Silent reflux help

[cates94]

Just wanting some advice. My little one has silent reflux and suspected CMPA and is currently on aptamil pepti 1 with carobel thickener and on omeprazole(currently at correct dose for his weight) however recently I feel his silent reflux is increasing. At night, after a while of being asleep he will start to pull his legs up and thrash them down into the cot, start to rub his hands all round his face and move his head side to side, he often stays asleep but is so restless it wakes me up. If I lift him out and put him on my chest he will rub his head vigorously on me for about 10 minutes before then going into a deep sleep. Is this typical of a reflux baby or is this something else I’m missing. He is swaddled at night but in a love to dream so still able to touch his face through the swaddle. Constant gulping and swallowing and producing large amounts of saliva and he bubbles at the mouth. He's nearly 8 weeks old.

It does sound fairly typical. It’s rubbish isn’t it, seeing them struggling. Most DC do grow out of it as I’m sure you’ve been told. Do you wind him even at night feeds and keep him upright for 20 mins after a feed?

Yes I do! 30 mins I do upright even throughout the night. He's so young that I panic about him sleeping on his tummy even if it is on me. We are literally going back and forward, I was told if we fixed the CMPA that the reflux would go, but only seems to be worse since the change of milk although seen a massive improvement in him otherwise.

Have you tried lifting the end of the cot/basket? I got a reflux wedge pillow in the end and it seemed to make a big difference.

He might need a different milk. I forget all the names now but some are a lot more hypoallergenic than others. One of my DC suffered terribly until she was prescribed Domperidone. The other was totally fine on Omeprazole and had grown out of it by 10 months. Have you seen a paediatric Gastro Consultant or just the GP?

Also have you tried a dummy? Helped one of mine a lot, the other just spat it out repeatedly.

Babies do move a lot in their sleep, if it’s not waking him then I would just leave him to it.

Mine had very bad reflux and suspected CMPA. He was always very uncomfortable. Unfortunately nothing really helped except waiting for him to grow out of it.

Not very helpful I know, but it won’t last forever. It made me feel better in a way to accept that this is how it was going to be for a while instead of constantly pinning my hopes on everything we tried.

Ds had severe reflux and was under a paediatrician. He had a propped cot, a dummy to help swallow down all the time and slept upright on me during the day. If they can manage their symptoms then it becomes much easier. I used a sling rather than the pram until I could sit him up more to keep him bolt upright.

Ds was on a reflux prescription formula rather than meds as the paediatrician preferred to try that first. He is now a strapping 16 year old.

So I have a snuz pod which comes with a reflux foot wedge which I use, he has a dummy but spends most of the night accidentally knocking it out his mouth with all the clawing at his face then moans for it, so I spend most of the night trying to put it back, which he loves and then temporarily settles for 10 mins before starting again. It's a right shame as he's starting to show signs of sleeping better...so dropping feeds and going longer...it's just this part I want to crack for him and for me.

He has seen a paediatric dietitian in the children's ward after being admitted over feed refusal, she suggested an even further hydrolysed non cows milk formula called neocate, I thickened it as my son just will not take the watery milk, but it seems to right aggravate the reflux and was in the worst mood possible for days. I felt that he was better on the pepti and after a conversation with HV, GP and dietitian we switched back to pepti, using different teats as turns out we ended up in a&e all because he couldn't get the milk out the bottle as too thick rather than refusing to drink. (You can imagine how awful I felt as a mum to not even realise that) he's improved again so much on pepti apart from bad wind! But the reflux is still going strong! GP practically promised me it would disappear if we fixed his allergy! I'm just reluctant to go back on the neocate at this stage

I really feel for you OP. It’s so hard. My youngest was better on prescription formula but the reflux never went away. It’s horrible to see them suffering. Is he happily taking his feeds now? If he is I’d be tempted to try to ride it out for now.

He feeds really well on the milk. Don't seem to have a problem there and he's very chunky getting. GP very happy with his weight. I was there on Wednesday and she's said give it a couple more weeks on the omeprazole and milk and see if there is an improvement. Made it till 5 am today until I had to get him out the cot! Starting to learn to help him with his dummy and just go back to sleep! As I don't think he's going to stop it anytime soon poor love.