Severe reflux, still not getting any better at 9mths, still can't tolerate food any experience?

[weirdbird]

My 9mth old has severe reflux, she is on Domperidone and Ranitadine and still throws up 3-4 times a week. With my DD1 when we started weaning she improved immensely, with DD2 it has made things far worse and apart from fuit/veg pureess, food makes her throw up. It doesnt matter how purreed meat is, it makes her gag, if she gags she throws up.

We aren't due to see the peadiatrician again for another month and I havnt been able to bring the appt forward. Does anyone have any experience of this?

I would advise osteopathy or cranio-sacral osteopathy. It really works.

My three children all had colic and related possiting and it cleared it completely. It has also helped with car sickness which my son had EVERYWHERE we went (even a couple of miles).

I live in Dublin and recommend mine to everyone who will listen.

Hope this helps.

My dd2 has moderate reflux, and is on the same meds - when I started weaning at 6 months I expected it to make things better, but she actually got worse. As you say, its the gagging that makes them throw up - once she'd taken food in, she was ok, it was just the struggle to swallow.

Anyway - I gave up on pureed food after a month or two, as dd refused the spoon more and more and was losing weight. The HV suggested Baby Led Weaning, finger foods only - and we've never looked back. dd still gagged a bit to start with, but feeling more in control of what she put in her mouth seemed to help hugely.

Might be a totally different issue with your dd (my dd's reflux is linked to Laryngomalacia - a floppy larynx, which makes her v noisy/squeaky when breathing but which she will grow out of) so I've no idea if my experience will help or not, but I hope so: reflux is upsetting, and very hard work!

Wishing you loads of luck till your apt...

ps hello WB

I'm so dopey tonight (fluey cold) I've only just noticed it was you

She has had Osteopathy, although it helped with the pain side, it hasnt stopped her throwing up. Bizarrely as an aside she never possets its all or nothing.

HI Eli, we have tried BLW as well, but it doesn't seem to make any difference, all it takes is for her to cough sometimes and she throws up.

The problem is she seems to be getting less keen on food rather than more and I wonder if this is linked to the higher instance of throwing up with it.

Just don't know whether to stop food or what, and just wondered if anyone else had had a similar experience before I manage to see the Paed...

hi weirdbird

my dd (who is now 7!) has reflux like this. Weaning was a total disaster. All it meant was that she still threw up every day but now she threw up solid food too .

We eventually stopped her solid food - can't remember when - think she was around 9/10 months and went back to milk (she was on Nutramigen which I think is complete food for them up to a certain age) for a few days. Once she had stabilised on that again, we started RIGHT back at the start with very pureed carrot.

It took ages but it was the only way to do it. I can't remember when we reintroduced meat/fish but it was a fair way down the line. She also had a proper egg/milk/soya allergy that complicated matters.

At the time, I thought she may actually have been allergic to some meats/fish but it appears that her digestive system just couldn't tolerate them at the time. As she got older, she managed them better.

We stuck to other foods to get protein like beans and lentils.

Speak to the paed when you get your appointment. Later on, she was diagnosed with an epigastric hernia and I always wonder whether that complicated matters.

I don't know what milk she is on but I don't think it matters that much if she's not having meat especially if she's on a special formula.

Fox - So glad I'm not the only one, knew what I was doing with this being the 2nd child with reflux up till recently, but this reaction to food has left me in uncharted waters.

I am still breastfeeding, mainly due to the fact that she is still throwing up so much.

See I had wondered whether we just needed to give up food for a bit and start from the beginning again, though we havn't gotten that far past complete fuit/veg purees anyway.

Will speak to Paed in a few weeks time, am just so reassured that this isnt entirely unheard off. You start to worry that something else is going on.

Oh and you said "has" reflux like this, does this mean she still has it?

Both of mine had it as babies.

To a certain extent, they are still a bit refluxy now (but we've done nothing about it).

Both of them will still throw up if they get very congested with cold or if they gag on food (or cough a lot). They can also both 'make' themselves throw up very easily!

Also, every now and then, they will complain about waking up with 'sick in their mouths' which I take it is reflux.

But then again, I get it too and thinking about it, probably should have forseen one or both of them having it (I didn't though for some reason!).

If you get it too, its worth seeing the doctor, I only say this because I got told off for NOT seeing the doctor about myself.

Apparently if your lower asophogus (sp?) is exposed to stomach acid often enough it will mutate to cope with it and often the mutation will turn cancerous.

Mine is hernia induced, the lovely result of having had DD1.

Hmmmm self induced vomiting that sounds like fun!

DD1 and DD2 throw up when they get very congested so I understand that one.

Its funny how we expect them to inherit some things and don't expect them to inherit others, I have recently been shocked that my DD1 has inherited my love of musicals, its been great fun watching them with her, just entirely unexpected my poor DH

Can I recommend, this website? I have found it very useful

www.cryingoverspiltmilk.co.nz

, it is the gastric reflux support network for parents of infants and children in NZ, and it does cover every aspect, medication ,symptoms, diet, weaning?..

DS 2 had severe reflux, till he was 8m, then just one morning without reasons, he was better. He was on a pump inhibitor medication, the European name for losec is lansox, and it really did the difference. We have started with ranitidine, added gaviscon then went straight to half a pill then full dose of lansox.
I was on a very strict diet (bf) no dairy, fish, citrus fruit ,it didn?t really make things better, but did make them really worse if I had one of the above.
Weaning started late (7m) and very slowly. Fruit was too acid for him (except melon), so had lots of soups, minestrone which didn?t cause prob.
Dairy is still a problem for ds (now 13m), he will vomit and have very strong diarrhoea

Ohhh thank you Lory, will take a look, I havn't given anything up while breastfeeding but we try not to eat any processed produce anyway which is meant to be the worst offender. Well thats not entirely true, I did give up dairy to see if it made any difference as DD1 was dairy intolerant to the point of being sick if she had any (or I did when still bf'ing) but it made no difference so I slowly re-introduced it to me diet again.

My DS had a food (i.e milk) aversion caused by silent reflux and he got hysterical just by seeing the bottle. He was treated for failure to thrive and had tests done. Domperidone and ranitadine gave him the runs so he came off that. I then saw a wonderful peadiatric gastroenterologist. He put him on Losec and said it would take a few weeks for the drug to work and heal the previous damage - then a bit longer for him to realise that food (milk) didn't equal pain.

We started weaning at around 5 months because we were told that it might help the reflux (it didn't). He would gag easily when he tried a new texture. Interestingly, he would eat toast quite happily then gag on very smooth puree! I mentioned this to his gastroenterologist and he said it was very common for refluxy babies to have a sensitive gag reflex - it is a matter of slowing building their confidence. DS was happier when he was in control rather than being spoon fed - so I just gave him finger food for a while - he let me spoon feed him anything from around 13/14 months and hasn't gagged for ages.