Did all your babies suffer from reflux?

[MichB86]

Hi for those of you who have had a few babies did they all or more than one suffer from severe reflux?

Basically my first DS had very mild silent reflux sorted with low dose of gaviscone and was a very happy content baby who slept really well roll onto DS2 who was sick 20+ times a day every day until 9 months ish would only sleep in the sling

First baby no reflux.
Second baby - took reflux meds until was almost 4!
Guess which one was an easier baby?

Both mine had silent reflux, one sorted with Omeprazole and weaned off the meds at 11 months. Youngest still on them now at 2 and they’ve never worked as well as they did for my eldest. Due to have an endoscopy at the start of lockdown which had to be delayed.
@OnlyToWin Did your DC have any investigations? They kept telling me she’d definitely grow out of it by 12 months.

And would scream and arch his back and claw at you like his chest and throat was on fire radiatine briefly soothed but never completely and it was absolute hell and soul destroying to see him in so much discomfort. I’m now pregnant with DS3 and I’m terrified it will happen again, did any of you with experience of true reflux find that more than one of your babies were badly effected?

Accidentally posted to early there

My sister is going through this now. I’m afraid I have no advice but bucket loads of sympathy. It sounds awfully hard.

@BornOnThe4thJuly
Felt very fobbed off with the whole thing really. I was exhausted and did not advocate for myself as well as I would now. She sometimes would simply cough and throw up a meal she had just eaten. We were never referred to anyone. Initially I was just told “all babies cry”. I was, as you can imagine, slowly going insane at this point. I was also told that once she was upright it would improve. It took much longer than that. I wasn’t offered any decent advice and there wasn’t as much stuff available online then. If I could turn back time I would have got a sling, used a dummy etc. Sadly, I was so sleep deprived And worn out from a baby that cried constantly unless held, I could hardly form a thought!!

My youngest is 2 now and you would never know he had any issues he’s the most robust little thing but those first 9 months were incredibly difficult, nobody else ever wanted to hold the baby who was constantly screaming and throwing up like the exorcist every 5 minutes. Very lonely experience really hoping it skips this one. Can’t imagine how hard it must be for those of you who’s little ones are still going through it as toddlers x

We had to replace all our carpets downstairs!!

Yes my second baby had it very badly and so did 3rd and 4th baby. However because I had become such an expert in knowing what to look out for symptoms wise and how to treat it, I found that it wasn't as bad with the other children.
I knew I had to sit them upright when feeding, I made sure I used the Dr brown bottles and anti reflux milk etc. So it was much easier to manage when I knew what I was doing.
When my second baby had it (first time of dealing with reflux) I didn't have a clue. My poor baby was literally screaming for hours and I didn't know why. I did a lot or reading up about it and got the right treatment for her and within a few days/week she was a different baby. Xx

@OnlyToWin

We had to replace all our carpets downstairs!!

Yep wood floors but all the rugs had to be replaced the smell was awful and when he started army crawling the pressure on his stomach meant that he was just leaving sick trails everywhere he went.

4DC, all had it. I spent a decade covered in vomit. Fun times (not).

@OnlyToWin “all babies cry” is such patronising bullshit! A GP said very similar to me, he changed his attitude slightly when I said I was a nursery nurse and was very aware babies cry!
OP my aunt had 5 kids and only the 2nd had reflux. I guess it maybe depends on the cause, as to whether it runs in families, my youngest has CMPI and that made it much worse in the early days before a dairy free diet.

Thanks, I guess I will prepare for the worse and hope for the best. GPS don’t seem to want to diagnose reflux I was constantly told it’s colic when none of his symptoms remotely sounded like colic. There’s not a great deal of support out there and a lot of people think it’s just a bit of sick after feeding but it’s so much more than that I think I almost lost my mind. Did you manage to continue to bf throughout, I gave up just before three months with DS2

I questioned a milk intolerance but was told he’d have other symptoms like slow weight gain and a rash or eczema was this the case for your youngest?

