18 week old baby constantly crying

[Mummy2925]

I’ve a 18weeks old baby who is constantly unhappy , he cry’s all day every day if he’s awake he’s crying.
he has reflux that’s being treated by infant gaviscon and it’s resolved all the reflux symptoms so it’s not that.
hes my second baby I’ve a 2 year old also who was such a happy baby ../
getting it very hard to cope atm:
does anyone have any advice please ?

Formula or breastmilk? Try cutting out dairy if breastfed. My baby was the same and his only CMPA symptoms were CONSTANT crying, fussiness AND reflux. Dr wanted to medicate him. I chose to cut dairy and I had a completely different baby within a week. When we started weaning, it became obvious he had a severe dairy allergy. He's 1 now and even a trace of dairy sends him vomiting for 24 hours and crying in stomach pain (someone gave him something fried in butter and we ended up in hospital as he couldn't stop vomiting).

If formula feeding, there is formula for dairy allergy.

@Moneyworries890 hes formula fed he was on cow and gate then nanny care and now kendamil ready to fed bottles.
i mentioned to the health visitor about cmpa but she said no its just reflux. He was fussing during feeds but that stopped with the gaviscon

Yeah "just" reflux is what the paedetrician said to me too. The problem was, even with medication, the underlying pain and discomfort would still be there.

So Gaviscon may be keeping it down, but the poor baby could still be in pain.

@Moneyworries890 how did you get your dr to listen to you

My baby was miserable until over a year old due to silent reflux, it was hell.

They didn't. I took it upon myself, easier with breastfeeding to just cut dairy and soy. You can buy the allergy formula but it's quite pricey so I think a visit to the GP is worth it first.

My HV was adamant my son didn’t have CMPA, the GP took one look at him and said CMPA. My son also would not stop crying it was heartbreaking so I really sympathise. We have had a journey with it but he’s fine now and on medicated formula.

My DD struggled a lot with the ready made Kendamil (bad wind and discomfort) but she is fine with the powdered. Maybe try switching? I think the ready made is richer ?

did your baby have any medication for it ?:(

@Rosybud88 had your baby any other symptoms?

@thelittlestbird we are using the ready to feed formulas as they help with constipation and I don’t want them to end up constipated on the gavison ☹️

He was very fussy on the bottle and would just scream. I had a midwife and HV watch me feed him as I think they thought I had an issue with technique but both couldn’t see any issue. It was frustrating because he was my second baby, my first doesn’t have CMPA so I can spot the difference. He wasn’t getting much down him, brought a lot back up when he did and he was struggling to gain weight.

That makes sense, our gal was the other way around and the ready made made her go too much! Hope you find another answer.

How is he when you hold him? Could co-sleeping and baby wearing be options barring medical assessment?

This was my daughter. She wasn't diagnosed with 18 weeks either. She had multiple food allergies and severe silent reflux. She had been on gaviscon and low dose omperazole for physical reflux which improved the spit up but the GP missed that she also has silent reflux which was a much bigger problem for her and that she had cmpa and other allergies reacting to food in my diet.

It was only after seeing a paediatrician for something else that we got the appropriate treatment. She went on high dose omperazole as much gaviscon as I could get in her, lactulose for the constipation and ultimately domperidone too. She's 5 now and we have only recently been able to start reducing these medications!

Yeah I agree with pp sounds like CMPA. My youngest has it along with a host of other allergies. Uncontrollable crying, rashes and lots of loose nappies as a newborn . Breastfed I had to cut out dairy and soya from diet but my goodness in 6 weeks she was a happy smily baby. I was fobbed off by health visitors and hospital too but GP immediately spotted the signs.
id switch baby to a dairy free formula (you can get these on prescription if you talk to GP) and give it a try for at least 4-6 weeks as it will take time for the symptoms to subside. It’s absolutely worth a try ! Then if it’s not that go back to GP for advice

20 weeks today , cry is still constant ☹️ hv is insistant it’s just reflux as that’s all the symptoms he as and he’s on the gaviscon for it , (recently he’s started bringing up small amount of very acid smelling vomit )

don’t know what to do , dr is useless too previously told all baby’s have reflux and wouldn’t prescribe anything had to go back to another one to get the gavsicon..

could he just be a unhappy baby ? It’s so hard only place he’s happy is his bouncer won’t play on his mat or stay in his cot …

I'd take the matter into my own hands and research and buy some dairy free formula. It really isn't normal to be crying so much at 20 weeks.

The "just reflux" line was given to me too, it's like these doctors have no fucking clue just how much pain these babies are in.

It does sound like acid silent reflux tbh. The acidic posset like curdled cheese straight after a feed.

You can increase gaviscon and try teething granuals.

There was a marked improvement when we started weaning.

Do they wake up screaming and burp a lot?

The acidy vomit isn’t straight after a feed no it could be hours after
I’m hesitant to wean early as it made no difference with dd1 and her reflu

also wakes screaming , and no burps very little very hard to wind actually @RandomMess

My daughters GP told me reflux was a washing problem.... Considering my daughter mostly had silent reflux and we were doing cloth nappies so plenty of washing it wasn't much comfort!

We only got her reflux adequately treated by ending up in paeds for another reason. The paediatrician told us that the advice our GP had given us was incorrect and she had had us on far too low a dose of omperazole.

I'd go back and try and see a different GP.

The issue you have when you have a mix of silent and physical reflux is they can be refluxing and swallowing the same stomach of milk for hours and then it can be brought up as sick so they can be sick quite a long time after the feed.

Once we maxed out the under 2 dose of omperazole at 6 months my daughter we had another medication called domperidone added which speeds up the emptying of the stomach and that was an absolute game changer but its hard to get prescribed as you have to have exhausted all other options first..

I would definitely be going back and asking about omperazole.

Weaning made my daughters reflux worse but her reflux has been particularly tricky to manage and it's only now at aged 5 that we have been able to reduce her medication!

He had mucus in his poo but I thought that it was more to do with the gaviscon

pic attached

My baby's nappies looked like that and I had to put her on a specialised formula called Althera. She also was on baby nexium to help with reflux. She did grow out of it but only at around 10 months. I don't think you can wait that long!

Different gp , we have now been prescribed omperazole So fingers crossed 🤞

CMPA and reflux is quite common together.

Id speak to the GP and get a hydrolysed formula , if no improvements get an amino acid-based formula ,

Hopefully the Omperazole helps x