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
Second baby absolutely horrendous. Screaming for hours and hours . Linked to cmpa
Thurs baby no

My eldest had it so bad that she used to vomit entire feeds, it was like something from the exorcist. GP told me 'it's just colic' but changed his tune when she then projectiled all over his carpet! Was prescribed ranitidine but she would spit it out and was BF, complete bottle refuser so no other way to get it into her. The reflux stopped overnight when she was around 6 months old and she turned into a much happier child!

Second DC does not have reflux! I'm left wondering what to do with the piles of muslins that I kept from DC1. I also didn't realise until now that babies don't normally need their clothes changed 5+ times a day because they're covered in sick!

My DS is almost 2 and is still on reflux meds - constantly poorly, he's had at least 7 lots of antibiotics! We are under SALT, respiratory, ENT and pediatrician. Had an endoscopy, CT and a video fluoroscopy. Waiting for a heart scan and other investigations! No one can decide what's up with him!

@emotionalrangeofateaspoon

That sounds extremely stressful! How easy was the fluoroscopy to get your DC to eat and drink what they needed to? The doctors are talking of a barium swallow for my youngest instead of the endoscopy because at the moment they're still not doing any aerosol generating procedures. I can’t imagine DC cooperating to drink what they would need to though.

@BornOnThe4thJuly he was 13 months when he had it done and he drank everything given. They give you water and put strawberry flavouring in and then the stuff they need them to drink but he was fine drinking it. It was more of a struggle to get him to eat for them, they put whatever they use on a biscuit but he could see what so he didn't want it but he did eventually!

He's going for another one in September I think and another chest x ray to see if he's made any progress in a year with his swallowing!

My son has CMPA and was the worse refluxy baby. There were days we just didn't bother getting him dressed if we weren't going out. We were offered medication but as it didn't actually bother him we didn't go down that route. We were told it was normal by the same doctor who told us that the amount he was farting and grunting was normal and "all babies get colic" - even though he wasn't crying, was actually the happiest baby ever. Pregnant with #2 not and hoping not to have a repeat 🤞

@emotionalrangeofateaspoon

Thanks for that. I hope you get some good news in September and his health starts to improve soon.

Weird things that spring to mind looking back

DD cannot burp. She's never burped. She couldn't burp after feeding, just vomited constantly. Age 13 and she still cannot burp. If she has fizzy drinks, she sort of hiccup yelps - quite a loud high pitch squelch aaayyyuoppp sound. It's a bit of a joke as no one believes her that she can't burp. But she can't.

She gets hiccups a lot. She had hiccups constantly in the womb and pretty much every other day since. That's a lot of years of hiccups.

I didn't bother with baby gaviscon - it has no antacid but is a milk thickner. If I did manage to syringe it in, she got constipated because the breast milk may not have been a consistent amount and that made everything worse. It probably works with bottle feeding though.

She always threw up till she was a month long walking.

She still gets trapped wind now and lies on the floor windmilling her legs.
Usually when she has an ice cream because life isn't fair

She has oat milk. She's ok with some cheese and butter.

She was quite severely anaemic at diagnosis. Basically food goes through her too fast and she can't absorb nutrients but she is healthy and does grow albeit slowly.

Thanks for all your responses, I can’t believe that some of you are still going through it at 4 plus it definitely puts things into perspective.
Hope everyone stays happy and well x
@BornOnThe4thJuly
I look at those women who just whip out a boob while still carrying on a conversation like it’s some sort of witch craft it’s definitely not something that comes easy to me but will give it another good go this time round hopefully without putting so much pressure on it. I’m already thinking that what if it does goes well and I feed this baby for months on end and then it’s just my middle child that has missed out honestly it’s a no win situation i imagine any illness even when he’s middle aged I will put it down to how he was fed

Both of my babies had reflux

Dd1still has mild symptoms now at age 7yrs.

DD2 had omeprazole until she was 11 months and now she’s much better.

Bfeeding both babies was hard because I had a forceful letdown which made them choke but that settled by about 8 months.

DD1 also has problems swallowing occasionally (was worse when she was younger) and we confused this with the reflux. I think it’s a separate condition. we’ve discovered through trial and error that it’s brought on by eating certain foods frequently- ice cream, fromage frais, custard, yoghurt, processed milky drinks inc formula milk, chocolate. Paediatrician suspects it’s a condition called EOE. If she avoids those foods, she’s ok. She had a barium swallow (which was normal) and was due to have an endoscopy to check for EOE but went into lockdown.

I have 5 dc and 2 of them had reflux (my 3rd and 4th)

My babies developed reflux after I gave them a dummy which I had put in my mouth, I think? about 50% off us carry a germ which can be passed on, so Ive now learnt be so strict about just holding the dummy between your teeth while you strap them in the carseat and so on.

@HollsLolls
My DC’s Gastro Consultant wants to rule out EoE and hiatus hernia with an endoscopy, they don’t know when they’ll restart those kind of procedures though. The other option is a barium swallow in the meantime but I don’t think DC will drink the necessary liquid. They won’t drink any kind of juice, only ever oat milk or water.

@BornOnThe4thJuly good luck, I hope you find the answer soon. My daughter was a bit older when she had the barium swallow so she tolerated it, but she had to drink a lot of it because the first set of images weren’t clear enough, which was a bit unpleasant. I’m wondering whether to forget the endoscopy and just avoid the foods that seem to give her problems.

I've had 6 babies and none suffered from reflux. My 2nd baby has bad colic, but that was it.

@HollsLolls
I agonised over whether to go ahead with the endoscopy, I worry that her oesophagus might be being damaged and obviously the only way to know is with a camera, then it was cancelled anyway!
@MichB86
I’m sure Dad’s don’t feel the guilt that most of us Mothers do. Although my Gran had a dozen children and didn’t seem to feel any guilt or worry about any of them! Maybe she just ran out of the emotional energy after their childhood years.