Weaning a Refluxy Baby

[MnM156]

My 3 month old son is diagnosed with severe silent reflux. He is not losing any weight but his reflux is quite bad and he is on medication since he was 5 weeks old. Now that he is 3 months and soon going to be 4, our GP and Feeding Consultant have both advised us to wean him around 4 months. Has anyone ever done the same for their refluxy baby with success? Did it help? And how did you start???

It's completely up to you but I personally wouldn't do this.

I have a perm baby with sever reflux - she was ans still is having very poor weight gain. 6 months and only 12lb 10oz.

We were advised to try weaning her early and it was a nightmare. She was nowhere near ready her tongue reflex was still so strong everything that went in came out again and her reflux remained as bad as it was before because she could only manage thin purée anyway.

In my experience weaning a baby that isn't ready is not a nice experience.

Obviously your baby may take to it well so you can try but I would advice not carrying on if baby doesn't seem ready .

Is your baby on omeprozole? Have you checked her dose is still correct for her weight as it can be upped as they grow

@Fredsgirl19
Thank you so much for your reply. He is my first born so I have no experience in this regard. He was born early as well and has had a very tough start to life. A very traumatic delivery; had to have an emergency c-section to save his life. He was born with a clubfoot so he was put in casts at 2 weeks and then had a surgery and is now in a foot brace to avoid relapse. He also has severe silent reflux and some recent bottle aversion. He has had all of this happen to him in just 3 months of his life. He is on Omeprazole since he was 4 weeks old. The GP ups his dosage every week after his weight check so I am pretty confident about the dosage. His reflux has been manageable these past few weeks so I was just wondering how weaning could help him further. I was absolutely not considering weaning him before 6 months until the GP and the Feeding Consultant suggested it and then I started to think. Maybe I should just try to give him a spoonful of some puree a day to start off and see of he takes it. And leave it completely if he seems upset. Just very apprehensive about the whole thing really. On one side I want to listen to the medical advice and on the other hand I do not want my baby to go through something unpleasant.

Poor little think - sounds like an absolute champ and you sound like you are doing a great job!!

I think that sounds like a good idea.
Try him on some purée and see how he does. Weaning itself is actually really fun for the baby if
They are ready so you never know, he might do really well. I think the key thing to remember is if he doesn't seem ready. Spits all out, doesn't open mouth for spoon, gets bad tummy pain after etc then just stop, wait two weeks and try again. Sometimes the change to being ready can happen as soon as two weeks after you pause.

I expect baby can't sit up in a high chair yet so I would suggest a bouncer. It's not ideal and certainly wouldn't be suitable long term or for a baby led approach but Bliss website do recommend weaning a small baby in a bouncer if they lack strong head control to sit in a high chair.

With purées avoid the acidic things like tomato ans Apple that create extra acid and could make reflux worse and more painful for baby.

Good luck. Let know how you get on. I am sure your natural mum instinct will guide you when you start. You know your baby ans you will know if he is ready

Yes, I had huge success weaning both my projectile refluxers at 4.5 months! I was so glad I did. They both found milk very difficult despite high doses of omeprazole & gaviscon.

We obviously did purées. My first took to it like a duck to water, rarely spat any food out. She didn’t seem to have the tongue thrust reflex where it all comes back out. My second did & I didn’t really count her meals as ‘meals’ as a lot came back out. That said, I persevered as she drank 2-3oz every feed max & it was a nightmare, lots of screaming & I think we both dreaded feeding time. Within 3 weeks, she was eating really well.

By 6 months we were into finger foods & by 8 months, both girls were on 3 solid meals, snacks & only had milk upon waking, bedtime & once overnight (until 9 months & then that feed went).

I don’t know if it’s a coincidence but neither of my children have ever really gagged on food.. very occasionally & it’s been extremely minor. Maybe I’ve just been lucky, it was something I dreaded as a parent even though it’s normal!

They were like different children on food. They were much happier, no projectile vom & they both loved food. We weaned off the omeprazole at 9-10 months and all good now. My girls are 3 & 1 and neither have any issues now, bar my eldest being fussy at the mo but that’s just an age/development thing!

Thank you so much for your detailed responses @Fredsgirl19 @HolmeH
It has given me some hope and relief. The prospect of weaning him off the Omeprazole is very tempting. I guess every baby reacts differently so I would try to start off with a spoonful of purée a day and see how it goes. Will follow the baby's cues for a more responsive feeding.
Thanks a lot once again.

We where told by dietician to wean my son at 5 months but since he was 7 weeks early he was more like 3 corrected he had severe silent reflux that he would often be hospitalised for he was cmpa so started with neocate spoon he literally could not eat when we tried it just came straight back out he was also on omeprazole, ranitidine and gaviscon he was much nearer 6 months when he actually learnt to swallow anything but I don’t see the harm in trying... good luck whatever you do I remember how hard it was.

My DS was on Omeprazole from 6 weeks old for silent reflux. I was given various advice on the timing of weaning. I also did some additional reading on this and the research doesn't really back weaning at 4 months. The thought process behind some of it is that having something heavier in their stomach will help keep the acid down. However the amounts they actually swallow at this point won't actually make a difference. There is mounting evidence to suggest we should be weaning closer to 6 months so their gut is ready. Ultimately I made the decision to wait and I'm so glad I did. Solids in the early days are such a pain...I felt like I was constantly in a nap, milk, meal cycle! We were able to come off Omeprazole by 7.5 months when solids increased.

Give it a go just note that many ready made baby foods contain apple which made my baby even more sickly. It's in a lot of savoury pouches too as it sweetens things.

We started weaning at 24 weeks due to reflux but she wasn't ready and I don't think she ate anything until 26-27 weeks she would push us away and clamp her mouth shut.
By removing dairy, soya, eggs, coconut, tomato, red pepper and beef from my diet we have greatly improved her reflux. She's on high dose omperazole - check your doctor is moving you up the doses not just weight adjusting the dose. Our gp was only adjusting it for her weight so we got break through symptoms after a week and then had to go back. We saw the paeds assessment unit and he put the dose up to 3mg/kg and said it should have been on that dose weeks earlier. At our peak we were giving 8 sachets of gaviscon a day we are now down or 0-4 sachets depending on how refluxy she is. She still refuses to eat solid food if she is refluxy or reacting to something I have eaten.

I weaned my first at 4 months due to reflux. Made a massive difference. That combined with omeprazole, Puramino formula and carobel thickener meant he was almost like a reflux-free baby! He didn’t come off omeprazole until he was almost 2 though.

I started him on purées, he just loved food from the first bite. I think relatively safe foods for refluxers are pears, sweet potato, carrots, peas, etc. Some fruits are quite bad, but it can depend on the baby. Apple tends to set off reflux in most of them I think so we always avoided that. He also didn’t do well with mango, prunes, peaches etc.

Moved to BLW just before 6 months and he was on 3 meals and 2 snacks a day before 7 months. He just loved food and it really helped him.

His sister also has reflux and a terrible gag reflex. I tried purée at 4 months and she projectile vomited everywhere. Tried again at 5 and the same thing. Just went with BLW at 6 months and she’s slowly getting there, but still can’t have any purées or yoghurt. So it really depends on the child. You won’t know until you give it a go.