4 week old with reflux (I think)

[KylaKins]

Hi everyone,
I have a 4 week old son who is being exclusively breast fed. I think he is suffering from reflux. He spits up a lot and vomits if he is lying down flat. He grunts and groans most of the time and is often frowning. I'm finding it hard to explain but he just looks uncomfortable and at night time the only way he can sleep is to lie on my tummy.
I rang my gp today as I'm at my wits end and we both need to sleep now. She said doctors can't prescribe anything for baby reflux. She wouldn't even see me and just referred me on to an expensive specialist (€130).
To be honest that's a lot of money for me and I am slow to pay it before trying any over the counter remedies first. I feel its an extreme measure to take so early in the game.
Things I have tried so far:
Infacol
Propping baby upright at all times
Cutting back on dairy in my own diet
Swaddling

A friend of mine suggested buying Carobel in pharmacy and adding it to his bottle to thicken it.
I have also heard about Gaviscon although I'm not reading great things about that.
The last thing I want is to pay all that money to a specialist who ultimately tells me things I already know and recommends taking over the counter medicine.
All advice welcome.
Thank u

Sorry to hear you are having such a hard time OP, we had similar with my DD and it was just so exhausting and distressing for everyone.

In the end we figured out that there were dietary triggers (bread was the main culprit, we think the yeast or something as I could eat wheat in pasta fine) but i think the causes can be different for everyone. You could try keeping a food diary to see if you can identify any links between a really bad reflux session and what you ate a few hours before. But I realise that doesn't help you in the short term.

Our Dr said we could try 1ml of adult antacid in a syringe (not Gaviscon but we weren't in the UK, not sure if they are made of the same stuff). That helped enormously when she was really uncomfortable and distressed. There was also a specific daily reflux medication that he could have prescribed but I didn't want to medicate her every day if we could avoid it so he suggested trying the food diary, which was really useful.

I've no idea whether Gaviscon is the same as what we used or whether or not it would be ok for babies. This was a decade ago and a different country so all the recommendations might be different now anyway. But it was a specialist we saw as the GP didn't really have any suggestions.

In the very short term, do you have anyone who would be willing to come over one night and just sit in a chair and hold the baby so you can have a few uninterrupted hours sleep?

If you think it might be dairy, you have to cut it out entirely not just a bit. I would also see if Gaviscon helps at all - it will help make him more comfortable in the very short term if nothing else.

Carobel has its own issues as it is soy based and if a baby has dairy issues soy issues can sometimes appear too. Definitely worth considering though - just be aware in case things don't seem to be getting better.

We had what we thought was colic around 4 weeks so we were giving infacol with most feeds, but actually the discomfort DS was experiencing was after most feeds and never constant screaming with no pattern like you get with colic, so I suspected silent reflux. I looked into it online and a lot of people spoke about infacol causing/making reflux worse and it is acidic. We stopped using it and within a day or two DS was much better. Might be worth stopping the infacol to see if it makes a difference. We are now 7 weeks and (hopefully) much more comfortable after feeds.

What positions do you use to feed him?

Hi @Garman I have mainly been using the koala position.

Okay that's what I was going to suggest 👍 Can doctor not prescribe omeprazole if it is reflux? Have you a sling?

My DS was prescribed infant gaviscon at 4 weeks. At 8 weeks we moved onto Omeprazole, which he still takes now at 17 weeks.

Hi everybody. Thanks so much for all of your responses.
I have cut out dairy, eggs and gluten from my diet although I suspect its the dairy thats causing the problems. I have started baby on gaviscon. I did some research and I think my baby is suffering from a lactose overload. He ticks nearly every box for the symptoms. So I have changed the way I feed my baby ie. Stretching him between feeds and not feeding on demand as much, making sure each breast is fully drained before moving on to the other breast. This ensures that baby is consuming both the foremilk and hindmilk in each feed. Previously I hadn't been paying attention to what side I fed on last and had just been offering baby any side when starting a feed. Now I am monitoring what side to feed from and making sure that baby drinks it all.
I have seen some changes. Last night he slept for 4 hours, woke to feed, went back to sleep for 2 more hours and there was no grunting or squirming. He was very settled all day today. Fingers crossed it lasts.
Of course at this point I have changed so many factors that it will be hard to tell which of them has made the improvement. I don't care as long as it sticks.