Baby using night for calories

[Emr147]

My LO is 3 months + 4 weeks and has had various issues with excessive crying / fussiness / pain. He was diagnosed reflux on Boxing Day, to then return on nye and to be told it was colic. He would scream bloody murder after/during every feed so I was sceptical to think it was colic. Baby Gaviscon made it 10x worse.
we were then diagnosed with CMPA. The Pepti milk is a lot thinner which is making his spit up / vomitting a lot worse. We have tried to reduce this feed amounts to more little and often but during the day this is difficult out and about / to work round this naps and wake windows and now during the night he is back to feeding every 2-3 hours like a newborn again as he doesn’t seem to be getting his calories during the day (due to spit up). He also will scream if we try to stop his feed halfway for burping / and/or a split feed.
anyone experienced anything similar and any tips on how to reduce the night feeds as we are shattered!! He doesn’t seem to sick up during the night either which is strange so seems to be bumping his calories up from 7pm-4am and affecting his day feeds.

Have you tried a milk thickener like carobel?

My refluxy DS still had to feed every 2-3 hours day and night until he was about 6 months old though.

If he’s feeding less frequently in the day then it’s probably best to try to fit in some more day time feeds. Maybe he’s getting too hungry between feeds in the day and then drinking too quickly and that will be making the reflux worse?

he is back to feeding every 2-3 hours like a newborn again

^ feeding every two to three hours is totally normal in the under ones (and forevermore for many breastfed babies).

Babies are likely to want the comfort of your attention and milk in the night during every development leap, growth spurt and times such as teething.

You can try to offer more little and often feeds in the day and just gentle wonkey winding at night but if your goal is less night feeds that isn't a problem that needs a solution other than expectation management.

My refluxy ds was the same. Like yours, he didn’t get sick during the night so I gave him a bigger feed then which helped a bit. DD now doesn’t have reflux but still constantly wakes for feeds, though!

Baby osteopath? Sometimes it’s the position causing problems and they can help

feeding every two to three hours is totally normal in the under ones (and forevermore for many breastfed babies).

This is very true. I put in my reply that my DS fed every 2-3 hours until he was 6 months but actually thinking again it was probably until he was closer to a year old and having a substantial amount of food and water too.

It’s easy to forget that the milk isn’t just for hunger, it’s a drink as well. I wouldn’t go 3 hours without a drink very often.

You probably need a thickener for the milk or a different milk or omperazole for the reflux or all three.

Pepti still contains dairy which is partially broken down. for some babies it is enough for them not to recognise the dairy proteins but some babies need completely dairy free formula. These are the amino acid formula which contain all the building blocks for proteins individually. The most commonly presented amino acid formulas are alfamino and neocate

My daughter has reflux as well as allergies. To get on top of her symptoms I had to remove all of her allergies from my diet, get high dose omperazole and as much as it could give with a stool softener for the resulting constipation. She then needed domperidone to get it fully managed

Add a thickener gaviscon, carobel, thickneasy and magic mix are the main ones I have seen. I only really have experience of gaviscon as she was allergic to carobel so we didn't try anything else. If that doesn't help go back to the GP to ask about omperazole or a different formula. I would probably go for the formula first but see what the GP recommends

@DuploTrain I understand however most 4m old + will go a 4-5hr stint of sleep in the night.
if he is hungry then I will not deprive him of that and I am happy to get up but if the reason is because he is spitting up all of his food in the day then surely it’s best to find a solution to that rather than him spit up all his food all day then have to make it up in the night.
it was more for advise on the spitting up in the daytime rather than trying to reduce his feeds
he also used to go 6-7 hours in the night and is back to 2-3 hours so it’s more the unusual for him rather than the norm for other babies :)
and yes- he does gulp down the feed when he’s starving but then again if I offer it to him before he is hungry he gets offended and screams - don’t you wish they could talk!!

@Superscientist thank you this is really helpful. We are back at the dr tomorrow so I’ll see what he has to say! If it’s just a laundry issue of me wearing 4 pair of trousers a day full of baby sick that is fine but if it can be managed better it would help him. I know most dr go on the view of if they’re putting on weight then it’s fine but we’ll see what he says

I know it doesn’t help you right this second but hopefully a bit of light at the end of the tunnel. My LO was exactly the same. The Pepti milk just seemed to shoot even further and with more force than regular milk!

We switched to goats milk formula (which is unlikely to help if definite CMPA) and only used one sachet in a bottle and that did help.

However we started weaning as soon as he was 6 months and honestly it’s been a complete turnaround. I don’t know if it’s the decrease in milk or having something to absorb milk in his tummy but we went from continuous sick to what I would call ‘normal’ now, which wipe with a bib on the corner of the mouth type sick. Hes already on 3 meals a day and around 23/24oz milk now in 4 bottles plus what I can incorporate into his meals.

Reflux is awful and I didn’t find out GP very sympathetic at all but it will get better. Hoping they can sort it out sooner for you though.

My GP used to tell me that my daughter reflux was just a washing issue. Only problem was she was mostly a silent refluxer and although she was sick frequently it was really small qualities so didn't create that much extra washing. We also did cloth nappies which needed washing every day and any dirty clothes were a benefit in padding out the load

My daughter happily followed the 9th percentile and I was told she's just a 9th percentile baby she's following her curve. 2 months after cutting out dairy she was on the 35th percentile and has broadly followed this since so she was never a 9th percentile baby!

@Thelazygardener thank you! I know time will most likely be the best solution it’s just not nice seeing him projectile every feed. We’re going to start introducing baby safe porridge in a couple of weeks (4months) as he is a very advanced baby for his age and already bringing teething toys to his mouth and sits upright on his high chair so fingers crossed introducing some stodge with soak up some liquid!