Baby Reflux

[mrsjkerry]

My baby has always been difficult to feed but since her 8 week inoculations she screams and screams if you try to go near her with a bottle. We've been prescribed infant gaviscon but she won't take this either. I'm at my wits end and feeling so upset that my lovely little girl just doesn't want to eat! We have her bed elevated and she is upright all day, it doesn't seem to help things.

Has anyone got any experience of this? Does it get better? I'm sure the inoculations have made it worse and I'm now terrified for the 12 week ones....does anyone have any positive reflux stories!?

Oh you poor thing. I had exactly this with DD2. She was completely fine, had always taken a bottle very well (I had to stop breastfeeding before she was 2 weeks old as she couldn't tolerate medication I was on). Then she had her 8 week jabs and two days later started to refuse her feeds. I was absolutely desperate, she would go for hours without any milk (sometimes 20+ hours) and then eventually she would take some. She was a big baby, 9lb 10 at birth so had reserves but I was, as I said, out of my mind with worry. I felt I was fobbed off by everyone, firstly told it was just her reacting to the jabs, then perhaps she had an infection, then she might have a dairy allergy (DD1 has a CMPA), basically I was told I was being neurotic and that she'll feed when she wants to. One nurse told me she might just not like milk for goodness sake.
It came to a head one morning when she stopped breathing, it was absolutely the most terrifying moment of my life, she was taken in an ambulance to A&E and finally someone suggested silent reflux - possibly brought on by the jabs. She was put on Gaviscon which made no difference and then after another two weeks (by which time she had dropped 2 centiles on the weight chart) she was given ranitidine which actually worked and she went back to feeding pretty much as she had been before.
I've obviously condensed this down but it was the most awful month, I really thought we might lose her and I fell apart. If there's anything else you'd like to know just ask, I would have loved to be able to cross question someone when I was in the middle of it all.
Oh and I was told to delay her next set of jabs to give her (and me time to recover) but actually she had no problems with them at all.

It might be worth asking your doctor about Ranitidine, my DS had silent reflux and this worked for him. He would be difficult to feed and made a strange kind of noise when lying down, not long after feeding that I knew wasn't quite right. I did a lot of research and then spoke to my doctor about it. Glad I didn't just accept that 'all babies are different'.

Cross posts there Snakes - very interesting to hear another Ranitidine user.

Thank you @Snakesandsnakes. I also couldn't breastfeed because she was placed in intensive care the minute she was born due to an infection...she was fed on a drip for a week and has been an odd feeder ever since but nothing like this!

Though terrifying to hear it's reassuring to know things can get better. Everybody tells me when she's hungry she will eat...because she takes a 3AM feed a bit better. Only 90ml though and then she won't touch anything all day. We have also been given gaviscon. So far it's just made her constipated and not made a difference at all in any positive way.

I've read some horror stories about ranitidine...did you have any horrible side effects? And was she on the ranitidine for the 12 week jabs?

Thank you so much for responding.

Milk allergy? (Usually the cause of reflux!)

Go to doc ASAP and get Neocate (add gaviscon)

Good luck - it's hell 😕

One sachet per bottle - any more will make her constipated!!

That's a strange coincidence, my daughter also had an infection at birth, was in special care, On iv antibiotics and tube fed although only for 3 days (that was long enough).
No horror stories with the Ranitidine at all, it took about 5 days to fully get into her system but we didn't look back after that. It's very weight sensitive so the dose had to be upped as she grew. I was told to wait for the symptoms to show again and then see a doctor for the dose to be adjusted. I can't remember exactly when she stopped needing it but it was before she turned one.

@Snakesandsnakes sounds like our experiences are virtually identical. I will go back to the doctor as this gaviscon is doing nothing. Thank you

Good luck, it's very difficult to be rational and clear with medical professionals when you're sleep deprived and worried sick. It's very easy for them to think neurotic mother and to tell you to go away and play. If you have evidence that your baby is either losing weight or not putting it on as she was before that might help. I also filmed my daughter refusing a bottle which may have helped. I hope she gets sorted as soon as possible.

I know. And my husband just keeps saying "she'll drink when she's hungry". That philosophy is what ended her up in intensive care. Weirdly she is not refusing water, so at least she's not dehydrated...

Out of interest, how old is your daughter now and how is she doing with everything?

She's 2 in March and great! You would never know she'd had such a stressful start in life (although I've aged no end!). In fact if she would only sleep (please, at some point surely she must?!) she'd pretty much be the perfect baby, well, toddler.

That's so good to hear. At what age did she come off the medicine?

I really can't remember - it was before she was one, I think about 10 months. I was advised to wean her early but as the Ranitidine had helped so much I actually waited until she was just about 6 months. She took to solids very well and by that time she was sat up most of the time too, so it all helped.
I've been trying to think of the things we did that helped, she had a dummy (it was first given to her in hospital when she was in special care and she really took to it) and sometimes we could switch between the dummy and bottle to 'trick' her into drinking a bit - once she got going she would sometimes carry on feeding. Also she definitely fed better when she was sat upright, I'm sure you've been told that though. Other than that I don't think there was much else.

Thanks so much for the advice. She won't take a dummy but she is taking water. So we are feeding her water and quickly switching to milk halfway through before she realises. At least this way she's getting some food!!!