I'm on several mums Facebook groups and know lots of mums in real life (being a first time SAHM to a toddler). I am shocked at how many parents are struggling with silent reflux and reflux in babies and at how badly our healthcare providers are at diagnosing and treating it!
In just a week I've seen several posts (some on here too) from desperate parents who are majorly struggling with feeding with clear SR/R symptoms. The vast majority are turned away by HVs and GPs and told their babies have colic, or are 'just fussy'. One was even told 'oh reflux isn't a thing, it's vastly misdiagnosed. We tend to try to treat over- anxious mothers, not the baby!'
Why is this? Can any HCPs shed any light on it? What is this notion that babies/parents who suffer like this should just carry on until they grow out of it?
My DD had a horrendous time with silent reflux. She never took well to BF which we initially attributed to her being horribly cut, bruised and bashed on her face/jaw by a traumatic forceps birth and my milk being very delayed because of a PPH. A few weeks in I gave up and expressed/mixed fed her until 6 months when we went to just formula but she never fed well, always fussed, was always snotty, had constant hiccups, spat out the bottle, screamed while feeding and after, spat out mouthfuls of clear acid, the lot. I saw the HV and the GP SIX times before I got a referral to a gastric paediatrician and finally got her medicated at 16 weeks and that was only after I complained to the Practice Manager at the surgery and was made to feel like a complete PITA. The worst thing is my GP was actually a paediatrician before he was a GP! The damage was done by that point - baby fed without pain once medicated but was completely bottle/feed averse and would only ever dreamfeed. I had to rock her to sleep then feed her for every single bottle until she stopped with milk entirely at 13 months. The SR went with weaning/growing around 7/8 months but she still never would take a bottle awake.
It makes me so sad and angry that parents are not being helped with this (probably because of my own experience!). I know of a few mothers (including myself) who have ended up unwell themselves with PNA/PND and although the feeding issues are probably not the cause, they are definitely a contributing factor.
Is it a 'new' thing, and that's why it isn't taken seriously? My parents said they never heard of babies having this back in the 80s.