Neither of mine had it, so no.

No, my first had terrible reflux, my second didn’t have it at all. What a difference!

Eldest had GERD due to CDH so it was managed from the earliest point really and we were discharged home on gaviscon and omeprazole. He was always very easy to vomit though, if his y got slightly overful he'd just vomit up milk quite calmly.

Twins had reflux and I was quick to speak to gP, d1 had 1 episode of going v purple so we got seen in hospital at 17 days old and he was put on omeprazole, both were already on gaviscon. We gave T2 some of t2s omeprazole (I know, we're awful irresponsible parents) and I was honest with gp so now both have it

My questions poorly worded I guess. I meant if you had one baby with it did your subsequent babies have it as well.

First didn't, second did.

My youngest does have mild eczema and weight gain was a big problem before the diagnosis. The only way to know for sure of course is to cut dairy out for 2 wks, the specialist health visitor told me symptoms can vary massively and it’s always worth trying an elimination diet. I breastfed youngest DC for nearly six months, but the last 2 months was mostly bottles of expressed, she associated breastfeeding with pain so even when things settled down, she still didn’t want to breastfeed unless half asleep. My eldest was nearly 3 when I stopped breastfeeding, I was very upset I couldn’t carry on longer with youngest DC but expressing was taking over 5hrs a day and both kids were suffering as a result. I still feel bad about it though.

I exclusively expressed with my eldest up until about 8 months as he would not latch but like you say it completely takes over everything I barely felt like I had any time to bond with him I got so obsessed with it. We were on an afternoon out with DH family and I started to get anxious as I’d ran out of expressed milk so we had to go home and I sat on the floor pumping while little one cried his eyes out and so was I because he was hungry, DH eventually walked in with a bottle of formula and fed him, I couldn’t even watch I felt like he was practically feeding him poison but I now know it was what I needed him to do as it had just become an obsession that wasn’t working for anyone So before having DS2 we both agreed if BF didn’t work I would not express. ( eldest was still only just 2) but I still feel major guilt about that only going to three months and doesn’t help then up until about 18 months old youngest had a constant cold which I put down to him not being bf and would have an over load of guilt every time he was ill. I do just want to put out there that I know formula is in no way similar to poison it was just my mental state at the time and I would never judge anyone for how they feed their baby sometimes I know bf just isn’t an option or does not work I didn’t particularly enjoy it either so no judging at all.

DD did DS did not.

DD is CMPI and doesn't form solid stools - she cannot tolerate milk still even though they all say she'll grow out of it.... 13 and counting! But they didn't bother to diagnose her till she 4 when she started school and pretty much had constant urine infections due to the loose stools.

As a baby she had ranitidine and domperidone When she was six weeks old, I went to A&E one Sunday morning as she was so dehydrated. A junior Dr told me to use a bottle and so I stared at her and told her to get her consultant or else. She stayed under the consultant till 14 months and I continued to breast feed.

I was a very sicky baby but not CMPI

@MichB86 It’s so sad that so many Mothers are so hard on themselves about breastfeeding/formula. I also feel bad every time my daughter’s needed antibiotics, she’s had 3 lots and she’s only 2 and her older sibling is nearly 6 and has never needed any, so I always feel like it’s my fault because eldest DC was breastfed for longer. I also feel guilty for feeling relieved that when I stopped expressing I could eat dairy again. It’s so stupid and I don’t know what the answer is, because breastfeeding is important and for lots of women it works brilliantly and saves all the hassle of sterilising etc.

@CanIDigIt
That must be so hard for all of you that she’s still intolerant. The last Consultant we saw told me as she hadn’t grown out of it at 2, it was likely she wouldn’t before she was 7! No other doctor or the allergy nurse has ever said anything like that to me though. She managed to grab her siblings toast with butter on yesterday, so we didn’t have a good night.

First baby probably but not diagnosed, not too severe. 2nd baby very bad