HELP - 3 week old with reflux

[emdexx2]

Help, I believe my 3 week old is suffering with reflux. Has started bringing up feeds, sometimes straight after feeding and sometimes in the hours after feeding. Consistency varies from liquid to more like a cottage cheese. Sometimes quite forceful and other times just a small amount. It doesn't seem to be bothering him that much other than the odd 5 minute cry and arching his back. The only thing that is really bothering me it's coming out of his nose as well as his mouth which he appears to find quite uncomfortable and affects his sleep at night as he's not able to breathe properly, snores loudly and sounds bunged up. It's starting to take its toll on me as I'm not sleeping because of this. He is EBF, have considered moving to formula although I'm aware this is unlikely to change the reflux situation. Dr has prescribed Omeprazole but said this is more for comfort because of the acid and is unlikely to stop him from being sick. Does anyone else have any experience of this and if so what did you do?

Please try gaviscon infant. My son jad this and the hospital and gp were useless at diagnosing my son

I was told by a doc in hospital that as I'm breastfeeding it would be hard to administer the Gaviscon and also that it's likely to make him constipated and potentially more uncomfortable than he is now. He doesn't seem overly uncomfortable with it or cry for long periods etc but it's just awful to watch and really taking its toll on me as we're co sleeping x

@emdexx2 I was breastfeeding my son too hun, the hospital prescribed the gaviscon for me.

Alternatively massage his belly and do cycle motion on his legs.. when he is sleeping have the moses basket proped up so he isn't laying flat x

NICE guidelines for reflux are a feeding assessment before they prescribe anything, even gaviscon. They don't do this though, because it's easier to fob off new parents with a prescription.

Was it a paediatric consultant that prescribed omeprazole?

I would ask for a feeding assessment, and if not granted look at getting one, maybe an IBCLC and a tongue tie assessment privately.

Speaking as a parent who dealt with awful silent reflux for months, trusted the GPs who said no tongue tie and prescribed gaviscon (which was difficult to use EBF and useless), eventually had tongue tie privately diagnosed at 11.5 months!

Just to add, the paediatric consultant we spoke to said omeprazole was a serious medication and he would only prescribe if LO was bringing up blood! But who knows, maybe our journey would have been easier if we'd had someone willing to prescribe it. Definitely wish I'd pushed for a feeding assessment though.

I EBF and after faffing about with powdered something (🙄) a sympathetic female GP the ok one look at my pale, teary face and prescribed Ranitidine.
Game changer. Squirted a syringe in and continued to BF.
It changed my baby's personality completely.
Never needed anything like this for older siblings, but I still thank that GP today!

We had his tongue tie cut last Thursday and I've had a couple of qualified people check his latch and they've said it's fine - I was hoping it would be something to do with this as seemed like an easier fix.

It was a paediatrician that prescribed the omeprazole I ended up taking him into hospital on Sunday after he started being sick and it coming out of his nose. I'm reluctant to start him on medication though x

I've read about this but I don't think it's a prescribed medicine in the UK anymore

Hi OP. I've been there with both DC so completely get it and know how hard it is.
Have you looked up CMPA? Might be worth having a look at the symptoms of that to see if it's the same.
DS (now 7mo) has always been formula fed and had awful reflux, he was so sick after feeds, would always tense up and arch his back when he cried. Gaviscon made him really constipated and omeprazole just made his symptoms worse. He would just scream in pain after every feed and was horrible to watch.
GP said it could be CMPA but the milk he prescribed made things so much worse. DS is now on lactose free formula and things greatly improved within 24 hours of him having that since about 3 months old. DD (6) is lactose intolerant and his symptoms were the same at hers otherwise I probably wouldn't have thought of this.
I also saw a tongue tie specialist who said he had a slight tongue tie at the back but rather than correcting it I switched to mam bottles with a narrower teat on her advise and that seemed to help loads aswell. So it might be worth seeing your gp to see if this is a possibility?
Sending you lots of hugs and hoping things improve soon

