Silent reflux/CMPA

[Becky6X]

Hi...

Just wondering if anyone has any experience/knowledge of silent reflux & CMPA.

My baby girl is 15 weeks old. For the first 8 days of her life she was in NICU. She was nil by mouth for around 4-5 days and was just getting receiving fluids.

On day 7/8 I noticed she had a slight cough but didn't think too much of it - this was the time she began drinking formula. She's now 15 weeks old and the cough hasn't left.

The GP and her paed have both said it's silent reflux causing the cough. It's like she always has wet mucus in her throat. Aswell as this she's quite snotty & sneezes a lot. She takes gaviscon & Omeprazole but this has made no difference to the cough.

I've started to think that maybe she has possible CMPA. Before the gaviscon her poo's were always extremely watery too. And from memory this cough only began after 4/5 days when she began to drink formula. She doesn't have any rashes/ezcema and doesn't seem uncomfortable/upset after her feeds.

What are your thoughts?

This unfortunately I find a total minefield. My DD (EBF) has always been happy and smiley but she definitely had some silent reflux as she would gag and choke and you could sometimes see her bring up milk and swallow it again.
she had pretty bad eczema and mucousy nappies. We suspected CMPA also but I’ve been dairy, soy and egg free for over 2 1/2 months and it’s not really changed anything. Her eczema is way better but sometimes I wonder if this is just because we found a moisturiser that works for her and bath products that don’t irritate. In the end I’ve ended up giving up dairy, soy, egg, caffeine, gluten, oats, tree nuts and ground nuts, it’s a nightmare of a diet and hasn’t made any difference to her nappies.
I went to a private allergy specialist and still didn’t really achieve much.

if you’re doing formula I would get the GP to refer for allergies and get prescribed formula with the milk protein taken out. Ultimately my DD has never really been upset or uncomfortable after feeds either but other signs point to there being an allergy which I just don’t think I’ll figure out until she weans and eats food for herself.
I don’t think babies always have to have all the symptoms to be allergic, sometimes there are just a few more subtle signs, when I mentioned her nappies to a doctor he immediately said it sounds like a dairy allergy so I wouldn’t think there would be too much problem getting referred and trying formula with no CMP.

All the things that @CoffeeAndCurls said.
Speak to GP about moving to a hydrolysed formula (broken down proteins) or entirely dairy free. Fair warning that it can take several weeks for the dairy to clear out but you should gradually see an improvement. Also keeping upright for at least 20-40 mins after a feed has hugely helped us with silent reflux.

Another suggestion is to have her checked by a qualified practitioner for tongue tie. GP usually not qualified to do this assessment but we found it contributed significantly to our feeding issues (on top of CMPA, and soya allergy). This can have an impact on some of the items you mentioned in your OP. Reflux is usually a symptom of something else at play - I would be questioning whether medicating is the only solution if they aren't doing any on-going investigations.