Baby with reflux - help

charlieharper

Our baby was diagnosed the other day as having reflux. We were advised to use gaviscon drops & while they seemed to be doing the trick he's acting up again.

The symptoms of GOR on-line are similar to ours. He's 2 weeks old & was wondering if anyone else on-line here has had experience with this & are there any good tips to help ease the problem for him as he gets in a lot of discomfort when he's experiencing it.

Any answers appreciated....

January

Raise the top of the cot/moses basket, so he's not lying completely flat, a couple of books under the legs will help with that (or a pillow or two under the mattress). Try to keep him as upright as you can when you are feeding him also.

Have you switched to a comfort type formula yet? Has the GP suggested that to you? If not, it might be something to discuss.

charlieharper

January wrote: »

Raise the top of the cot/moses basket, so he's not lying completely flat, a couple of books under the legs will help with that (or a pillow or two under the mattress). Try to keep him as upright as you can when you are feeding him also.

Have you switched to a comfort type formula yet? Has the GP suggested that to you? If not, it might be something to discuss.

Many thanks for your answer, I see that technique posted on-line alright so we'll try it tonight for him. Our GP only recommended the gaviscon for infants, he's currently on Aptamil stage 1, do you suggest a better formula?

dellWlan

charlieharper wrote: »

January wrote: »

Raise the top of the cot/moses basket, so he's not lying completely flat, a couple of books under the legs will help with that (or a pillow or two under the mattress). Try to keep him as upright as you can when you are feeding him also.

Have you switched to a comfort type formula yet? Has the GP suggested that to you? If not, it might be something to discuss.

Many thanks for your answer, I see that technique posted on-line alright so we'll try it tonight for him. Our GP only recommended the gaviscon for infants, he's currently on Aptamil stage 1, do you suggest a better formula?

We started our daughter on aptamil stage 1 but changed to aptamil comfort at week 7. if you think the formula is causing a problem change it. We should have done it about 4 weeks earlier than we did. We used a wedge under her mattress too. Not sure how much it would help on its own but maybe in conjunction with formula. It can be a pain in the arse if she starts getting an aversion to eating if she associates it with pain.

January

The comfort formula is thicker and is supposed to help keep it down better... you might need to change the size of the teat on the bottle with it also though. Are you sure it's reflux and not a dairy intolerence... if it's reflux the Gaviscon should be helping, although the baby might need something stronger (there's stuff on prescription the doctor can give if the Gaviscon doesn't work). If it doesn't work I'd be taking baby back for second opinions to the GP.

wmpdd3

My baby had it too, she was about 3 weeks, I think when she was diagnosed. We had been using the Glavascon for a few days before and there was a difference.

To be honest, I did raise the crib. She was early so 'sitting' her in a chair after her feed was a disaster, she was just too small. A friend gave us a loan of a beanbag for babies and she laid on that at a slight angle. I have no idea if this is safe, I never got a chance to ask the PHN, so I cant say I reccommend it.

Also after each feed I held her on my chest with her belly to my belly. This seamed to work. When she stopped squirming, I put heron the bean bag, she might snooze for a bit than she'd feed again.

I tried the comfort, but had to change back as she could not handle the size 2 Avent teet, it was too fast but the feed wouldn't come out of size 1. I found out later that Boots teats fit Avent bottles and you could try size 2 in them.

By 3 months she was off the galvascon. She was seen atleast twice after the 6 weeks check just to make sure there was no other reason for the pain. (also she was under weight)

SAHMOM

Try a wedge under the head of her mattress, though don't raise her too much as newborns should be lying flat as the neck muscles haven't developed yet.
Switch to comfort and use gav drops (or sachets?? I used them).
Also I found a swing very helpful in reliving her discomfort. It does get easier as baby gets older.
Poor baba and poor you.. Hope baby feels better soon

soddy1979

Our little man had reflux for the first few months. We gave gavascon for infants and held him upright for 30 mins after each feed. It was tough on us but it definitly helped him. Doc recommended doing this.

