Baby Reflux: advice sought

[Yorkie]

Our 6 week old daughter has been throwing up a lot of her feeds for the last few weeks. At clinic today they prescribed infant gaviscon and advised me to keep her upright after the feeds. I've been doing this with limited success. I think I'm making matters worse by how I feed, she's a baby who only feeds for 5-10 mins at a time and after each feed I try to wind her on my knee for 10 mins then move to shoulder for next 10 then change her & put her back on same breast if she's still hungry. Starting the cycle again. She can be sick at any point, sometimes before I've even sat her up and sometimes 1hr later as I put her down! Last night I was up from 3am to 7.30 before she finally went down and stayed asleep (she also does the waking up screaming thing but is very happy and content at all other times). I'm not worried about her as her weight gain is brilliant but am finding it such a worry trying to work out if I could be doing something to ease her pain and perhaps more crucially my sanity. I'm a first time mum and finding it all a bit overwhelming.

I wondered if anyone had any top tips for getting through it?

[Belle]

Hi, our little boy has this too. He's now 7 months and still has it (gets v interesting once on solids...) - basically we use gaviscon in every feed, which did seem (for us - others may have different experiences) to alleviate the pain he had in feeding and digesting, though for us it didn't minimise the vomit much. this means on a practical level we always have a million muslins over us/him at any one time and go thorugh loads of bibs, luckily we have wipe clean floors and no carpets! I think if the baby is putting on weight the GPs tend not to worry to much and just tell you they'll grow out of it. We were offered a referral to a paediatrician but the GP said it wasn't particularly doing him any harm and he'd just get put on some drugs which cleared his stomach quickly. We chose not to go down that route...

In terms of the pain at night-time etc, we had, until very recently, his mattress propped up and this helped hugely. We just put a pillow underneath it, doubled up, and I really think that helped as he used to be sick in bed a lot. He still is occasionally but doesn't have the pain on lying down which he used to have. So basically a mixture of gaviscon, practical stuff (you're already doing the keeping her upright thing) and time seems to be what it takes. I've been told he would grow out of it with weaning but so far he hasn't...my nephew grew out of it at about a year old, others are quicker. Oh, also, i did go to see a cranial osteopath and that may have helped.

hope that helps. With the gaviscon we are bottle feeding which I think means it's simpler to use, but either way I'd recommend persevering with it as it definitely made feeding times a lot calmer and less upsetting all round.

[Claref]

My baby is nearly 7 months and has always been a very sicky baby, but like yours has never had any weight problems. For her the pain side of it peaked at 4 months (was worst from 3-4 months, probably because I didn't give her gaviscon at an early age) and now doesn't seem to bother her much, but she is still sick all the time. I breastfed and at one point she found it very difficult to feed comfortably and we found success with slightly odd positions (more upright, such as sitting on my lap when she was old enough or with me standing when she was smaller). I used to express milk to mix with her gaviscon after her feeds, and this certainly seemed to help her at night time. I remember the dreadful evenings of inconsolable crying, which was the worst bit for me, so I can really sympathise and it made naps impossible unless we were out in the buggy. We had her moses basket raised at quite an angle and used a wedge to stop her sliding to the bottom. It is overwhelming but it passes so quickly and does get better. I too visited a cranial osteopath and things did improve after that, but it may just have been the time.

[Yorkie]

Thanks ladies, it does help to know you're not alone. Particularly as no-one around me has experienced this and just advises me to wind her better or assumes all babies are sick like this. Winding seems to have no direct impact on the vomit, sometimes she's sick as she burps, sometimes never burps and is fine. I'm waiting for an appointment at the child oesteopathy clinic in October and we did prop her up using a small pillow under the mattress last night which I think might have helped. Will try gaviscon tonight and see how we go.

[BellendenBear]

We found wedging baby on her side improved sleep a lot - look on 'babyreflux' website for wedges.

[knackered cow]

Hey!

I feel for you, My baby had silent reflux (not throwing up feed but had alot of acid coming up) I was desperate for anything to work as she was always uncomfortable. I had to keep her upright constantly so had her in the baby bjorn all day then she slept on me all night! Hell!

At 3 months she got better but it could of been because of 3 things...

