Reflux , Has anyone had experiance of this

[ariel]

DS who is 7 months old (although he was 11 wks prem) has had a problem of being quite sick after each bottle and solid meal,so yesterday i took him to the doc who said it could be reflux and gave me infant gavisgon to add to every bottle.Since having this he hasnt been sick at all, the doc told me to add 2 sachets of gavisgon to every feed, this morning i read the box and the instructions say that 2 sachets need to be mixed with the minimum of 225mls of milk, and ds is only drinking 140/150mls 6 to 7 times a day, it also says add it to no more than 6 feeds, but sometimes he can have more.Does anyone have experiance of this any advice would be great.

My ds had enormous amounts of "spit up" after every breastfeed until I started him on solids at 6 months. A few months into the solids the amount that came up died down eventually to nothing (other than a constant stream of drool). At the time everyone had lots of advice including gaviscon, feeding him less, feeding him in a different position, giving him formula instead of breast milk, starting solids before 6 months etc. etc. I decided that although totally inconvenient (he needed changing 3 or 4 times a day), the "spitting up" didn't actualy seem to bother my ds in any way, and he was gaining weight healthily, so I figured we'd just wait it out. If your ds is gaining weight the way he is supposed to and doesn't seem to be bothered by the sick, then I'm not sure you should worry about it too much.

Our dd has mild reflux. When she switched to formula our dr prescribed a thickener called Thick n Easy which I understand is often used for premature babies in UK hospitals. It basically works like cornflour and makes the milk as thick as required to try and hold it in the tummy longer. We were also advised to sit her in her car seat after feeds for at least half an hour and not even to change her in the meantime. This proved increasingly difficult as time went on and she became more mobile. However reflux can contribute to conditions such as ear and throat infections as it creates an environment in which bacteria thrive.

I thought things would improve when we put her on solids but that in itself caused more problems, and she still vomits easily when she catches a lump in her throat at a year old. We have just learnt to deal with it and gradually things have become easier so that she can deal with fairly normal consistencies and finger foods now.

It sounds as if your ds is still having a fairly substantial amount of milk. Do you offer it at the same time as a solid meal as this may cause it to become more fluid in his tummy and therefore more readily refluxed.

Having it diagnosed at 7 months is quite late and the majority of babies are well on their way to growing out of the condition by then so things should improve for you soon anyway.

all the best

LizS

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sb34, This also worried me alot as ds was allways being sick in his sleep, in the past i have put him to sleep on his side , but now as he can roll back onto his back i do worry more, i never allow him to sleep in a room on his own and have moved his cot right next to my bed, the car seat thing makes no differance it does not seem to matter if i keep him upright. He does still have alot of milk and he has around 4/5 ounces with meals, so maybe i should cut this down, or feed him smaller amounts more often. I have reduced the amount of gaviscon to one sachet in every bottle and that seems ok, he has not been sick for two days so hopefully it stays that way.

I had reflux as a baby, had thickener in my milk, slept sitting up, started on solids at 2 months, but positively, I grew out of it quickly and have not had a problem since. My mum said it was hard and worrying (I was in hospital quite a bit, in those days it wasn't so recognised) but now she rarely remembers me being poorly.

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Ariel

Have you tried raising the head of the cot if you are concerned about night time vomiting ? Ours is wedged up on two Ikea toilet training steps, mainly when dd has a cold or cough to prevent the onset of infections, on the advice of our paediatrician. They soon get used to the angle !!

I too found that the feeding less, more often approach worked better.

Hope things improve soon.

LizS

my daughter was diagnosed with reflux as a small baby. she was constantly sick and was always wearing a bib. every feed she would bring up. she had a barrier meal and xray at the local hospital, she had already been given carobel, which wasn't any good as it made the milk so thick she couldn't suck it through the teat, so she was prescribed cisapride. it wasn't until she was up on her feet that the problem improved.
now my daughter is nearly nine and undergoing tests at the hospital for permanant stomach pains. some days are worse than others. she has had ultra sound examinations in which they found fluid in the stomach and they couldn't see her right ovary properly either. she now has to see a surgeon and will probably have a camera put into her stomach. the consultant keeps bringing up the fact she was on cisapride as a baby, so i thought i'd do my own investigations on the net. to my horror, this medication was not supposed to be given to babies and has actually been withdrawn because of the side effects.
we now have to wait and see if there is any damage done and whether cisapride is to blame. meanwhile my daughter is suffering.

My ds had this problem after almost every bottle. I just waited it out and it slowly decreased until it stopped all together. I felt he was still getting the right amount of formula

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sb34
i can't ever remember being given the choice when the doctor at the hospital prescribed cisapride. you put your faith and lives in the medical professions hands, hoping they can find a suitable medicine that will improve your condition and they take advantage by giving children medicines that aren't even licensed for them. this has made my husband and myself very angry. if the problem is put down to cisapride then someone will be paying!! we are just waiting for an appointment to see the surgeon.

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yes, she does go to school. i had to pick her up yesterday as one of the boys had hit her in the stomach.
some days are worse than others. she says she has a stomach ache every day, i think she has just learnt to put up with it. this isn't just a recent illness, it's been going on for a couple of years. the doctor just said she had colic, until they started to get really bad and more frequent, thats when i took her back and got a referral to the hospital. when it gets really bad, it tends to be in the evening, so she goes to bed with a hot water bottle. it makes me get angry, cos theres nothing i can do to help her and i'm not giving her painkillers every day. hopefully we won't have to wait to long for the surgeons appointment to come through. she was in hospital earlier in the year with suspected appendicitis, they put it down to a virus. maybe this was part of the same thing.

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this is another possibility. i think the doctor wants to rule out one thing at a time and the fact that she was on cisapride as a baby, i think he's more worried about seeing if there is any damage done first. it's just a case of illiminating one thing at a time.

we now have an appointment to see the surgeon on 18th november, to find out what the next step will be.

Ariel, there is a fantastic new milk out called Enfamille AR, this thickens in the stomach and stops the reflux. It is on prescription only, though may avoid your worries about the right amount of gaviscon to use.

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well, we waited 40 minutes to see the surgeon, only to be told she had been called away to an emergency, so we had to see another lady in a white coat. All she did was ask the same old questions (yawn yawn) and then decide my ds should do a urine sample and have a blood test. If these come back clear then she will be having the camera put in her stomach.
our next appointment is in about three weeks. oh, if only i'd kept the personnal health cover, all this would of been sorted long ago!!

whoops, meant to put dd, not ds.......hit wrong button.......doh!!!

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Belorimi - just wondered if you could possibly clarify the symptoms for me, my reason being that my dd (nearly 8) was diagnosed with reflux last week and put on gaviscon. She's in a lot of pain and I keep having to pick her up from school.
She never had any problems as a baby though..... Thanks to anyone who can shed any light on this.

A very late reply to ariel - my dd2 is now 18mns, and has had reflus since a baby (she was also premature).

She has been on infant gaviscon since 1 week old, and I used to put it in every feed - more than 6 as she often brought up the whole feed, so I was always starting again.

I sometimes would add 1.5 sachets instead, when her feeds got larger. Gradually she stopped being sick except at the night feed, when she was sick in bed nearly every night. She would only have to cough and sick up her whole feed.
Our solution was to only ever put her to bed asleep, as it was when she cried at night that she was sick. I never found keeping her upright made any difference.
She did stop this at 16mns, and we are now weaning her off the gaviscon, but have found that it has helped us greatly. HTH

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Thanx janeyt, ds is now 9 months old and has thankfully stopped being sick, except for the usuall little bit every now and then, we have not had to give him gaviscon for 6 wks now so hopefully thats the end of it.