Does this sound like reflux?

[TheFamousMrEd]

I’m really struggling at night with my 6 week old baby.

He falls asleep after feeding with no problem and for the first part of the night sleeps in of 2-3 hours.

Once he wakes for his second feed is when we start struggling. He’ll feed for around 20mins and I keep him upright after every feed for about 20-30mins. He then wakes every hour grunting, squirming and writhing like he’s in pain and will only then sleep on one of us. He’ll have a very short feed which I think is to comfort himself.

If we lay him down again he will sleep for 30-45mins, groaning in his sleep before waking up seemingly in pain again. His cot is tilted but doesn’t seem to have made any difference.

He’s currently snoozing happily in his vibrating bouncy chair while I watch him but we obviously can’t do that at night!

Current routine seems to be:
8-10 or 11 sleep on DH downstairs while I snooze.
11-1.30/2 sleep in next to me then feed.
Then wakes every hour but doesn’t want feeding.

Any suggestions/help would be gratefully appreciated.

My experience of reflux is that no matter how deeply asleep, they will wake within a couple of minutes of lying down. So the fact he does 2-3 hours suggests otherwise to me.

Have you read about the fourth trimester? Babies aren’t used to being outside of the womb and away from you. Sleeping on you, hearing your heartbeat, it’s what they are used to in the womb and why they settle better that way.

I did think he may just want to sleep on us, but he’s been asleep for 2 hours in his chair and will sleep in a moving pram for hours as well.

He’s arching his back and bringing his legs up which says pain to me but I just don’t know!

Babies also aren’t used to milk and their digestive symptoms take a while to adjust which causes all kinds of squirming and wriggling, which is just what they do in the early weeks.

I’ve been told that in the early hours is what’s known as the farmyard hours, basically their digestive system is working itself out and causes all sorts of grunts, groans, snorts, thrashes etc. My baby does this too and it’s so loud but she’s fast asleep when it happens. She does have reflux though but like a pp said, she will wake up as soon as I put her down if it’s bad. The first half of the night is lovely and peaceful and then it’s like having a baby cow/bear/warthog hybrid next to me

Try giving a dummy and using a swaddle, before thinking of medicising the issue.

This sounds like a normal newborn responce to lack of sufficient comfort methods to encourage deep sleep. Sucking (dummy) and swaddling (to calm the body, like in the womb) are nature's way to comfort and sooth a newborn.

He sleeps in a swaddle bag, with one arm out currently, but it may be worth trying a dummy.

Why 1 arm out? Put him in a full swaddle, there's no need to be thinking about weaning out of a swaddle until 4 months old or so.

Abd yes, definately work on getting a dummy established.

@FATEdestiny he didn’t like having both arms in but he’s happy with one arm so I just went with it. He’s in a tommee tippee swaddle bag which gives you the option for arms in/out.

Will definitely work at the dummy too!

You can have delayed reflux too my dd has been diagnosed with it and we are now on gaviscon - she only gets it once a day but it has made a huge difference. She did what your describing but also sounded like she was gagging a lot. In saying that it was a fight and a half to get anyone to prescribe it as they just said some reflux is normal and she wasn't losing weight because of it.

We are going through the exact same thing with my 5 week old. From midnight I'm up every 30-1 hr until my husband takes over when I've had enough around 5am! So desperate for sleep and for him to grow out of this!

The GP has given us gaviscon but it doesn’t seem to be making much difference bless him.

Can’t wait for this phase to be over!

Gaviscon didn't work for us either. Omeprazole was the only thing. I had to fight for a diagnosis to the point where I went to the hospital. HV assured me if he could lie happily on his back without vomiting he was fine. Apparently this isnt entirely true. 3 weeks on omeprazole he was like another bub. Asked for another HV too! Might be worth asking if other kids in your family had it. Dad mentioned it to my cousin and he said it's a long known thing in our family all 6 of him and his brothers had it!

I went back to the breastfeeding clinic today as the symptoms of silent reflux are very similar to those caused by tongue tie.

We know he has a posterior tie and they recommended not to cut it 5 weeks ago, but they think it could be having an impact as he can’t regulate the flow of milk from the breast. Waiting for an appointment to get it cut to come through to see if it helps!

Just thought I’d update this. The dr prescribed omeprazole yesterday and it’s like having a different baby!

He slept 6.5hrs followed by 4 hours. Completely unheard of and I feel so much better! It was so lovely not to listen to him chocking on his own acid all night!

@TheFamousMrEd We too have been prescribed omeprazole but not yet having the same turn around like you. Hoping it will soon come 🙏🏼 what time of the day are you giving it to your baby? Also what milk are you using? X

Omeprazole can be amazing but for us it took a few weeks of slow improvement. No dice the first week then bit by bit it got better till I realised the screaming stopped and he would sleep not upright on my chest. It's a pest to get in sometimes but once weaned my guy has been picture perfect feeding wise. Good luck xx

@rer1986 he’s breastfed so not on any formula. I’m giving it to him in the evening before bath time as he’s worst overnight so I wanted him to have it then. I’m not sure it matters when they have it.