Her stomach muscles matured,

The very expensive cranial osteopathy sessions we'd had previously (above Soup Dragon)

or

That I put her on formula at this time- my daughter seemed to react to everything I ate. My health visitor urged me to continue breast feeding so I did but cut so many foods out of my diet, I was miserable! In my case MAYBE breast wasn't best!!

If yours is a guzzler perhaps the control of a bottle might help?? You can always express breast and still use a bottle, there are some great bottles out there now.

We tried Gaviscon which might really help your baby as it thickens the stomach contents but make sure you keep the fluids up as it can make them constipated!

All I can say is hold on in there! It can really drag you down but keep trying different things and keep talking! That is why this forum is great because you can get support and not feel like you're boring the ones nearest and dearest because at the end of the day even though they are trying to help with their advice nobody really knows what you're going through unless they've experienced it themselves.

My experience only lasted 3 months but it felt like a lifetime but guess what....it's all a faded memory now!

Best of luck and keep us posted! :)

[samstopit]

Hello Yorkie, your post brought it all back to me, as our son (now three) had reflux quite badly as a baby and didn't get over it until 16 months.

I wouldn't wind her over your knee because she really needs to be upright as much as possible. Put her up on your shoulder and rub her back, and walk up and down the stairs if you have any to bring the wind up. Don't do her nappy up too tight. Feed little and often. We also put the moses basket and then the cot on a tilt and had to ditch the carry cot and put him straight into the buggy propped upright.

We were referred to a paediatrician who prescribed an antacid called Zantac which made the world of difference. Apparently all the vomit (of which there was a lot!) had burned the lining of his throat and was causing him a lot of pain, so the Zantac soothed and eventually healed it. He was on the Zantac until he was about 14 months I think. We didn't have much luck with Gaviscon I guess because the real issue was the pain he was in which was making him scared of feeding.

For us solids made him worse, the new foods upset his stomach and it was just more for him to throw up. Banana in particular did not agree with him for a long time which apparently is because it's slimy so babies have to relax their oesophogus (sp?)to swallow it, which in a reflux baby means it all comes up!

I agree with Knackered that breast isn't necessarily best for reflux babies. The angle you feed them at is difficult for them and I could never get the hang of the rugby ball position! Also breast milk is thinner then formula. I used to express and thicken it with something called Carobel made by Cow and Gate which did seem to help, and I found feeding with a bottle much easier because although he still screamed and squirmed and pushed it away, it wasn't quite so personal as having him scream at my boobs!

One final - and controversial - suggestion is to let your baby sleep on her tummy. Some reflux sites (I think Wikipedia was one) recommend this because there is a chance that your baby can choke on her vomit if she is on her back. However I was to scared as a first time mum to do this, I put him on his back and propped the bed up and slept in his room so I could check on him. A dummy also helps them to soothe themselves.

Hope it all gets better soon. I do recommend getting a referral to a paediatrician if you can, ours was very helpful and kind.

Good luck.

S x

[sleepy bunny]

Hi Yorkie

I know exactly what you are going through. My second daughter had silent reflux, and from eight weeks became a very fussy feeder, only feeding about 5 mins from one side, (and would not take the bottle until she was six months). I was told by 2 GP's and 3 HV's that she did not have reflux, eventually on advice of (the angel) Clare Kedves, we took her to A and E who told us she did have reflux, and that she was failing to thrive. At sixteen months she finally seems to be coming out of it, she is a cutie but small for her age! I would say first try Gavsicon (unfortunately we could not get it into our daughter however hard we tried). If this does not work insist on seeing a paediatrician, reflux can be exhausting and it sounds like you are doing a wonderful job, but even if your daughter is thriving, eventually you may not be! The team led by Dr. Ball at Kings are wonderful and caring and take into account how this affects you as well as the baby (which I think sometimes GP's do not). Do not be afraid to go down the 'drugs' route, unfortunately our daughter ended up on Omneprazol (liquid form of Zantac), Ranitidine and Don Peridone(?- sorry get this last one mixed up with a similar sounding champagne)but it got us all through. My daughter voluntarily slept on her stomach from three months of age, and (possibly being a second child), I let her (apparently we all did when we were babies anyway), of course a personal choice, but it seemed she prefered this position. She will get over it, but it is very hard work so be kind to yourself, just talking about it can really help.