Reflux taking over our lives

[Paris93]

Hello, my son is nearly 5 months old and has always suffered from reflux. He has tried gaviscon (which made him constipated so we stopped) and he is now on liquid omerprazol. When he started on these medications we noticed a huge improvement. However recently he’s gone back to throwing up every single feed.

I’m at my wits end, I really don’t know what to do. We’re up all night as he’s starving all the time but whenever we feed him he projectile vomits everywhere and then wants to be fed again straight away. It’s just a vicious cycle. I feel like he’s really suffering as he’s hungry all the time. We’re constantly washing sicky clothes/towels and our sofas and mattress are pretty much ruined!

Does anyone have any advice? Our doctors just keep telling us he’ll grow out of it but it’s getting to a point where I feel like I can’t cope. I have an 18 month old daughter too.

Thanks x

Could it be an allergy? My baby was like that until I stopped eating and giving dairy. Doctors
said the same to me to at first before we realised, but they were wrong.

My daughter threw up after every feed until she was 7/8 months. We never gave her anything for it and eventually yes, she did grow out of it.

Now she’s nearly 2 it’s very hard to remember those days but they do pass!

CMPA?

My little one was like this until about 9 months when the doctors finally took me seriously and prescribed dairy free formula. It worked and the sickness stopped straight away! She's now 20 months and we've just completed the milk ladder so she can have dairy again.

Mine was like this too.

Are you breast feeding or formula?

We tried hypoallergenic formula (nutramigen) and I think it helped a little but I also think he just grew out of it, as he’s fine with cows milk now.

We just bought a tin ourselves, tried him on it and then told our Dr, described his symptoms and said it had helped, and she was happy to prescribe it. (It’s very expensive).

You can also ask for a milk thickener to be prescribed (carobel).

My DS really got a lot better around 6 months, but I remember how awful the constant sicking was, so you have my sympathies.

We had similar with our daughter and it magically stopped at nine months. One day I realised I hadn't had to change my clothes all day. I was breastfeeding so it was hard, but she did accept a bottle too so she had one a day which helped me out. She continued gaining weight so some of it must have stayed down. I used to cling to that thought.

We didn't want to give her any meds for it. The carpets and sofa were shrouded in old curtains and duvet covers. Clothes were washed but never ironed (no time!), there were a lot of easy meals - I remember apologising that it was roast chicken and jacket potatoes again. After a bath, the bib went on before the vest and clothes.

You are probably more than halfway through this ordeal, it's hard especially having an 18 month old too. It will get better, maybe in three or four months. If relatives offer you help, grab it with both hands - even if it is just help with the laundry or peeling veg. Good luck.

Has he been weighed recently to adjust his omeprazole dose? DD2 is also on omeprazole, and there was a point where she seemed to be going backwards like this – turned out she'd had a huge growth spurt (she'd dropped centiles when her reflux was bad, so probably partly catching up). Once she was back on the right dose, things improved again.

That said, she also 'got worse' when she started being more active, wanting to sit, push up on her tummy, try to crawl, etc. Basically every movement seemed to squeeze the milk back out, and not a lot helped that besides time.

Thank you for all the replies.

Sorry I should have mentioned he does have a cows milk protein allergy and he’s already on prescribed milk for that.

I’ve had another doctors appointment today and they’ve put him back on gaviscon and a laxative to help him go to the toilet. They’ve also upped his dose 🙂

Thank you so much. Honestly it’s so nice to hear other people who have been through it and understand how bad it can get. I’m so glad your daughter is better, I just can’t wait until we get to that point but I know one day we will be.

Again, thank you 🙂

My DS has CMPA and reflux. It took us till he was 1 to get diagnosed. Gaviscon made him constipated and more in pain, omeprazole helped a bit. He lived in bibs and muslins wrapped round his neck all the time, and we would use towels between us and him when he was feeding just to minimise washing/cleaning the sofa. I hated that it took that long to get a diagnosis, and that most people said he would grow out of it by the time he was weaning, which he didn't. The only speciality formula he had was heavier reflux formula, but it was still cows milk. I was clueless that it could be CMPA so never thought to swap his milk. That is something I would definitely be clued up on if we ever have another child.

Things that I found out that helped, or that we wished we'd known about sooner:

• burping him lots and bicycle legs to get the wind out
• having his bed tilted
• spending time sat up in bouncers and our arms
• safe supervised sleeping on his front during the day on us, never at night (you may not fee comfortable with this and may want to research it more)
• as soon as it's time to, put him in a bouncer, being upright helped and and the bouncing helped get the wind out (but could also make him sick so it was a gamble)
• bicycle legs in the bath

We never stopped giving him dairy as we didn't know that was the problem until he was 12 months, but we did reduce it back a lot and did a modified version of the milk ladder. He finally stopped being sick all the time at 15months.

As time has gone on, he has reflux flair ups if he has too much dairy in a day and will get hiccups, and some days he can fart a lot. If he has 2 separate lots of hiccups in a day he gets an omeprazole crushed on a spoon. We also have to keep him calmer on hiccup days because if he gets worked up and cries lots he can throw up, which is always hard when you are trying to discipline him or he's overtired.

