Reflux!

[Sammyjayne489]

My 2wk old baby has reflux she's being sick 2-3 times a day after feeding.
Has anyone got any tips on how to deal with this, is it worth visiting doctor eyc.
Thankyou

I would take her to the doctor, my dd had this and the gp gave her gaviscon. It worked wonders and she started gaining weight really quickly!

Ive just been to a talk on this.
Gaviscon is actually of no benefit in uncomplicated cases.

Guidelines we had were:
Parental education and support - so its fine for babies to be sick sometimes. If you are winding well then problems shoukd reduce.
Monitor baby's weight,.
Give small frequent feeds
Consider use of specific thickened infant formula

We are struggling with this. DS is 7 weeks and it has just started in the last few days. Mostly in the late evening, with him screaming inconsolably in pain, and burps and spit ups causing the problems rather than relieving him. It's horrible to watch. Has anyone experienced it just lasting for a short time (hopes...)? Most of the websites I've read imply it lasts for months and months :-(

My baby has reflux which wasn't diagnosed till she was about 14 weeks. Once she was on the correct doseage of medicine (stronger stuff than Gaviscon, which IMO is a total PITA to give to a bf baby) she was almost like a different baby overnight. The first 3 months were sheer and utter hell.

She started to gain weight (a pound a week compared to 2oz a week) and I really wish it had been spotted earlier by HV and doctor, who dismissed my concerns as "it's normal for a baby to cry" and "it's normal for a baby to bring up milk after feeds". Well, yes, but the slow weight gain and screaming baby should have indicated all was not well!!

DD is now 8 mo and thriving. She's still on reflux medicine but it is much reduced and I am hopeful that once she's walking she will grow out of it.

Anyway, it's horrible to have a baby with reflux but it can be brought under control and so I would advise finding a sympathetic doctor ASAP.

All babies vomit, it's perfectly normal. It's only a problem if they don't gain weight properly or they're very uncomfortable. If her weight gain is good and she's content, you just need to get used to doing lots of washing : )

We need more information to help.

It is a horrible problem when your baby screams in agony for hours and there is apparently nothing you can do about it. Please someone tell me it can be a short phase?

my DS1 has reflux, GP gave us gaviscon which was a PITA and it did nothing for him. We were told he would grow out of it. At 12 months we finally saw a consultant as i'd had enough of it, fed up of washing non stop, his record at nursery was to vomit on himself, the cot, the carpet and 3 staff members, all because they put him in a cot and let him cry for approx 30 seconds....as by 12 months he had been sick so many times he could make himself vomit whenever he wanted to. Went onto domperidone and omeprazole at 14 months (excuse spelling if wrong) and life improved massively since then. Now approaching 2 yrs and only been involuntarily sick once a month for last 3 months with reflux, and he has stopped being sick voluntarily completely. In the meanwhile, we now have a 5 week old DS2 who so far i think might be reflux free :) don't want to get my hopes up but we've only had a few full stomach emptying sessions, and am always prepared now with bath towels spread out when i feed him just in case (and we still have a sick bowl in DS1's room for when he has his milk before nap's/bedtime...

Ranitidine.

Also how do you know baby has reflux? Being sick after feed quite normal, reflux is on just being sick. Have not sought medical opinion or self diagnosis?

Dc2 was a very sicky baby for the first 4 or 5 months, but as she was still gaining weight I didn't take her to the gp. I don't know if it was reflux but I do know it was a nightmare and we never experienced it at all with dc1. I would have to sit upright with dd for up to an hour every feed day and night, constantly feed while covered in towels and the constant washing of bedclothes, her clothes, my clothes was endless. She would seem very uncomfortable before bringing milk back. I sympathise, it's exhausting. Propping her cot up a bit on books helped settle her, so she wasn't lying completely flat so you could try that. She is weaning now and prettying much everything that goes down stays down thank goodness!

