Toddler reflux returned?

[lemondropsandchimneytops]

My 15 month old had reflux as an infant, it seemed to have resolved by the time she was 6 months.

Recently she's often been sick at night, shortly after going to bed. We're back to sitting with her after her milk and helping her get her burps out, which seems to be helping but isn't entirely preventing the sickness. She gets the hiccups alot and she has smelly breath.

Basically, lots of the symptoms of reflux. I know they say that reflux doesn't come back but wondered if anyone had it come back? I am going to take her to the GP.

Good idea to get her checked out by the GP. Just wondering if she has to have milk before bed? Could it be incorporated with her dinner or perhaps a yoghurt and then there's some time for it to settle before she goes to bed. My now 4 year old never drank milk after finishing with formula at 1 year old (she didn't like it)..

She loves it, I don't think we'd get her down without it to be honest. We are slowly cutting down though as she does tend to drink a lot at bedtime.

Agree with this
Replace with water if she is thirsty and calories from food.
Get her down with a calm bedtime routine, story, shower or bath, hug and kiss.

Not sure if you're suggesting stopping bedtime milk suddenly but we wouldn't do that. Like I say, we are working on reducing it but I don't see us cutting it out altogether. Notwithstanding that she'd miss it, she's dairy intolerant so we don't have other good sources of calcium. I'm hoping there's a middle ground.

I anticipate the GP saying reflux doesn't come back but I'm sure it has, we didn't have these issues for months.

Thank you for the replies, I do get wrapped up in our day to day bubble so it's interesting, and surprising, to me that people wouldn't give milk at that age.

Please update me what gp says because we have similar situation

My daughters reflux goes in and out of control by 8 months she was on 3 medications for it by 12 months it was much better and we had got down to 1 medication and were on the verge of try to stop that when it returned full force and it took 4 months to get it back under control again and she ended up back on all 3 medications and needed higher doses.
She barely gained any weight between 7 and 13 months and the return of the reflux coincided with her gaining weight and starting to grow again. It was mostly controlled until 3 when she was back at newborn levels of distress from reflux and she needed her omperazole dose doubling! She's been stablish since, she will be 5 in August..

Triggers for her reflux getting worse are growth spurts upright less so weight gain, teething, colds and reactions to foods she's allergic too. She's been under paediatrics since 4 months and at one point was seeing 2, and they haven't been surprised by it going in and out of control.

@Nunsim the GP agreed she has reflux, more likely that she has good periods and bad periods than that it ever really went away

@Superscientist oh that sounds awful! Poor wee girl. Do they think she'll grow out of it? My daughter is often sick when she has a cold, especially at night and I think that's to do with her reflux. We'd never really thought that before. I'd taken her to a GP when she was 7 months and had her first cold because she was being sick. GP that time thought she had a bit of gastritis/gastroenteritis (can't remember which) but said that once they've grown out of reflux it doesn't come back. I don't think she ever really did grow out of it. Her symptoms aren't anywhere near as bad as your daughter's though. I hope your daughter makes progress.

They have explained to me that the reflux is from the valve as the top of her stomach not being strong enough. If she's at a stable weight it starts to get strong but then she has a growth spurt and it weakens again so that's why it's varies with growth.
With the teething and colds it's more that the reflux was just about being tolerated but as soon as there's more drool or snot she's tipped over the edge into symptoms again so it's not going and returning it's being tolerated and then less tolerated.

Hers has been tricky to keep on top off. The omperazole only seems to be effective at the high doses so she's usually on the highest dose for her age. A couple of times she's started to out grow that dose before it can be increased again. She reached the maximum dose for under 2 by 6 months which was why we had to have other medications introduced. They did make promises about outgrowing it by 2 and then starting school. Now they say at some point. Her last bad flare up was 3 and took until 3.5 to get under control - this was when we were under 2 paediatricians. Switching from max dose for her age rather than her weight made a huge difference but we needed to see a gastro specialist paediatrician to green light this swap. She's been relatively stable in the 2 years since then but her weight gain is slower so she's not outgrowing doses as quickly - she's only gained 2kg in that time so the dosage of omperazole has only decreased a little and is still in her therapeutic window. She has had steady growth in height too rather than not growing and then suddenly growing loads.

She has multiple food allergies and the only reliable time of day we have of her drinking a decent amount of oat milk is just before bed which is less than ideal. We switched the milk to be at the start of the bed time routine so it's now about half an hour before she lies down and that made quite a difference. We also reduced it from about 240ml to 200ml and that helped too whilst still allowing us to get a fair amount in her

I'd go back to the GP and request a paediatrician referral, I believe all reflux in over 1 yo olds qualifies for paediatric reviews. A dietician appointment might help you understand how much you need to worry about the calcium from oat milk and how much they need from alternative sources to find the right overall balance for her.

Hi @lemondropsandchimneytops i know this is an old thread but I’m wondering how your little one is and what your GP suggested as a treatment? Really struggling with similar symptoms in my 1 year old!

Hi,

We were back and forward to the GP a few times. We were initially prescribed Gaviscon again but I don't think it helped her at all. After the first GP visit we connected the dots that she was being sick when she'd had tomatoes in any form for dinner. We cut out tomatoes and she's hardly been sick since but we still have some other reflux symptoms. We got prescribed omeprazole but we hadn't a hope of getting her to take it 😂 She's a bit of a nightmare for stuff like that! I went back to the GP (different one) and she referred us to a paediatrician because her symptoms didnt quite fit the bill for reflux. We're still waiting for an appointment but fortunately since cutting out tomatoes we've seen such a big improvement. We've also cut out peppers because we think they don't agree with her either but it's not as obvious as tomatoes. Being tomato and dairy free is a pain...

It's horrible when they're suffering isn't it. Have they had reflux before?

Ah thanks so much for replying!!

That’s interesting you mention about tomatoes. My daughter has food allergies but hasn’t eaten anything she hasn’t had previously and she’s never been like this before. This all started after a cold and I suspect the mucus and saliva from teething is making her stomach super acidic, then the coughing is actually making her sick. I suspect she had silent reflux as a tiny baby as she’s always cried when on her back and spit up a lot. The doctor wasn’t convinced but agreed to let us try gaviscon so we’ll see. She was very upset this morning before being sick after sleeping on her back, so poor thing was obviously in pain or feeling unwell.

Coincidentally, my mum has silent reflux and the symptoms are identical to what happens to my daughter. Hope you get some answers for your little one