Silent reflux - please advise

[Craftycakey15]

I have a three week old baby who we think has silent reflux (midwife advised). We are seeing a paediatrician the midwife knows on Monday but just wanted to hear from other parents who have been through this. My baby cries after feeding and changing when we try to settle her. The midwife advised the use of a dummy to settle my baby to sleep and that helps. We are hoping to be given Ranitidine on Monday. How soon does it work? Is it something she will need to take for a while ? Any tips you can give we would appreciate. We changed the milk to lactose free a couple of days ago and have had more poo (as baby was constipated even after changing to comfort milk).

3 week old babies are not designed to sleep by themselves. They want to be next to you all the time.

She is with us

Sorry my post was a bit glib. New borns want to be in physical contact with Mum or Dad all time. My 6 1/2 seems to be going through the need to be in contact again to sleep at the moment.

MY almost 7 week old DS has horrendous reflux coupled with CMPA. We were given infant gaviscon at first, which did absolutely nothing.
It got to the point where he screamed through every single feed and for at least an hour afterwards. One day a few weeks ago, he screamed every time I attempted to feed him, and only ate 1.5oz over a 7 hour period my GP would t see him that day, so I went to A&E and refused to leave until someone helped him. Eventually, we saw a paediatric consultant who observed a feed, saw how much pain DS was in and said the gaviscon is always the first point of call for reflux because it's the cheapest thing to prescribe but is not very effective except in cases of mild reflux. He prescribed omeprazole and a different dairy-free formula.
2 weeks in, and my DS is like a different baby!! He is still sick sometimes, but is no longer screaming in pain like he was.

mybreadiseggy thank you for commenting. Why do GPs prescribe this gaviscon when it's so bad for babies! We went straight to a paediatrician who prescribed the ranitidine but told us to go back to the Aptamil first as few children need dairy free! It was just the excellent midwife we have been using who told us on Friday to give the aptimil lactose free a chance to work with the ranitidine - she has been on a course about silent reflux this week. So we have been on it for a few days. Baby is pooing more regularly - once every day or two and calmer at most times but we are managing this with use of dummy on settling. Every night since Wednesday we have a bad period of several hours awake with tears we couldn't settle til she tired herself out.

I don't know if aptimil lactose free is dairy free? What is the name of your milk?

The midwife recommended a top paediatrician on silent reflux as the next step if baby isn't better this week. That would be quite an expense for us though.

Check the tin of aptimal - lactose and cows milk protein are different. I think lactose free formula is usually also suitable for CMPI children.

Infant gaviscon can very very effective and it can save babies going on other meds. If baby has bad reflux though it won't be enough alone.

Please don't worry about the dummy. Your baby is very tiny and if it gives her comfort then leave her too it. Our consultant recommended a dummy for exactly this reason.

Reflux babies have had a difficult experience - feeding has caused them pain absolutely made them ill. They need comfort and time to settle a bit from my experience

Crafty
Is it the Aptamil Pepti you are using?? That's what our GP gave us to try first.
The dietician at the hospital told us the Aptamil Pepti and Nutrimigen are still cows milk-based, but the allergenic proteins have been hydrolysed so that baby doesn't have to break them down. But for babies with quite an acute allergy (like my son), it's not quite enough to stop him reacting, so we are now using Neocate, which is amino-acid based and produced in a completely cows milk free environment. Since being on the Neocate, my DS's allergy symptoms (skin rash, gunky eyes, diarrhoea etc) have all gone away, and since starting that along with the omeprazole, his reflux is a million times better!

How long have you been on the rantidaine now?

How old is your baby? Reflux babies can be windy, from 4 weeks you can give gripe water to help get the wind up. Dd did much better on gripe water then without. If you do use it I recommend the boots own brand gripe water for easy of use and shelf life. Ask the pharmacist for a syringe to give it with.

As for dummy it gives comfort, ever so slightly reduces the risk of SIDS and reduced the chances of thumb sucking which is difficult to stop later and can effect teeth positioning. My DD is 6 months, she recently stopped rantadine and gripe water and only had a dummy for sleeping.

We were prescribed Omeprazole straight away instead of trying Ranitadine first, the Consultant said in her experience it worked best for most babies. We found if worked within 48 hrs. The GP then changed it to Ranitadine because it's cheaper, then the symptoms came back straight away.
The Omeprazole we gave him was sent to a compounding pharmacy by the local pharmacy, who made it up into a Calpol type liquid flavoured with something sweet. Once it was in this form we never had a problem with him taking it from a syringe.
He grew out of it before he was 1, thank god.
Other symptoms were lots of hiccuping, and wind from his bottom. Bicycling his legs and gently pressing his knees into his stomach relieved this a bit. He also loved the tiger in tree hold when in pain. You tube have videos of both of these if you want to try them.
It was such a relief to get him settled on his meds. I hope you find what works for your little one very soon.

neverenoughspoons thanks for the info re the medicine. Never heard of a compounding pharmacy or what they did for you. You have a great local pharmacy ; mine can't even order ranitidine on their system they said so had to go elsewhere.

Has anyone used the Babymoov Cosydream sleep positioner or any other product to stop the baby slipping down the bed when using reflux pillows?

My dd has silent reflux (diagnosed at 6 week check) and cow's milk protein allergy (diagnosed at 8 weeks). She has the mid does of ranitidine 3x a day and it really helps. I've given up all milk products and for her one formula feed a day she has nutramigen on prescription. She still hates laying flat and is carried EVERYWHERE! I have arms of steel now. She will tolerate being outwards facing in a carrier, but hates her pram, car seat, swing chair etc and will just scream and scream. I have a snuzpod with a sleepyhead in and I bought a wedge and popped it under the mattress no problem. She does wiggle down a bit but it doesn't bother her. Do check out the symptoms of cmpa as one of the symptoms of cmpa is silent reflux! One on 20 babies has it, but obviously to different severities. She's 5 1/2 months now and was all under control until weaning has thrown everything out the window as the constipation and endless screaming is back!

Re the slipping down, my dh read online about rolling up a towel and putting it a loose u shape under the sheet under their bum to act as a ledge to stop them slipping.

Thank you so much. I'm going to try these and get back tomorrow. I was doing to try her with the sleepyhead and no reflux wedge tonight but maybe I won't. Just worry about her little legs getting squashed and what that might do to them.

My dd lifts her legs up a little but is quite happy like that.