My 7 week old has acid reflux, please help!

[aimallen]

Hello all, I'm new to mumsnet so please bear with me!

I am at my wits end and need some advice. My 7 week old son appears to have bad acid reflux, he won't settle between feeds and is in agony whilst feeding (more so after he has brought his wind up) and is very sick.

He started on gaviscon at 4 weeks old, at which point the main problem was he was struggling to feed and wouldn't settle. He also had very green watery poo so I tried changing his milk from aptamil to sma, his stools are a little firmer but still green.

I took him back to the docs last week and she gave him ranitidine (liquid zantac). I was worried about him taking it so as a last attempt I tried colief for a few days but he was just getting worse.

I have now been giving him ranitidine for 48 hours and he still seems to be getting worse. He seems to be in so much pain, I can't bear it. Should I stop the ranitidine, change his milk? Help!!!!

Hi Aimallen. First of all, my symphaties. Reflux is hell
My 6 months old DS still has it but it's now more under control with meds. It's good your son got diagnosed relatively early.
I would give ranitidine a bit more time to see if it works. There is a brilliant website about reflux which gives info on medication and dosages:
www.cryingoverspiltmilk.co.nz/MedicalTreatment/MedicationwithDosages.htm

I have read that green poo may be one of the symptoms of lactose intolerance or intolerance to cow milk protein. If the meds don't make a difference after about a week, maybe it's worth investigating? Lactose intolerance can be confirmed or otherwise by doing a stool test for reducing substances. I don't believe there is a reliable test for cow milk protein allergy/ intolerance in babies that little. (I may be wrong - I am by no means a healthcare prof - just a first time mum of a baby with all the above problems :/ )
According to some sources, up to 45% of babies with reflux also have a problem with cow milk protein:
www.paediatricgastroenterologist.co.uk/development.htm

If it is "only" reflux, and ranitidine doesn't help, maybe your doc could prescribe omeprazole - this is the only thing that has worked for my DS.

Good luck and hang in there, it will get better!

My daughter also has reflux (GERD) and she's on omperazole and that helped her alot. She was diagnosed when she just 2 weeks old. I know what your going through, its VERY TOUGH! Just hang in there, you just need time and patience. To control reflux, you just need the right medication and the baby will outgrow it, for some it takes few yrs and other just few months. My daughter is 4 months old, she still spits up (not as much as before, she's on a thickened formula) but I'm able to keep more milk in her than before. GRED is sooo scary and its sad how infants have to go through this. Take Care

Keep going back to the docs, the other meds you can try is domperidone, by DD was on ranitidine and domperidone. However the thing that made the biggest difference of us what changing her milk to Enfamil AR, it is only available on prescription, but it was life changing for us, DD suddenly started sleeping and keeping down her milk, it's definitely worth asking about

thanks everyone, we are at the docs on thurs for his 8 week check so I will ask about milk. I have also heard that Nutramigen (sp?) is good for reflux, does anyone have any experience of this milk?

Also is Enfamil AR just thickened milk or is it also lactose and cows milk free?

Nutramigen is lactose and cow milk protein free. (actually, not cow milk protein free as such - it containes hydrolised protein, as if pre-digested, so most babies with cow milk protein intolerance do well on it)It is good for babies whose reflux is caused by cow milk protein intolerance.
Enfamil AR is just thickened and usually works quite well with babies with no food intolerances.
Good luck and let us know how you get on.

well, just got back from docs and they are going to arrange for him to see a consultant at the hospital.

he now has a really nasty rash on his face and chest so i wondered if the ranitadine wasn't suiting him but she wants us to continue with it and the gaviscon until we see the consultant.

Had no sleep at all last night as he wouldn't settle. I hope the hospital can find some answers, hate seeing him suffer like this

poor you and your DS ask your GP for an urgent referal, otherwise it could be ages before you get seen. the rash could also suggest some sort of milk allergy, not sure

hope you have a better night tonight.

Have just been to clinic to have Ben weighed and he is gaining very slowly (curve on chart is now going down). He was between 50th and 75th centile at birth and now is on 25th!

HV says she think he has a milk allergy, we have managed to get appointment at the hospital on monday. I just hope they listen!

I'll let you know how it goes.

Aimallen, Monday is brilliant. we had an urgent referal, for a 3 month old refusing to feed and we still had to wait 2-3 weeks before we got seen.
fingers crossed you get some help on Monday, let us know how it goes.

(your HV sounds great btw, mine just kept telling me he had colic )

Ben has been put on Neocate LCP formula along with his gaviscon and ranitadine.

He seemed to be getting worse to start with so i rang the hospital to ask if it was normal and they asked me to take him in for 24hrs observation. They just said he seemed ok and to give it some time.

we are now on day 3 and he appears to be slightly improved, lets hope it continues!

Aimallen, we never tried neocate (and I know that drs are reluctant to prescribe it because of the cost), but it took about 3 days on nutramigen to see an improvement.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you, keep us posted.