Is this silent reflux?

[Sxp842]

Hi all, my son is 6 months old and I’m wondering if he has silent reflux or some kind of allergy, or if his behaviour is just normal baby behaviour (or overtiredness)

• near the end of a feed / part way through a feed he will arch his back and turn away from the bottle and making a groaning noise
• his naps are often short - 30 to 45mins (although he has been doing 1.5 hour naps with the occasional 2 hour naps this week)
• sometimes he wakes from sleep by crying badly with his eyes closed and then won’t settle back to sleep and wakes up
• He spits up quite often (although not always). Sometimes it’s just a small bit of dribble but sometimes it’s like a small puddle a slightly bigger than a 50p coin.
• his spit up smells quite bad (he is on hipp organic milk)
• he has dandruff and scratches his head, mainly when he is tired and during the night
• he sometimes coughs but has no other illness symptoms
• Towards late afternoon he gets really fussy even when he has napped well during the day
• i frequently have to reinsert his dummy because he starts crying in his sleep, but usually settles as soon as he has his dummy. On average we have to reinsert approx every hour to 30 mins (although it gets more frequent from about 4/5am)
• when he is being fussy he hates lying down or being in the bouncer but settles as soon as I am holding him upright over my shoulder. However for most of the day he is happy lying down or being on his tummy
• he hates sitting in the car seat and will cry badly if he is alone in the back seat and/or over tired

i always assumed most of this was just normal baby behaviour, and he was just fussing because he is tired / is just a fussy baby. But we spoke to a sleep consultant who said it sounds like he might have reflux or an allergy, so now I’m not too sure.

about 2 months ago the GP prescribed him Aptamil pepti for cows milk allergy. I had taken him to the doctor because he had a tiny speck of blood in his poo (which was very hard) and a small bit of mucous. The GP referred it to the paediatric team who said consistent blood or mucous in stool could be a symptom of cows milk allergy, which led the GP to prescribe Aptamil pepti. The thing is, I wasn’t convinced he actually did have an allergy. The blood was a one off, not consistent, and when we put him on pepti he was horrendous for 2 weeks. He only pooped once a week and was grunting and in discomfort all the time. We therefore moved him to Hipp organic and he has been much happier since. Regular bowel movements every other day or two, and much less grunting.

However I am now questioning myself and wondering if he does have an allergy or silent reflux. I don’t want to go back to the doctors and ask for more medication unless it seems like something really is wrong, because he has been so much happier on Hipp milk.

Does this sound like reflux or an allergy, or is this just normal for babies?

Yes. Most of the symptoms you mentioned sound like silent reflux. There are some drugs available that your GP can prescribe to ease the symptoms, like omeprazole, domperidone, etc.

But I have heard that babies get better after 6 months.

Thanks for this. Oh gosh it sounds like we might need to go back to the doctor. Do you think it’s worth looking at another CMPA milk? Or just dealing with the reflux symptoms? It’s so hard to work out if he has cows milk allergy when he’s only ever once had a tiny bit of blood in stool a few months ago

I think visiting the doctor is a good idea, since reflux could lead to esophagitis and a hoarse voice.

The doctor might give you some useful tips and techniques.

One thing that helps for sure is keeping the baby upright for 30 mins after each feed

Thanks, I didn’t realise it could have long term effects if not treated. Will try and get him seen next week. Hopefully if it is reflux and we can get him treated it might help with his sleep. We were planning to take him off his dummy but not sure if it’s a great idea if he has reflux

Good luck! Hope your baby gets better soon. :)

Hi, I’m wondering if this sounds like silent reflux. My son is 4 weeks old and from birth has always been a great feeder. He is currently on 5oz of formula and has been for 2 weeks now. I know it’s a lot for his age but he happily takes it and doesn’t show any signs it’s too much.

Up until 2 days ago he has been happy but has always been a very noisy sleeper, constantly grunting and making a lot of noises when he sucks his dummy. He has recently started becoming very unsettled in the evenings and screaming like he is in pain. He has suddenly become very hoarse as well which was the trigger for me to think it could be silent reflux? He has always preferred to fall asleep upright on us from birth but the last 2 nights just keeps waking from his sleep at night and is happier upright too. Whilst he feeds he pauses for very noisy breathing too.

Can he have silent reflux even if he is fine at feeding? Or any suggestions on what could be wrong? He just isn’t his normal self. Thanks

@AshleyB1989 yes it could be silent reflux and possibly be caused by CPMA. My daughter's symptoms were very similar. We got medication and formula from the doctors but had to push hard for it. Both the medication and formula made a big difference.

My other son had silent reflux as a baby but he wasn’t a good feeder and screamed a lot more than his brother does now so I was unsure so thanks I will maybe take him to the doctor anyway to get checked.

My little girl always fed well too.

Did you end up finding out if they had a problem with reflux or allergies? My 6 month old is the same! But seems happy in himself most of the day!

He ended up on omeprazole for silent reflux and was a lot better when on the medication. Much less crying and discomfort. He was on it from 6 months to 1 year. Not sure if he improved because he was just getting bigger and more developed, or if it was the medication - but something worked!

How are things with your baby now? In a similar situation with our 8 month old who is mostly happy in herself but does have these ongoing symptoms. She has been diagnosed with reflux and cmpa and has aptamil pepti and omeprazole but isn’t getting better (despite lots of things that say they do get better after 6 months). If anything with weaning she is worse.