Silent Reflux Baby with need to feed to sleep. Help!

[LGBirmingham]

Hi I wonder if anyone can help?

My son is 5 months old and suffers with Silent Reflux. He also had a strong need to feed to sleep which is causing problems with the reflux.

Does anyone have any tips on how else I can get him to sleep? Sometimes I can rock him to sleep but it doesn't always work and he just gets really upset. He does fall asleep on walks in a carrier or pushchair. Sometimes he wakes when I put him in his cot and I'm able to get him back to sleep in the cot but rarely. He has on a couple of occasions fallen to sleep to some lullabies I always play whilst propped up right on my knees.

I'd have no problem feeding him to sleep until he was ready to give it up, it's just that it's triggering his reflux at times and causing home a lot of pain. This morning he fell asleep feeding in my lap to wake 5 mins later screaming because of the reflux. It was then 2 hrs until I could get him to sleep again.

It's worth saying that he does have days where the reflux is worse, some days it isn't a problem.

Help really appreciated.

My little one was the same. What worked for us was feeding her to sleep, then holding her upright for 30 minutes before lying her down.

What are you doing to manage his reflux first of all? Have changes been made to his milk or your diet depending on how he's being fed? Usually silent reflux is a symptom of an allergy or intolerance so you need to get to the bottom of that really.

I'm asking because my eldest had silent reflux and by 5 months he was much better. Mainly because we weaned him under medical advice and he was on medication too.

My eldest had a dummy to help him sleep and for comfort. We would hold him as upright as physically possible for an absolute minimum of 30 minutes (was usually closer to an hour) after a feed before daring to lay him flat.

@NauseousNancy yes we do that at night although in the day I've been letting him nap on my lap as I found he'd sleep longer there than in the cot. Sometimes though he's feeding and just chokes and gags and screams. Even when he's had gaviscon. That's the really bad days

Maybe he needs more than gaviscon?

My daughter started on carobel to thicken her milk, then moved to ranitidine, then omeprazole. She is still on this at almost 4.

Allergies have been investigated, she just seems to be a child who produces a lot of acid. The next step is an endoscopy which hasn’t been possible due to covid.

I appreciate that most children grow out of it around this age, but not all do, so please don’t feel bad that he hasn’t.

@BowserJr we're currently using gaviscon and trying to keep him upright as much as possible for feeds and after. I also try not to feed him before he plays as rolling around on the floor after a full feed seems problematic.

We're trying to just give gaviscon at night because of the terrible constipation it causes. And honestly it doesn't always seem to work anyway. He was on Lansoprasole prescribed when we took him to a&e because he was crying for hours and wouldn't feed. Which did work to stop the pain but our gp won't let us go back on it.

I would say his reflux hasn't been too bad for a couple of weeks but there's been some issues the last couple of days. Although it doesn't seem to be causing as much pain as it used to. It could be because he can sit up a bit on his own now, husband balance isn't the best but I'm really trying to encourage it as much as I can.

I have wondered about my diet but really not sure where to start with it? I don't think it's the cows milk protein allergy as my husband gives him a bottle of formula at night and with carobel in it it goes down with no problems.

I also stopped breastfeeding - I could control the thickness of the formula much easier. I expressed for a while - but 99% of the time the thickened formula stayed down, the breast milk came up.

@NauseousNancy if you see the post above that I sent to bowserJr you can see about the medications we've tried. We've been referred to a specialist at the hospital but can't get an appointment which is very frustrating.

We've had a couple of weeks where the reflux has not been nearly as bad but the last couple of days have seen flare ups. Although not as bad as they used to be.

I too have wondered about stopping breastfeeding because for the most part his formula with carobel goes down no problem. But I'm just not sure how he'd get to sleep that way. It's so hard getting him to sleep in the first instance at night or for naps you see. What did you do when you made the switch? I'd love it if I could just cuddle him to sleep but don't know how to get to that point.

@NauseousNancy sorry to hear you're daughter still has problems. Do you feel like it's under control now though or is it still causing her a lot of pain?

It’s really under control now, she only really has flare ups now if she has something I know will trigger an increase in acid production - usually fatty foods/acidic fruits and strangely bananas. We manage this with gaviscon, although we do try and avoid this because it makes her constipated.

we see a specialist too, but we are very fortunate that we have an AMAZING gp who has supported us from the word go. What were the reasons for the gp refusing to continue the medication?

When I stopped breastfeeding I still fed her to sleep, but just with a bottle instead. I then held her sleeping upright for at least 30 mins and then at night put her down, and in the day just held her.

Why don't you give your baby a dummy instead of feeding to sleep?

@FATEdestiny it does work sometimes but most of the time he refuses it unfortunately. Any tips for persevering with the dummy?

@NauseousNancy that's very positive to hear that although your daughter still suffers you have it under control. They won't re-prescribe Lansoprasole because it isn't licenced for infants. We have to wait to see the specialist but can't get an appointment. It's frustrating. Although the last two days the reflux hasn't been nearly as bad so I feel less worried. Do you find there are good days and bad days?

Glad to hear things have settled a little.

Yes absolutely good days and bad however this is now down to her diet. Is your little one weaning?

@NauseousNancy not yet. The health visitor wants us to hold off til 6 months. I've heard it can improve reflux or make it worse so it seems like big unknown at the moment

Hi @LGBirmingham. I know this is a very old post, but I am in the same position as you right now. The GP has just prescribed omeprazole. I have seen a lactation consultant and a cranial osteopath. Baby just cannot fall asleep at night without feeding. In the day she will only nap in the sling, car seat or pram. What happened for you in the end? Did your baby grow out of the silent reflux? Did you find another way to settle him without feeding to sleep? At the moment we feel stuck.

Yes he did just grow out of it, somewhere around 5 months, so perhaps shortly after writing this post. I did find another way to get him to go to sleep but not until he was older. At this age I did a lot of holding him for naps because I could keep him up right and didn't have to walk him around and make myself more tired. I'd sit in a rocking chair so if he stirred I could rock. I just got through the nights however really, it was just crap tbh and I was knackered but DH was good at splitting the nights until he refused bottles .

The only thing that helps really with babies is time. But that's horrible to hear as days move at the speed of weeks with an unsettled baby.

I think what stopped the reflux with mine was by 5 months he was rolling all over the room and burps would come out on their own and then by 6 months he was sitting and then he could keep himself upright.

The reflux went and sleep went up and down really for another year. But he was happier and that made everything more bearable. Sleep improved significantly when I partially night weaned him (15 months), and then even more when I fully night weaned (2 and 3 months). Then it got worse again with potty training/ the colder nights setting in and him now having a duvet to kick off. But he's still infinitely better than baby, I'm talking waking once or at worst twice and still sometimes sleeping through.

Sleep is a journey with small people it seems. I have found it easiest just to accept that.

Thank you so much for your reply @LGBirmingham. This is encouraging and what I needed to hear. She is my first baby and sometimes I feel like I’ve done everything wrong. I’m glad to hear things are much better for you, especially the sleep and of course the silent reflux for your son. Thanks again.

Honestly the best advice anyone can give is to just get through each moment as it comes and not stress about changing anything or bad habits. Babies develop anyway without you doing anything, and all you can do is look out for the right moment to give them a little nudge in the right direction. You absolutely won't be doing anything wrong. It's really easy to feel that way though as I did too. It's really hard with a reflux baby, and you really don't know what it's like until you've experienced it.