He's 5 now and doing well, typically loves yogurts and cheese.

By upright bouncer I mean jumperoo. Typical I forgot what the word was until I posted.

My son slept in his baby bouncer for months,always kept him upright,ranitidine and another anti reflux med prescribed by the Brompton Hospital…I want to say Domperidone bot I think that is a champagne ,it had a similar name !
I really do understand how stressful it is because my son became a really tricky eater when he was weaned and had a very limited menu.His weight was always on about the 5th centile ! I think it was his fear of eating because of the discomfort he associated with food . He never vomited though .
It will get better eventually.
He is 22 now and still occasionally gets really bad indigestion and takes the odd omeprasole..especially after a few beers 😅

Which prescription milk? Many are hydrolyzed rather than fully fairy free amino acid formulas. Mine didn't stop the projectile vomiting day and night until both omeprazole and amino acid formula at 8 months. We have a really good carpet shampooer now...

@Cleveramazing It’s very dangerous for babies to sleep in bouncers and swings and even supervised it should never be done.

Their airways are constricted in that upright position and they can easily suffocate. It can happen in seconds, with you sitting right next to them, and you wouldn’t be alerted to it.

Obviously you had your child twenty two years ago and were lucky, but it shouldn’t be given out as advice to new mums due to the dangers.

He’s on Neocate LCP which I’ve just checked and is an amino acid based formula. Thanks for the advice though, I had no idea there any different milks for it to be honest!

When did it start? My first had terrible reflux after every feed, I remember puddles of milk everywhere and permanently wiping up with a muslin. My second is a month old now and so far no reflux issues - I can't remember when I started with my first and don't want to get my hopes up that we might have dodged it this time!

We didn't give anything specific for it first time round - it was lockdown and to be honest I just assumed that's what babies do. Then I realised it was quite extreme. She grew out of it at about 7 months I think, never any issues since.

DS had bad reflux & it was exhausting. He developed bottle aversion & we had to give him milk from a skippy cup. The expectation is that it stops being a problem when they sit upright & move to solids.

In my experience, GPs understand very little about treating reflux & I would ask to be referred to a consultant. This was a game-changer for us as there are several meds that can be effective plus thickening prescription milk can help. Sending unmumsnetty hugs as even now I well up when I remember those dark days (DS is now a strapping healthy 16 year old)

He could be having a growth spurt and this has led to a regression in the reflux.
My first child had reflux and it got better in 6 month stages but every time he had a growth spurt it got bad again. I think the valve in the opening to the stomach wasn't strong enough each time he grew and so allowed stuff to come back up.

I’d say carobel helps keep the milk down. Omeprazole stops the pain but not the puking.
paediatrician also advised starting to wean early from 4 months( obviously goes agains t the guidelines but helped my son)
by 12 months the puking had stopped and by 14 months all meds had stopped 😄

Our DS had terrible reflux and when his weight started plummeting through the percentiles we tried most of what has already been suggested. We didn't see a change with omeprazole. Then I had a phone consultation with a different GP and she suggested I introduce food early (by today's standards), so we did at about 4 months. It didn't fix the reflux instantly, but he did start gaining weight and by about 8 months he was back to birth weight percentile and the reflux had stopped almost completely.
Something to discuss with Dr?

My DD had the most horrendous reflux, honestly it's a joke that even looking at her made her sick. She did eventually outgrow it but I'm not gonna lie, in the moment it was some of the worst months of my life. She ended up on meds that are banned and so close to surgery for it because we just couldn't get a handle on it.

No real advice apart from I promise it will get better.... Eventually.

Hi, thanks so much for the advice. We’ve now cottoned on to using towels to cover everything for his feed, why didn’t we think of that before!

Luckily we got my little ones CMPA diagnosed quite early on as his reaction was quite bad (rashes, swollen face, struggling to breathe, screaming when feeding, reflux) although it did take 6 weeks and quite a few trips to the doctors before they actually did something about it!

Gaviscon seems to be the only thing helping my little one at the moment but it makes him constipated. We have been trialing him back on just gaviscon for a few days and that’s really helped with his reflux. The doctors have put him on lactulose to help with his constipation but since we’ve been giving him that he’s now throwing up again (and it’s a different texture to usual) so now we think the lactulose may be causing sickness too. We don’t know whether to carry on with it as it is mentioned as a side effect but it says it should pass in a few days or whether to stop and go back to the doctors.

Reflux is just a bloody nightmare!!

Hi, this is something we’ve been considering! Particularly in those moments where he’s hungry but can’t keep anything down. My heart just breaks for him. We’ve bought a few purées in just in case. Now he’s nearly 5 months I think it might be our next step if we can’t get a handle on it! Thanks for the advice

His reflux started really early on! Definitely within the first few weeks. He got diagnosed at 6 weeks but we’d been to the doctors multiple times by then. I’m keeping my fingers crossed your little one is in the clear!

Is there such a thing as milk thickener for babies?