Reflux - baby rice at 4 months?

[Jb88]

Our wee boy has struggled with congestion since he was about 2 weeks old and we got fobbed off a lot of the time. Eventually got given milk for CMPA which he point blank refused to take and told the doctor this and got told to keep trying. Also spoke to health visitor who disagreed with the CMPA and suspected reflux. Fast forward 12 weeks and we tried comfort milk from 8 weeks but we think it was too thick as he struggled with his bowels and passing wind. Moved to normal Aptamil and his bowels/wind improved drastically but he’s still only having around 4-5oz of his bottles and always leaving around 2-3oz. He starts to arch his back and pull the bottle out of his mouth. Seen the doctor yesterday who thinks he has silent reflux which has also caused the congestion as the acid is going up his throat and not always coming up as sick. She’s prescribed omeprazole which we haven’t used yet but she wasn’t very keen on giving it which has made me paranoid but we were so desperate for a solution for him.
Spoke to people about starting baby rice as that might help with it.. he’s 4 months so technically allowed it - anyone else tried that?

I asked about early weaning at 4 months with DD2, who had bad reflux (she'd been on omeprazole since 6 or 7 weeks old), and was told that they didn't think it would really make much difference for her. For her, personally, they were correct – we started weaning at the normal time, and the only difference was that the sick now had food in it as well as milk. However, I know other people have been advised to try early weaning for reflux (sorry, that's not very helpful!).

Have you tried using carobel to thicken his formula? You can adjust the amount you add, unlike the comfort milks, so you can try to find an amount that helps the reflux but doesn't make him constipated. It didn't work for DD2, but I know other babies for whom it's worked very well.

Mine both had severe reflux. Nothing helped.This was years ago.
I breastfed both for a year and eventually learnt to treat it as a laundry problem rather than a health problem.
A paediatrician told me to wean DS2 at 6 weeks. I didn't because I knew it had made no difference to DS1. The only thing that made a difference was when they walked. Crawling just meant piles of sick all over the floor.

Start on the omeprazole. It can make a massive difference. Don't start weaning early without proper advice and especially not with baby rice which has no nutritional content.

My daughter had silent reflux and at 8 weeks old we got prescribed medication and she changed within 2 doses. It made a huge difference.

The advice around giving baby rice is really outdated.
Try the medication first. Weaning early can do more harm than good and baby should really be showing all signs of readiness before you consider it.

Mine both weaned at 12 weeks - both fine & just had porridge or rice for a few weeks. I think years ago 12 weeks was the norm.

12 weeks hasn't been the norm since the 70s. It changed to 4 months then 6 months in 2003.

Op get medical advice if you want to wean early, baby rice isn't recommended as it can contain high levels of arsenic and has no nutritional content. Can you try the omeprazole first?

@GoldenPombear

Sorry yes mine were actually 4 months. Only rice & porridge at that stage.

Under the paediatrician's advice we were advised to wean at 4 months due to silent reflux and Ds was on a prescription anti reflux formula.

We were told starchy foods like potato, it did fuck all. It is clear that they just push their tongue out and are not ready to wean and use their tongue to move food backwards in their mouth. The advice without seeing a qualified professional is to wean at 6 months for a myriad of reasons.

We sacked off early weaning, carried on with the prescription formula which helped plus Ds being propped up pretty much all the time. Paediatrician also recommended a dummy so that Ds was continually swallowing so he didn't scar his oesophagus. He is now 18 years old, yes 18, and still has reflux. They don't always grow out of it.

Don't wean early without medical advice. Scientists have researched this.

My daughter has been on omperazole since 8 weeks. She is 4 in a few weeks and is now on 40mg a day. She has particularly stubborn reflux and has only had any benefit from the maximum doses. She's also on gaviscon and domperidone for her reflux. She has allergies as well but the reflux is in addition to the allergies although they do make it worse.
Weaning did absolutely jack all to my daughters reflux, if anything it made it worse. She didn't fully engage with weaning until she was 13 months which triggered a growth spurt and a massive reflux relapse.

My sister has severe projectile reflux and was weaned early in 1980s which was under 16 weeks. She had been admitted for refeeding at 10 weeks when she was less that a 1lb over birth weight. My mum describes the experience as traumatic and it didn't help the reflux either. She continued to projectile vomit daily until she turned 2 when it went overnight and she finally moved on to the charts. We suspect she had cmpa that was undiagnosed as she has struggled with dairy as an adult and only got relief from randomly being sick after she went vegan a few years ago.

Sorry, but weaning didn't help my dd's silent reflux at all. I was very pissed off it didn't help. Omeperazole and ranitidine (they don't prescribe this to babies now) is what worked. It wasn't until she was 10 months old that gp finally prescribed them and she slept for more than 40 mins. It was like having a different child. I barely left the house prior to that as people would comment on her screaming, except when at the gp, she was always on best behaviour then! She outgrew silent reflux at 2.

We’ve started omeprazole today - I really wanted to avoid giving him medication but it’s constantly sitting in his throat and he struggles with every bottle! They’re also considering CMPA but advised to try this first as he refused the milk they prescribed 🙄

Some of those milks are worse than others. It's common advice to add either a bit of nesquick or vanilla essence to them to help them start to take it. Then wean them off them as obviously not good to do that much! I can't remember the quantities, but it's small so definitely look it up. My dd had silent reflux until 2 and cmpa until 3.

Is your babies main symptom congestion? My DD 4m has been referred to peads as she has been congested and has had a chesty sounding cough from birth. The GP didn't know why and said he wasn't concerned as her chest seemed clear (he thinks it's upper respitory). I suggested maybe cmpa as my older son has it but he said no as she has no other symptoms. The other thing he thought was potentially silent reflux as the cough is often worse after her bottle. I feel so bad for her her cough sounds very wet and she has constantly got a congested nose yet nothing comes out with the snot sucker. Just wondering if the omeprazole made much difference to the cough/congestion , gp said we could try infant gaviscon but he was reluctant to prescribe and advised we waited for hospital app as gaviscon can cause constipation and some other tummy problems.

@frostyfeb1, omeprazole did help DD2's cough, but she had plenty of other symptoms (her reflux was not silent), so it was an easier decision to try it. Does your DD seem bothered by her cough/congestion, and is she gaining weight well? They may be reluctant to try anything other than comfort milk or a thickener like carobel (basically like cornflour, only not from corn) if she's basically well in herself.