infant gaviscon

[rosegold04]

hi, so lo has just been prescribed gaviscon at 17 weeks old, she is on sma alfamino and we suspect silent reflux. gp said to start with just 1 sachet a day, does this sound like enough? we don’t think it’s severe reflux but she has a constant cough and quite often gulps whatever comes up. any advice is useful! we also have a dietitian appt on friday, which i will also query it there too :)

It is quite common for it to cause constipation so it's best to start low and build up. I would start by putting it into a bottle before a nap or whenever they are the most unsettled. We started at 6 weeks and we were in and off it until 18 weeks as it caused constipation but it did help. We tried once or twice a day which didn't cause constipation but had less of effect. We then went up to 6 sachets with lactulose for constipation and then for 9 sachets. She was breastfeed at this point. Between 7 and 9 months we were able to start giving her less and less until she didn't need it. She went back on it at 14 months when her reflux returned. She now had two sachets in her evening bottle of alfamino and none in the rest of the bottles. She is 3 now and has it in any oat milk after 3pm. So it's not always necessary to have it multiple times a day
The alfamino is very thin formula which can trigger reflux in babies that previously haven't exhibited reflux so a lot of babies need it thickening. Gaviscon is good for mild reflux, moderate reflux might need omperazole too and severe reflux might need other medication or higher doses of the omperazole. My daughter has severe reflux and is on high dose omperazole (since 7 weeks) gaviscon (since 6 weeks) and domperidone since 7 months.

thank you so much! i think she’s had mild silent reflux since we started bottle feeding, and then it got worse as we discovered the milk allergy. gp said to do it with her first bottle of the day just to start off with as just the one dose may help. glad to know it’s not always needed multiple times a day! we were told as she’s 4.8kgs to stick with 1 sachet in a bottle as she’s a bit close to being able to have 2 and he didn’t want to start another issue of constipation :)

My daughter was 8kg before she went up to 2 sachets. She fed little and often so it was more helpful for her to have the gaviscon in more feeds than for her to have two sachets. When to move up is more nuanced than simply the weight so I wouldn't worry too much about starting with 1.
In hindsight I wish I had increased her gaviscon sooner and accepted the lactulose earlier. It did help but caused rabbit dropping like stools which were hard for her to pass. The lactulose is very mild and the combination of gaviscon lactulose and omperazole was the start of getting my daughters reflux under control. The original GP was more of the "well stop it if you don't want constipation" rather than offer a stool softener but retrospectively she didn't have the most helpful advice for reflux after speaking to other GPs and my daughters paediatrician.

my first gp was so useless when it came to exploring a milk allergy so i’m glad i saw a different one when it came to possible reflux issues as she couldn’t just brushed it under the rug and fobbed me off as a ftm like she did with the milk allergy, but when i spoke to the dietitian we were put straight onto alfamino! i’ll also speak to the dietitian about the gaviscon, not sure if that’s something they can advise on really but it’s worth a try!

@Superscientist and @rosegold04 can I ask how much lactulose you gave? We've stared baby on gaviscon, but I'm nervous of constipation and so have lactoluse ready in case!

She was 5 months and 6kg when she started on lactulose and i think she had 2.5ml twice a day going up to 5ml twice a day at 7 months and 7.5kg.
We only got 100ml bottles so we had to justify the quick repeat time when she was on 10ml a day as the bottle only last 10 days.