserts to stop newborn rolling around). Get hold of a sling so they can sleep upright against you (and you can get jobs done while they nap). Do you have a next to me type crib? Our snuzpod had a foam wedge that sat under the mattress and the whole thing could tilt to lift the head end for night time sleeping.

It's tough but it will pass - that knowledge alone helped me through many a long light until 5 months.