Baby poor weight gain/reflux?

[Pelly8]

Hello

I was wondering if anyone had experience of poor weight gain with a refluxy baby.

When my DS was born he was on 75th centile for weight (full term baby). He’s now 14 weeks and has dropped to below 25th centile. He spits up after daytime feeds only but won’t spit up at night so the health visitor thinks that reflux is the issue.

I am exclusively breast feeding and baby won’t take the bottle. At the 6 week check I discussed reflux with the GP but because his weight gain was fine at the time she didn’t seem that bothered and gave me baby gavsicon to ease discomfort as he was quite irritable. I tried giving it but it was impossible to give as he would spit it up. A HV later told me not to give gavsicon as my DS just had wind.

Over the past 6 weeks or so my DS feeding hasn’t been great. He will be on the breast for about 5 mins each time during the day but will comfort feed before bed for about 40 mins.

We got him weighed today and he’s not put on as much weight as he should have by now so I’ve booked an appointment with the nurse practitioner as my GP is on holiday.

From looking up stuff online I’m going to ask for ranitidine to be prescribed. Will this help with weight gain? Is there anything else I can do?

When baby spits up it’s both the cottage cheese stuff and the milky coloured reflux (no cottage cheese).

He was very irritable for the first 12 weeks but over the past two weeks has turned into a smiley happy chappy with a couple of bouts of irritability a day.

Any help or advice would be much appreciated!

Weve struggled with reflux since about 5 weeks. The pain was so bad for him then that he was given ranatidine. That helped great for the pain and vomit, but it (we think) caused a dramatic loss of appetite. He was given omeprazole at 11 weeks following very poor weight gain and dropped percentiles. He's been weaned off the ranatidine now (13 weeks) and his weight gain and feeds have massively improved, however because it went on so long, he will now only feed when sleepy or asleep...

We had to push very hard for any medication (and his nutramigen formula, the only stuff he can poop on), and he has been admitted to hospital where tube feeding was discussed. I'm not sure a nurse will prescribe ranatidine, we had to get a paediatrician.

Ranatidine is a game changer for many babies, I dont think it causes appetite problems for the vast majority. It does taste awful though, like chemical peppermint.

Good luck! Reflux is horrible :(

Thank you for the response @liland and I’m sorry you had such a hard time. This nurse has prescribing rights but I have a feeling she won’t prescribe it and will want me to see the doctor.

How did you administer the ranitidine? Did you have to put it in milk or can you give via a syringe or spoon?

Ranatidine is via syringe, 3x daily for most little ones I think. That's what we had. I read some people dilute it with formula, but to mask the taste it needs to be in 150ml, and of course youd need to guarantee they'd drink the lot. I also dont know if that's recommended or not...

Thanks @liland. I saw the nurse practitioner and she has said I should try the gaviscon for another two weeks to see if it makes a difference. I have given about 10mls to my little one by syringe this morning but he absolutely hated it. I’m going to keep trying to see how we get on.
Thanks for your help!

No problem and good luck! They never even bothered with the gaviscon for us as LO was badly constipated for 8 weeks (talking 1 poop every 5 days and extreme trouble passing it) until we started nutramigen and gaviscon tends to cause constipation in a fair few babies. I guess because you're ebf though that will be less of an issue as breastmilk contains a natural laxative :)

Has your baby been checked for tongue tie?

My breast fed baby was born on above the 91st percentile but by the time he was 4 months old he had dropped to just below the 25th percentile.

By this point he’d already been on ranitidine for 3 months. He had also been diagnosed with a cow’s milk protein allergy due to his reflux, his poor weight and his irritability at the breast.

I had my son re-assessed for tongue tie at four months of age (he’d already had it snipped when 9 days old) and it was confirmed his tie had reattached.

I had it cut again and his feeding improved dramatically and that, alongside me removing dairy from my diet, led to him starting to gain weight much better.

@queenofmyprinces I was thinking about this earlier today. No one has ever told me he has tongue tie but i’ve heard it can be hard to diagnose so I might see if I can find a lactation specialist to have a look.
Thanks for replying!