Is this silent reflux? Or CMA, or??

[Lid88]

Hi all

I have a 4 week old DD, formula fed. Since birth she struggled with constipation, not pooing for days and when she did it was small and solid. The HV suggested things such as tummy massage, cycling legs and boiled water between feeds but none resolved it so they agreed we could try comfort formula which she’s been on for 2.5 weeks. The constipation is now resolved and we get a daily soft poo from her.

However, this has not resolved the other symptoms she has such as screaming when sleeping on her back, arching her back, moving her head around and going red in the face, screwing her legs up to her tummy and then pushing them rigid over and over. It doesn’t matter whether it’s day or night, she can only get comfortable when on our chest on her stomach.

She over feeds (for comfort I think) and can drink a 4/5oz bottle and still cry for more afterwards, but a dummy calms her, we feed her sat upright with paced bottle feeding and are using MAM anti colic bottles. We get a good burp out of her and burp her every oz. she often fusses mid feed, crying when we stop to burp. We keep her upright after the feed for at least 30 mins but often an hour. As soon as we lay her down, 10 mins passes and she begins the squirming, crying and arching again. It’s heart breaking as she’s clearly uncomfortable.

She also has a lot of bottom wind, and often sounds like she’s going to bring up some reflux but nothing comes. I feel like she has silent reflux - but I’m so nervous the GP won’t take it seriously as a FTM. Has anyone had a similar experience and what was the treatment please? Last night we couldn’t put her down the whole night and I can’t imagine functioning without any sleep for much longer!

Thanks :)

Sounds like reflux yes

Please do see a GP

You may have to be firm..I once had a doctor tell me all babies had reflux and it was part and parcel of babies

Fab. That didn’t help his hourly screaming fits l

Sounds like it & as reflux can be caused by CMA ask your GP to try Neocate hypoallergenic formula milk to see if that stops or reduces it. Faffing about with thickeners etc just prolongs the discomfort if CMA is the culprit.

This sounds much more like reflux than CMPA to me. I had dd2 and my friend had her DS2 at around the same time.
Her ds had reflux and mine cmpa the symptoms you described all sound the same as her ds2 had
You have my sympathy I remember she was just broken with tiredness. When the gp prescribed meds he was like a totally different child
Keep pushing and stick to your guns

My DS had silent reflux which was caused by cow's milk allergy. We gave him reflux medication and cut out dairy (probably shouldn't have done both at once but he was suffering and so were we!) but it was cutting the dairy that really helped. The medication didn't do much and when we stopped it he didn't get worse.

The only way to confirm a dairy allergy is to cut it out completely and then reintroduce it and see if symptoms return. So you give a dairy free formula for 3-4 weeks, hopefully baby will improve, and then to test it you give a bottle of regular formula, if she reacts with similar symptoms as before, it confirms the diagnosis.

The issue with formula fed babies is that hypoallergenic formula is expensive so GPs will be reluctant to prescribe it. Ideally you would go to your appointment armed with information including a symptom diary and the Nice guidelines. If they won't prescribe you could always buy a tin yourself and if that seems to help, you can use that as an argument to ask the GP to prescribe more.

Lots of helpful info and advice here
www.allergyuk.org/information-and-advice/conditions-and-symptoms/469-cows-milk-allergy

Thank you everyone. The GP was pretty useless and just said he’d prescribe gaviscon. When I said she’s already struggling with constipation managed by the comfort milk he just said call back if it becomes and issue. I left the call feeling totally deflated and upset, so I called the HV for further advice, the HV was amazing and suggested possible dairy allergy before I even finished the list of symptoms. She wants to trial prescription milk for 3 weeks and is contacting the GP today to get it sorted. She also confirmed that if that milk didn’t work there’s others to try and other things to try. I’m so relieved that I contacted the HV instead of just sticking with the GP and hopefully this milk will make a difference. I will update this post in a couple of weeks so that it may help others in the same situation. Thanks all

Phew, so glad HV was helpful 👍