Hand holding please-sleep apnoea in 14 week old with reflux

[bethylou]

DS2 has reflux and has gagged/struggled to breathe in these periods since birth. He is on omeprazole now as gaviscon and ranitidine didn't work well enough.

I bought a breathing monitor at about 6 weeks when I read that refluxy babies can stop breathing. It has worked perfctly since then with no alarms or problems until last Thursday.

The alarm went off at 6:30a.m on Thursday. I shook DS2 gently and then he seemed fine. We got a new montior that night (as was querying whether the orignal was really working right) and that one has gone off twice this a.m while DS2 was napping in the cot.

I have a paeds appointment for him tomorrow to discuss the reflux anyway but DH and I are really scared. Any advice on limiting incidents of apnoea (which I suspect this is) in refluxy babies would be gratefully received.

Can't really see that I'm going to feel confident to let DS2 sleep while we are out with DS1 this week so may be housebound where we can use the monitor.

I used a monitor with my dc and it went off for all of them at some point.

I thought that they perhaps held their breath for a long time but when the moniter sounded their breathing started again.

Another theory I had was that they had moved off the pad under the matress.

Possibly not very sicentific explanation.

What I am trying to say is that it is probably OK but check it out with your Dr and be reasured, you have the moniter on.

How scary for you. Im afraid i dont have any advice but will gladly hold your hand We had to buy a breathing monitor a few weeks back after i woke in the night and couldnt see/feel DD2 breathing I shook her hard in panic and she didn't respond until the 2nd hard shake. I know how scary it is. I can totally understand you not feeling confident about your DS sleeping without the monitor. Im not either.

Hope someone more helpful comes along soon

I totally understand how you feel. Both my dss have had reflux and irregular breathing/choking when sleeping. It's incredibly stressful, isn't it?

Have you raised the cot head a fair bit? That helps a bit (as does anything that keeps them more upright). Also never putting them to bed less than half an hour after the last feed (I'm sure you are already doing that).

With ds1 by the time he was 14 weeks we were already giving him something to help thicken his feeds a bit - maybe ask your paed about this?

I think raising the head of the cot can be of help: it reduces the reflux and therefore reduces the risk of apnoeic episodes. I think you can buy special wedges (would ask the paed first though) but for tonight perhaps you could stick a couple of big books under the cot legs to minimise the acid coming up from his tummy?

Sounds shitty for you. Hope you feel more confident after the paeds appointment tomorrow: maybe write a list of questions you need answering so you don't forget once you get there?

A long answer, but I hope you will find it supportive....I really feel for you, I have been there. My dd 3 was diagnosed with a pulminary stenosis and an innocent murmour. At 11 weeks she was admitted to hospital as she started going blue on her hands and feet, really blue, and then around her mouth wasn't growing and had always made a funny gagging noise when she was asleep, right from an hour after birth. Doctors went into overdrive, wouldn't release her from hospital, had her on sats monitoring, I broke my heart because I though she was either going to die. They scanned her, xrayed her, barium swallow etc for reflux, put her on all the meds your ds is on, nothing helped. They finally released her from hospital as they couldn't find anything wrong, kept monitoring her for months. I have always been a bit paranoid about cot death and so all mine used an monitor with a pad, and she like both the others sometimes set it off, but when I went to her she was fine, I think because they just wiggle off it. In the end after nearly 7 months they signed her off saying there was nothing wrong with her, she probably had a floppy larynx which made the gagging sound, but that would solve itself, the stenosis had healed, and she still goes blue on hands and feet they say she just had poor circulation in them. She is now 18 months, full of beans, nicely rounded baby, who is just tiny compared to her siblings.

Good luck today, write down all your questions as LittleLebowski suggests, and write down their answers if it helps, do raise the cot with books or something, (they put my dd on a slope when in hospital so must help), use your monitor because it will make you feel more reassured, but don't panic when it goes off, it is probably her just wriggling off the mat. If they admit your ds2 today don't panic, they are just being careful. I will be thinking of you, hope you get all the reassurance you need.

Thanks for all of the above advice- good to hear some positive outcomes. I've started a new thread just now about the appointment and the advice from the paediatrician as was not as reassured as I hoped to be.

Hi my DS has reflux and stopped breathing after choking at 4 weeks old, was rushed to hospital and tested and diagnosed with reflux. He still has it at 18 months and still on the meds but it's much more manageable. He still does the choking thing but not as bad as he used to although weaning was a nightmare. Most cases of the apnea tend to go away by 12 weeks I was told. We used a hammock and baby breathing alarm for 12 months and had the hammock right by our bed. Hope thing improve soon.