Mimikyu

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charlie2505

My 6 month old little man has had an awful time with reflux. Having talked with lots of other mums at this stage with babies with reflux, there do seem to massive variants with what our little ones go through. Some have it quite mild while others are in the extreme with babies refusing feeds and losing weight. Mine isnt as serious as that but he has so far had 4 referals to A+E from my GP and each time it has been because of reflux.
My fellah was about 10 days old when I realised reflux may be the problem. I was breastfeeding-which throws out the theory of it not happening to babies who arent bottle feeding! Anyways, with my lad he wanted to feed constantly and when he wasnt feeding he was getting more and more irratble as the day wore on till by 5 or 6pm he would literally be screaming the house down. My first child had colic so I knew this was different. After 4 weeks of feeding literally every hour or two-24/7 therefore 4 weeks of NO sleep I caved in and decided to bottle feed. We had been unable to get him to take gaviscon powder in syringe of water-just spat it out and with the bottles we were able to add the gaviscon powder and mix with the formula. This made a slight difference but not much. So under advice of PHN, we switched to C+G comfort (had been on aptimal 1) and instant overnight transformation-our happy, placid baba was back. But unfortuinately only lasted 5 weeks before the reflux reared its ugly head again-he was then put on zantac along with gaviscon in every bottle-but the constant feeding was making things worse-he was doing this to soothe the burn himself but over feeding made the reflux worse so could only feed him 5oz max at a time up until he was 25 weeks! Now he is on 6oz bottles. Zantac has to be increased inline with their weight-so has been difficult in that you'd have to wait a few days of him being upset again before GP would weigh him and decide to increase dosage-but it has made a big difference. We forgot to give him one of his doses only yesterday and the difference was unreal-he screamed all night and didnt sleep.
Keeping upright after feeds and while lying down-even when changing his nappy is a must-however we got NO sleep for the first 5 months-and only in last month or so have we had the odd night where he has slept through-most nights he wakes once or twice or more.
It has been very hard going and I would suggest get your GP to confirm a diagnosis and if not improved get a referal to paedatrician as in our case, our GP was reluctant to even suggest gaviscon powders let alone anything stronger. LAst thing I want is for my little baba to be taking medicine but when you see the pain they go through....put it this way if your head was banging with a head ache-you'd take some pain relief.
They say it improves when taking solids and starting to sit up=not in our case but think our guy is a pretty bad case-most of the other mums I know all said by 4-7 months there little ones were much better and were off all meds. And in alot of cases they said that comfort formula and gaviscon did the trick the entire time so fingers crossed that will be the same for you. Make sure get help from your GP/PHN where possible and referal to paeds if not getting anywhere.

pikku

Same here, my little lad had severe reflux as well - breasfed as well! - so there goes that myth!
he started refusing feeds and losing weight...eventually (at 3 months, can you imagine the hell we had til then, with my concerns getting dismissed as a panicy first time mom...grrrr) he was put on Zantac and also Losec MUPS (which is actually an adult medecine, but can be given in severe reflux cases, which he was) and we didnt look back since. He was on that medication from the age of approx 3 months - I also really didnt like the idea of giving such a tiny baby medication, but it was that or literally watch him fade away in front of our eyes, writhing around in agony (no exageration).
on an aside, we tried the Gaviscon but found it gave him severe constipation so had to stop it for that reason. He is now 17months, and is off all medication.
At times, i still see him swallowing mad out of the blue, so he is still refluxing but he does not seem to be extremely bothered by it apart from the discomfort of having to swallow back down whatever is coming up.

Best of luck, it's not easy on baby or parent, but you will get there, and it DOES get better.

mouseybrown

my little fella was the same and at the start i just thought he was extra hungry so put him on the hungry food but this didnt really help as he was still guzzling down 7 oz and then an hour and a half later he woulld take another 5, the poor guy just couldnt settle atall and wasnt happy unless he had a bottle in his mouth, after alot of trips to the GP she described reflux and put him on the gaviscon, we had a new baby after that he slept so well and was so relaxed we couldnt beleive the difference..but a few days later the gaviscon wore off and we were back to square one , so he is now on zantac and a staydown milk and i have to say it is so good to have our happy little man back he is so relaxed now and has slept through a few nights , its so good to see him content.. Hate to think of the pain the poor guy was in for the first few weeks of his life

charlieharper

Captain Morgan wrote: »

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We brought our fella to hospital and there they only had cow and gate comfort, we were using Aptamil comfort. He has since settled thank god but he now seems to have constipation because we've changed his milk so much. We're sticking with Cow And Gate comfort for sure now and hopefully his constipation will pass.

I really felt for some of the users who answered, it wasn't easy with him but the answers were great and I thank all of ye for the advice.

I hope this thread helps future parents deal with this swiftly:)

chirogirl

When My Daughter was just 4 weeks old she had waht resembled projectile vomiting after mosts feeds, it was that bad it sprayed everywhere. I headed down to temple st with her, they examined her and monitored her feeds for 2 nights and ruled out Pyronic stenosis. Thankfully, it was just a bad dose of Reflux. The Dr there gave me a prescription for 'Carobel' thickening agent that you add to formula. Its produced by Cow and Gate. She's now 5 months and has been great ever since.

chirogirl

Also, the Dr at Temple st suggested i put her into a bouncer after her feeds as the tilted positioning helps in keeping food down.

LegacyUser

My little boy had awful reflux from birth, went on till abuot 3 months. It was hell on earth. He literally screamed for about 80% of the time he was awake. We tried EVERYTHING. From gaviscon, colief, God I actually cant remember all the names now, also prescription meds like Losec & Zantac. Kept him upright.Brought him to an oesteopath. All the things they advise. Nothing worked!

We changed him onto SMA hungry baby (thicker formula) and it did help a little. But unfortunately we had to wait for him to physically grow out of it (as they grow the oseopahgus grows also & reflux isnt as bad) By 3 months he started to come round a little. He's now 7 months and the change in him is massive. He stil has the odd reflux moment with bottles but I find the solids have really helped as he's taking less bottles. Hang in there, I know its bloody hard but it will get better.