Is this reflux??

[pippaaaaax]

I’m just questioning whether I have a sicky baby or if I should be booking a GP appointment to check for CMPA/reflux.

DD will be 3 weeks old on Tuesday, and she’s very sicky. Most of the time it’s enough to be contained in a muslin, but we’ve had 5/6 instances since she’s been born that she’s projectile vomited over everything. Being sick doesn’t bother her though, and she’s pretty happy and content unless she gets herself overtired!

She’s taking around 3oz a feed, every 3 hours or so, I’m propping her up to feed so that she’s not flat, trying to burp her every oz or so, and keeping her upright for at least 30 minutes after each feed. I’m also using infacol, but I’m not sure if it’s actually doing anything.

She initially dropped too much weight, so had to keep seeing the midwives, however she was discharged last week after getting back to her birth weight. I’m getting her weighed again on the 10th, but to look at I can tell she is gaining.

I’ve already changed her bottles, I was using Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature bottles as this is what I used with my first with no issues. However, no matter what I did, the slow flow teats collapsed in on themselves when she’s feeding, I changed to variflow teats which stopped that issue, but she was just chugging every bottle which made things so much worse. I’ve now switched to Mam which has improved things somewhat.

She also only poops once every 3 days or so - which was mentioned to both the midwives and health visitor and they didn’t seem concerned, but her sickness gets significantly worse when she’s a bit bunged up.

I could count on one hand the amount of times my first was sick in the first year of her life, so this is all new to me! Is this just normal newborn behaviour or should I get her checked out??

Infacol is acidic and can make reflux worse so I would ditch that.

Reflux it’s self can be normal for new borns. I had babies with reflux and CMPA and they would vomit huge amounts multiple times a day.

Is she unsettled/crying excessively, or does she have any other symptoms of either?

It does sound like more than average sick, I have a 10 week old baby and she isn’t sick that much, but equally without any other symptoms I’d be surprised if it was reflux or CMPA.

I spoke to my midwife about both of those things when my baby was around 10 days old because she was screaming every feed, really fighting them, and she went through all the symptoms of both with me. I remember for reflux it being sick (so you have that one) but then the others were being very unsettled during feeding, crying and not settling after feeds, do you feel she has those?

CMPA she said had loads of symptoms, one being sick but also the same screaming and very unsettled, refusing feeds, skin irritation/rash, cold symptoms like runny nose/sneezing etc and there were more. Do you think she has any of the other symptoms?

I'd say as she's not losing weight there's no major reason for concern right now. But keep an eye on her, and if she's losing weight and the projectile vomiting happens more get her checked out. Some babies are just more sicky than others.

For reference, my son had reflux. He developed it at three weeks, started projectile vomiting and lost weight, cried constantly and I had to drape myself in muslins just to pick him up. He had to be held upright for 45 mins after feeding, burped really thoroughly, and even then he'd still sometimes burp up a whole bottle when you laid him down. It did get worse when he was full of poo or had a cold, as they get bunged up.

It sounds a lot like my DD. I spoke to the GP about it several times (mostly when seeing them for something else) and the doctor didn’t think it was worth medicating for reflux since she was mostly a happy baby. She did have a tongue tie which we got cut which can be linked to reflux and gated tummy time. She did eventually grow out of it. I ended up spending at least the first 6 months of May leave splattered in vomit.

Thanks everyone.

Nope, she’s not unsettled when feeding, nor is there excessive crying or screaming. She does sometimes struggle to get her wind up which can make her uncomfortable after a feed, but she tends to sort herself out after 10 minutes or so.

I’ll probably mention it to the GP at her 6 week review if things remain the same, but it’s nice to see that the opinion seems to be that there’s nothing to worry about!

I switched from TT bottles to dr brown's as my 3 week old has colic and reflux pretty much same story as yours and it's helped a lot as well as infacol we don't dare give a bottle without it , my next step if I needed it would be a chiropractor if she was really struggling as I've seen it work wonders with a friends twins two sessions and they were fixed .

The NICE guidelines suggest trying a formula thickener or a thickened formula first. When I went to the GP about my second baby’s reflux they asked me to try it. We moved her onto SMA anti-reflux which much improved the reflux but she didn’t drink enough of it and started dropping centiles.

They then prescribed Gaviscon which sorted it. We use Kendamil which seemed better for her than Cow and Gate and Hipp Organic. I was worried the Gaviscon would constipate her but we were lucky it didn’t. Next step was Omeprazole but it wasn’t needed.

For us, she wasn’t in huge amounts of discomfort but the amount of sickness which just ridiculous and I was struggling to enjoy her. I remember once trying to get her in the car seat and she vomited all over herself three times after three different outfit changes! It was not sustainable.

She also comfort fed a lot which isn’t great for a formula fed baby.

GP was very helpful - don’t hesitate to get in touch with them before 6 weeks if you feel you need to.

Good luck!

NICE guidelines https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng1/ifp/chapter/Helping-babies-with-symptoms

Yes it sounds like reflux but that doesn't necessarily mean it needs treatment

A baby in my NCT group projectile vomited a lot but gained weight well and was very content. She projectile vomited her rota virus vaccine every time and any time she was upset or was in a new environment. For her it looked to be an emotional response and she grew out of it and never needed any meds or anything

My sister was a projectile vomiter, multiple times a day and at 10 weeks was less than 1lb over birth weight. This was the 80s and she was admitted for refeeding, put on thickened liquids and weaned very early

My daughter was a mild -moderate reflux but with severe silent reflux. From the point of view of her productive reflux low dose omperazole turned her into a happy spitter. She had been an unhappy spitter. Her silent reflux was more of a problem making her very unhappy and needed high dose reflux treatments and food allergies explored to improve things. Her weight gain was good as her reflux was mostly silent

Up to 4 months around 40% of babies will experience some form of reflux. Figuring out which would benefit from treatment is the balance. Wellbeing and weight are the key factors. If either are off treatment is necessary. If both are ok behavioural changes holding them for longer etc and maybe using thickened liquids can be enough.

Yes, mine was a happy spitter once we got the Gaviscon dose right. He carried on spitting up part of his bottle/drinks until he started walking (although it eased off once he started sitting more than lying down). Mornings were always worse.

We found we couldn't use pre-prepared formula as it was too thin - he was best on formula made in the Prep machine as it was more bubbly and thicker. We never tried a reflux formula as he was fine on the Gaviscon and they're more tricky to prepare.