Our dd is 6 months old and has been diagnosed with silent reflux - she's never sick but is incredibly fussy while eating, has had major issues sleeping (3 months of sleeping for 30 mins then taking the same or more to go back down again , always ended up with DH or I taking her downstairs in the middle of the night to sleep on our chest on the sofa!) and wasn't sleeping during the day so was niggly quite often....yeah, welcome to motherhood, broody! We assumed - like all of our family and friends that she was a mardy baby, that she was hungry and needed weaning early (pft don't get me started on that!!) or that she actually had a 4 month sleep regression hangover!
We went to a cranial osteopath a few weeks back and she suggested reflux...a few hours later, we were at the docs and he wrote out a prescription immediately! Such a relief!
Since then, we prop up her mattress with rolled up towels/blankets at one end and lay her to sleep on her tummy. Instead of being woken 12-15 times a night, we're been down to four. I was worried about tummy sleeping but she's got great head control and can roll comfortably so I'm a big fan now!
Might be worth asking your hv for advice on tummy sleeping? Obviously if you prop up the mattress, she'll still benefit from her head being raised above her tummy (which stops the puke from rising up) so it could work for you? Best of luck xx

My 18 day old seems to gulp her feed down so fast she cannot breathe. We give her a break whilst feeding in case she needs to burp. But she seems to find eating a burping a bit of a struggle.
Have asked midwife and hv, but like otherfolk have said, they just fob it all off as normal. Her cries dont seem normal, it sounds like she is in pain. She is extremely fussy, sleeps a lot during the day, and wont settle in her moses basket at night. We were told to wake her every 3hrs to feed, which we do, but she is just so distressed all the time.
She never latched, so we use formula and expressed milk. Really dont know what elae we can do. Been using detinox in her feed for colic, doesnt seem to help. Think I might go to the drs tomoro. Ive not had more than 3hrs of sleep, and i have to bring her downstairs so hubby can sleep, he is back at work full time. At my wits end, and she is not even 3wks old!!

My ds's reflux wasn't diagnosed until he was 14 weeks and I had to pester them to see him and help him!

He was constantly being sick, not gaining weight and in pain lying down....don't know why it took 14 weeks! But they did want to harass me about his lack of weight. He is 32 weeks now and under 7lb over his birth weight! Be insistent!

They reluctantly gave him gaviscon which did help but quickly made him so constipated he was being more sick and was in more discomfort.

I eventually seen a specialist who gave a good balance of gaviscon and lactulose.

Ds did get a bit better once he went onto solids and it thankfully seems to be bothering him less and less.

Doctors didn't seem to want to help and were so blase, maybe it's common for them but for me it wasn't the norm to see my baby scream in pain! Pester them to help you if need be...and keep in mind the side effects like constipation!

I was really lucky that dd decided to vomit up a whole feed in front of the hv who immediately said it looks like reflux and told me to take her to the gp. She hadn't been gaining weight and screamed as soon as I put her down which I kept telling mws and hvs but they kept saying she was fine and all babies throw up. She was much better as soon as she started on the gaviscon, if in doubt always seek a second opinion!

There is a charity that offers advice and support to families with little refluxers, they have been a life line to my brother and his wife when their son was finally diagnosed with severe reflux, they are called Living With Reflux and are there for the babies who have it for a short while all the way to the children and adults who suffer with it throughout their lives.

I hope this site is helpfl to you xx

www.livingwithreflux.org/

From our experience the gp was crap and did very little until dd weight became an issue. Obv I'm not in ur shoes but being sick 2-3 times a day doesn't sound too bad. But there's loads of practicle measures u can take

Feed ur baby more upright
Keep them upright a good 20-30 mins after a feed
Keep them upright as much as possible. Use a sling or really vertical bouncy chair
This Wasn't for me but use a dummy. The suckling produces saliva that helps neutralise acid
Prop up the head end of their cot/Moses basket

My baby was sick loads after every feed right from day one, she is my first and I was really panicking and convinced she had reflux but HV said some babies are just "sicky". She told me that the volume baby was puking out was probably a lot less than I thought and that I shouldn't worry too much and not even go mad on winding, which I had been paranoid about. DD is 12 weeks old now and has put on loads of weight (gone from 9th to 50th centile) and is starting to be sick a bit less, although still often brings up mouthfuls of milk, but not as projectile as it was in first four weeks.

Might be worth asking HV/GP just in case but it's possible your LO is just prone to spilling a bit after feeding I guess? If so then hopefully she'll pile on the weight still - HV said to not worry and that the only real issue was all the extra laundry! I am now that cliche of a mother with a muslin permanently thrown over one shoulder, and dried sick on the other one though!