New mum advice needed!

[rachllou]

My daughter is currently 7 weeks old and a week ago we went to the GP for reflux problems, he row scribes infant gaviscon. I'm also giving her infacol.
She has ridiculously bad trapped wind during the night and grunts/growls in pain waking herself up, the infacol is working to bring more burps up and the gaviscon is stopping her being sick all the time.
I'm led to believe that she is sleeping terribly as the most she will get at a time at night is 2 and a half/ 3 hours.
Basically what I'm wondering is when did your reflux baby sleep for longer periods? And will the medication take more of an effect soon?

Sorry for the long post

I can't offer any advice re the reflux but It's pretty normal for a 7 week old baby to be waking every 2.5-3 hours at night regardless of reflux.

Thanks

Posted too soon! I did think that myself, but everyone ive talked to seems to say "oh my DD slept through at 6 weeks" and I'm tearing my hair out with a 2 and a half, then 2, then 1 hour nightly pattern! Ha x

rachllou I've found although there are a few babies who sleep through at 6wks, most parents who say this (IME) either seem to be telling porkies or have a vastly different definition of 'sleeping through' to me! Your baby's wakings sound very normal to me, and much much better than my DD1 at the same age

Another one saying normal sleep pattern. It'll get better when they're ready to sleep for a bit longer, and then it'll get worse again unfortunately. Repeat a few times and suddenly they're a toddler!

My DD is 13 weeks and still wakes every 3 hours to be fed, I'm expecting this to continue for some time!

Definitely totally normal for such a small baby. DS2 is 17 months now and has only recently started sleeping better. At that age he was up every hour or two. He didn't have reflux but he did do the grunting thing all night from about 3am. I read it was the immature digestive system.

Boots gripe water is much better than infacol for trapped wind. Every 2 to 3 hours is good sleep for 6 a six week old baby or even much older.

Your baby sounds completely normal to me. For gods sake, stop pumping her full of drugs! She's only 7 weeks old!!

The people who told you their 6 week old slept through the night....they are likely lying.
Reflux is awful. I feel for you. My first had it bad. Have you the crib / Moses basket at a slight angle?

Aquamarine it is dangerous NOT to treat reflux as it damages the oesophagus if left untreated and can lead to scarring. The OP didn't self treat anything the infant gaviscon was prescribed by a GP.

Bit rude, I've never done this before which is why I'm asking for advice and when a doctor prescribes something I'd assume it was safe.
My baby is in a lot of pain with her reflux from constant vomiting etc so of course I'd do anything to take away the pain.

Having a new born is difficult anyway but a reflux baby is very very tough and aquamarines comment was very uncalled for.
My reflux baby would only sleep upright on me. Have you a sling? This helped for day time naps.

achange It is reclined, feel like I've done everything I can but I know she's still young. It's just been a very long 7+ weeks haha 😁

Ignore Aqua, she's obviously lucky enough not to have a reflux baby. My DS has been on infant gaviscon from three weeks and is fine. Because it's gaviscon, not tramadol.

Infacol isn't always the best for reflux babies because it's made with a citrus flavouring which exacerbates it. Definitely try colief or gripe water. Also look into tilting the mattress slightly, we have a brand of cot wedge called wedgehog.
You might find gaviscon isn't strong enough and / or stops working so don't be afraid to go back to the GP. There are loads of reflux support groups on Facebook etc that are worth joining for advice.

Having said all that, just to echo pp that it is normal for a baby that age to wake up often, most baby sleep books will still tell you to expect it and give you a rough idea of how much sleep they need at different ages. Even if you don't want to put them into a routine or sleep train them its worth reading up on that sort of thing so you know what is reasonable to expect.

I hope the reflux settles for you and her soon.
My DS was on gavison and losec. There are stay down reflux milks too but they didn't agree with him. Obviously you would need to speak to GP before trying anything.
One thing that I found with my second baby was I tried to set a little routine where I ensured day time sleeping was in a different place to night time and at night I didn't talk much / kept the lights low.

Also a colief fan!!! Reflux often goes hand in hand with and inability to break down lactose and the colief assists with this.

Also, if she still seems to be in pain despite treatment for reflux have a look into cows milk protein allergy. They symptoms are very similar, but in my experience GPs are far less likely to consider it, despite it being quite common. My 11 week old is still waking that frequently to feed, with no reflux /allergy issues, toddler woke even more frequently for months as a baby. I hope you get some rest soon, it might be normal baby behaviour, but it doesn't make it any less exhausting!

Thanks everyone I'm confused about infacol now and have been madly googling! Going to stop using it for now and see if she can get any wind up without it 😁

Try gripe water is it amazing for wind.