Reflux baby

[Megalala]

Hi my daughter is nearly 7 weeks old and is suffering from reflux.

The symptoms are getting worse, arching her back when feeding and screaming, chunky sick and just generally swallowing down little bits of sick everyday. I'm really reluctant to put her on infant gaviscon, the doctor has said they will prescribe it happily as the anti reflux milk seemed to make things worse.

I'm worried that we may trade one issue for another with gaviscon potentially making her constipated. It's awful as I know she is in pain. Does anyone have experience of infant gaviscon?

I gave it to DD1, it made her constipated. Her reflux was helped with rantitadine but it’s nolonger prescribed. Ultimately she had CMPA which was causing the reflux.

@Thatwentbadly

I gave it to DD1, it made her constipated. Her reflux was helped with rantitadine but it’s nolonger prescribed. Ultimately she had CMPA which was causing the reflux.

That's my fear is a trade off for another problem that may be covering a bigger issue. How did you find out it was an allergy causing the reflux?

We tried infant gaviscon for a week and it just made my sons sick thicker and caused him to choke on it. In the end they prescribed us omeprazole and it's worked wonders, he's still sick but not as much but the main thing is he's no longer in pain by bringing up the acid, and he can take larger feeds now

@JBOH2020 that's another worry as she was choking on the thicker sick when having the reflux milk. I feel so sorry for my poor girl but I'm guessing the doctor will make us try gaviscon before anything else.

Glad your baby is better on the omeprazole.

Ask to try ranitidine instead x

Definitely push for something more if you think it's needed. X

Ranitidine was a godsend for us.

Had gaviscon from 5.5 months. It improved things for us almost straight away. No constipation issues at all.
Until then I had been told that “babies do cry” and “babies are sick”

Not to the extent that can never put them down and you have to replace your carpets!!

Wish someone had believed me sooner!! Those were not fun 5 months!!

@OnlyToWin that sounds awful, the doctor didn't believe that she was still being sick on the anti reflux milk. Luckily I managed by chance to catch it on video coming through her nose. It's horrid when you don't get the support you are encouraged to seek from the doctors/hv.

Glad the gaviscon worked for your little one, hopefully it will for our girl x

My wee boy was the same terrible with reflux. Was prescribed thickener which after 1 bottle made him unwell. Then got gaviscon for a few weeks but it constipated him. Was eventually put on Omeprazole and it was life changing no reflux at all and the dose can be increased as their weight increases.

He's 12 months now and still takes it with effect.

Ranitidine is no longer prescribed

Gaviscon worked wonders for us, the first day we used it we felt like a weight had been lifted as we had been so worried about our little one. Sometimes caused constipation but we also had a liquid/syrup? prescribed in addition to help when this happened. Hope you find something that works for you soon.

My daughter had terrible reflux and thanks to our amazing doctor we got put on ranitidine pretty early on. It worked really well but unfortunately she needed omeprazole as well, and carobel to thicken her milk. The omeprazole was incredible, and she is still on it at almost 4.

We use gaviscon every so often now when she has a particularly bad episode, but it definitely does cause constipation. However she can communicate to us now she is older that the constipation is better than the ‘burnies’ so it’s worth it for us.

My daughter is 8 weeks old and suffers from reflux. She’s been on gaviscon for 3 weeks now after we ended up at A&E twice due to choking on acid she’d fetched up. It’s worked really well for her so far fingers crossed. It does make her constipated so she’s on lactulose as well to help with that and it does give her give her bad bottom wind but it’s far better than the constant worry we had about her choking.

My first had no problems on gaviscon and it really helped.

Second was severely constipated on it and we had to get a laxative too. Eventually I gave up with the gaviscon and thankfully the laxative, we eventually went on omeperazole. They were reluctant to give her this when she was tiny baby as said it absorbs nutrients in the milk. She went on it about 7/8 months. Took her off it about 13 months and she's hardly ever sick now at 15 months.

Ranitidine liquid is supposed to be great too but had been out of supply since sept 2019 when we tried to get her it all through 2020. May be being manufactured again though now.

We tried it. It was completely useless and also a total pain to administer to a breastfed baby. We now give our son omeprazole and it has made a big difference. He is still sick a lot, but he’s not in pain.

Thank you for all your responses, I'm going to give the doctor a call in the morning and speak to them. See if we have to try gaviscon first before other medication if needed. Our poor girl is having a real time of it, awful reflux and now a cold I think. No idea how she could've picked that up as we've not been anywhere

We have had a love hate relationship with gaviscon. We started it around 6 weeks but it made her constipated so we switched to omperazole that helped for s little bit then stopped so we added gaviscon in again. It helped with the reflux but again made her constipated we gave it on and off. She gradually got worse and became a very unhappy silent refluxer. We ended up in the paeds assessment unit after her vaccines the dose of her omperazole was increased and we started gaviscon and lactulose for the constipation as well as taking dairy and soya out of my diet. Lactulose is a very gentle stool softener and is very similar to the sugar water that my grandmothers used to use to treat infant constipation (I don't think this is recommended any more).
This turned her into a happy spitter

Reflux can cause nasal congestion and excess mucous, and a cough. I’ve often thought my girl had the cold but it’s really been her reflux.

Hi all. @Megalala any joy with the GP? My three week old DS2 has developed reflux and it’s really getting me down. DS1 had it too but don’t think he was as bad. The sleep deprivation and caring for a mostly unhappy/ uncomfortable baby led to me developing PND last time and I’m terrified of this happening again.

Has anyone got any experience of them cutting out dairy making a difference (my son is currently EBF).

So far we’ve started craniosacral osteopathy. Also going to call the GP to discuss meds tomorrow, although gaviscon did nothing for DS1 apart from making him constipated!

I’m so tired and feel increasingly low. I was so hoping that the newborn stage would be different this time.

Omeprazole or Lansoprazole are the best meds but you may be fine with Gaviscon. Don't overthink it.

Both my children had reflux and my eldest son suffered particularly badly with it. We were prescribed Gaviscon for both and it was brilliant. No constipation issues in the year or so they both took it. Good luck, I hope your daughter feels better soon.

@Mommaplaysthebanjo we initially saw improvements by cutting out dairy and soya since then we have had a mix of good weeks and bad weeks as it looks like she has quite a few allergies. So far she reacts to dairy, soya, eggs, tomato, coconut and red pepper through me and fish directly.

If you cut out dairy it's advised to keep an eye on soya content as 50% react to both. We took both out at the same time as there was a stronger link in my food dairy between soya and symptoms. You can do them one after the other too just don't use soya dairy replacements.

Hi, I spoke to the gp yesterday and since we have her jabs next week he has asked me to keep a diary of symptoms and he will review it and go from there. Looks likely she will end up on gaviscon or some treatment. I will let you know the outcome, I feel so reassured that some of your babies have reacted well to it.