Sorry, I've just seen you had his tongue tie cut.
They used to prescribe ranitidine but omeprazole is in place of that now, they're pretty much the same thing though x

It was a while ago - but even at the time the doc said it was 'off licence' for babies for that condition, but she used it in paed wards and it was the best thing.
At the time I told her I was worried it wasn't licenced for babies, but she assured me it was a licencing issue and not a safety thing.
DD is 13 now, fighting fit with 100% school attendance so definitely worked in our case.
Good luck x

I'd try a dummy. I ebf but dd would overfeed because she needed to suck to help manage the discomfort of the reflux. It was a viscous cycle. A dummy helped her to get the right intake of milk plus extra comfort from sucking. I know they tell you that a dummy isn't a good move if you want to ebf but that's nonsense.

I would second recommendation for a feeding assessment. It's not just looking at the latch it's watching a whole feed and talking through feeding behaviour etc. Often there are tweaks which can help. Can you get hold of your local infant feeding team?

Reflux isn't always pathological, if baby is not upset and growing as they should it can be normal and they grow out of it.

Things that sometimes help: feeding in upright/laid back positions, keeping baby upright for a period after feeds.

Thank you! I will speak to the Health Visitor about a feeding assessment, the local infant feeding team only help for the first 2 weeks apparently. He only seems uncomfortable for short periods and doesn't spend ages crying etc like I know some people have to endure . The only thing that seems to bother him is the throwing up at night when he's laid down so he chokes and also the blocked nose after a sicky episode. :(

I hope you work it out OP.
I joined Mumsnet almost 20 years ago when I had a newborn and didn't know which way up to hold it! So much valuable advice on here - it's lovely to see that 20 years later new mums are able to ask the same questions I did.

Thank you! It's a minefield this parenting malarkey! Sometimes just comforting to know you aren't alone x

Have you tried giving baby any breastmilk from a bottle yet?

With my second baby, I noticed she wasn’t sick after a bottle of expressed milk, whereas she was sick after breastfeeding. I had a fast letdown and I think possibly too much foremilk. She also had a slight tongue tie. It was at about 3 weeks I noticed she seemed much more content after a bottle.

Made the decision to stop feeding at the breast and moved to bottle feeding, transitioning from EBM to formula, and eventually to an anti-reflux formula with an improvement each time. Completely different baby as a result.

I wasn’t too fussed about breastfeeding though, so I could have had the tongue tie sorted, spent ages trying to perfect latch etc but I just didn’t want the stress of it all. So if you want to stick at it (I did with my other babies) then there is some great advice above, but I did just want to share my experience in case it helps.

The combination of gaviscon and omperazole improved my daughters reflux. She needed high doses of the omperazole and also lactulose for the gaviscon induce constipation.
My daughter has severe reflux and ultimately needed further medication and still has uncontrollable reflux at 3yo.

Omperazole eases the discomfort and the gaviscon makes it harder for the milk to bring up. It is a faff to give it whilst breastfeeding but it is manageable. At its peak we gave it 9 times a day. Keep a jar of cooled boiled water with you. I replaced it twice a day and refilled the next jar with boiled water so that it would be cool when I needed it.
Next you need something with a flat base tip the fine power into it and add 10-15 ml of the water - around 3 teaspoons. Give it a good stir and syringe into the mouth. We were told to give it at the start of midway through a feed. My daughter had a feed aversion so it would take 2 or 3 attempts for her to feed so we gave it as soon as she finished the feed which her Dr was ok with. If you have a syringe with a rubber o ring or stopper - does it have a black disc or tip? Then don't prepare it in advance as the gaviscon leaches into the stopper and that can stop you from being able to depress the plunger in the syringe.

We didn't get my daughter on the right medication for a while because our GP just kept repeating that reflux is a washing issue. My daughter was miserable and I wish I had fought harder. It's horrible medicating your newborn but reflux can be bloody horrible too.

Best of luck