Reflux no better with weaning

[MotherOfNoodleMoo]

Hi. My DD has had severe reflux since birth and takes Domperidone and Ranitidine. I was hoping things would improve with weaning, but although she is really keen on solids, it hasn't improved the reflux at all. She's pretty much sick all day every day! Any thoughts?

How old is she?
DS actually got worse with the start of solids as al it did was thicken up the sick and make it stick in his gullet longer causeing more pain.
Is she in pain with the sickness? If not I wouldn't worry too much as she may be quite sicky for a while yet normally up until a year old.

Can you give us some more info on her behaviour? Has she been checked for dairy intolerance? It often goes hand in hand with reflux, and can cause lots of vomiting.

I started weaning DS at 20 weeks because they said it might help his reflux. It didn't make any difference! What made the difference in the end was Losec. We did have to put it in his puree so I suppose it was a good thing he was being weaned. If she is being sick all day every day perhaps the dose of D and R needs to be adjusted by her consultant or a different drug is needed.

DD only really stopped when she started to walk at 13 months but she only did it once or twice a day. Not enough, according to the doc, to warrant any drugs.

Thanks for all your comments. My DD is now 8 months old, and we started weaning at 5 1/2 months. Her pain is much improved with Ranitidine, and we only really notice it when she is nearing time for her medicine or at night when she is laying flat. I believe she is on the highest possible doses of both medications. She is a very clingy and grisly baby - and I don't really know if this is just her personality or whether it is due to discomfort. We have now managed to get another appointment to see the Consultant to review the situation. I know he also deals with allergies - so we can hopefully look at the possibility of dairy intolerance. I worry so much about the damage being sick so often might be doing to her.

I've just been told (today in fact) by my daughters Paediatrician to get her on solids to "help" her reflux.

I've spoken to other parents on different forums who have reflux babies, and in a lot of cases weaning makes no difference to reflux. Needless to say, I'll be ignoring the advice I was given today and waiting a month until she is 6mths old!

Hope you get on ok with your Consultant.

Hi MotherOfNoodleMoo

My heart goes out to you - one of my twins had severe reflux and it was a nightmare. We saw a number of paediatric specialists, dietitions, etc and were prescribed everything going. I know it's cold comfort but it will disappear in time. For some babies the medication has little effect as does food and you just have to wait for it to run its course. Mine suddenly improved around 8 months and at 10 months has almost entirely gone.

Certain types of dairy affected her badly, yoghurt, cream, etc. I now offer these occasionally and she is slowly starting to tolerate it. Sitting her up as much a possible helped. The doctors also prescribed us a formula which is thicker than regular stuff and has twice the calories and fat.

Hang in there - it will improve and when it does will change your life!

Have you tried raising her cot at one end? We used cot blocks from JoJo Maman Bebe - you put the head end of the cot at a slight angle so they are not flat - this helped DS.

DS came off Losec when he was 10 months old and hasn't had any reflux problems since. Before we got the meds right we had a few nightmare months as DS developed a food (milk) aversion and had to be treated for failure to thrive. The change in him once the acid damage had healed and the reflux was under control was amazing - we were so pleased when he was enthusiastic about his milk!