Reflux Thread!

[littlemiss83]

Hi ladies

I've noticed alot of reflux threads going about recently. So I thought i'd start one up where we can all chat, support each other, give tips ect.

Has your LO been diagnosed? What is the symptoms? How do you feel?

As alot of you know, my LO was diagnosed with severe acid reflux (silent reflux) when he was around 4 1/2 months. It all started One day he turned blue & was struggling to breathe, we first thought he had something wrong with lungs or was taking a fit, ambulance came, he was fine. These blue spells continued. I kept googling blue lips ect & reflux kept coming up, I dismissed it because I assumed LO must be physically sick to have reflux (my LO is NEVER sick) so eventually we figured out it could be silent reflux plus when we looked back over since he was born, he had basically every single symptom of silent reflux but we'd been explaining it away with colic, constipation, grumpy ect, after various doctors visits we tried gaviscon, ranitadine, Enfamil AR prescription formula, and omezrapole. It kept happening & we took him straight to A&E, he was monitored overnight & diagnosed by a baby doctor the next morning. The meds still aren't working & now i'm back to square one. We're still going thro blue spells daily & waiting for another apt with a baby doc in a few weeks.

I have lots of tips ect, but I wont bore you all in this post.

Normal reflux is where babies are sick & bring up their whole feed. Silent reflux, doesn't mean that LO doesn't cry (alot of ppl think that) it means LO isn't sick but displays all signs of standard reflux, its infact acid that comes up, rather than the full stomach contents.

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[BevG]

doc gave us some gaviscon this morning, i have reflux and so does my mum and brothers to varying degrees, Alyssa dosent seem to have it bad and keeping her upright after feeds and elevating the head end of her moses etc seem to help. shes much happier since i started doing these and the gaviscon seems to be helping a bit this evening as shes down in her basket happily.

she was crying whenever laid down and throwing up small amounts of curdled milk when changed or laid down after a feed. im hopeing its going to be fine with the gaviscon as when i have a flare up of my stomach acid im give omeprazole and it calms down for a few months after the course of pills.

 

[littlemiss83]

The big bit of advice with reflux babies, is dont ever lay them down flat, it can make their wee tummies really sore, even if its just for a cpl mins to change a nappy.

Positioning is just as important as meds are with reflux. I know gaviscon works for alot of ppl, good luck

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[Elliellie]

This is a good thread & i really feel for you littlemiss. Isaac has reflux but no where near as bad & it must be terrifying for you. Isaac vomits a lot & also has lots of acid/vomit coming up & going back down when he's lying down. He often sounds very blocked up & mucusy as it gets into his nose & he doesn't sleep well at all as it constantly wakes him up. I often sleep with him on my chest as that seems to be the only way we can sleep sometimes. We've got gaviscon & ranitidine but neither seem to help much so the doc has referred him to the peadiatrician at the hospital, BUT I tried to make as appointment yesterday & they have no appointments until July 19!! I cried after booking as I was pinning my hopes on that appointment being able to help him & it makes me so sad he has to suffer until then. I'm worried his lack of sleep might affect his development too. I'm seeing an osteopath next week so I hope he helps a bit.

 

[knopk@]

My lo still doesnt like being on his back but its getting better now he is properly weaned and sits up. Reflux is horrible and meds did nothing for us so i stopped them

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[vickib_1984]

They also don't like the vibrate on bouncers either as it jiggles all the acid about xx

 

[hugsy]

were on gaviscon and find it helps a bit, it doesnt fullly cure it though but because its silent reflux the coc wont give anything else, says he only gives other meds if baby is loosin weight due to vomit but Kayla is chunky cos she comfort eats

I try keep her upright as much as possible and have started changing her on a raised reflux mat i bought, its pretttly usless cos its too smmall to leve her on for any length of time but works to get her nappy done

have just started putting her in the front facing part of her buggy rahter than the little baby seat part and she does be very happy and actually sleeps better there for naps than she did in the swing chair or raised playmat

we due suffer with constipation since starting the gaviscon though so have the crying over straining to go now but i know its not as bad as the reflux pain, well i hope

hope your lo gets sorted soon it sounds so scary xxx

 

[littlemiss83]

Elliellie - it took 11 weeks for us to get the appointment with the baby doc (its in 3 weeks time) and thats from my GP putting in an urgent referral to me getting the apt.

Hugsy - I had problems getting my doc & HV to diagnose silent reflux, they kept saying that it isn't reflux unless baby is actually sick, they know so little. The paediatrician at the kids hosp diagnosed it straight away & gave me meds. That was me going to A&E, sometimes it takes something like that to get an answer, coz then when you go back to your GP they have to take the word of the paediatrician & give the right meds.

I'm not long back from my GP, had a different one, with a little more sense who didn't say there was no such thing as silent reflux, he explained a bit more about why the acid is getting stuck & answered a few other questions, which is good. Also on a cows milk free formula now, incase he's allergic to cows milk (reflux can sometimes be caused by a cows milk allergy).

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[jomc]

My LO was diagnosed by GP at 10 days old and put on gaviscon. It worked for about two weeks and then stopped.
He was referred to a paediatrician and put on Nutramigen formula as alot of reflux can be due to lactose intolerance. Hes also on domperidone and ranitidine which took about a month to kick in.
I found a website www.babyreflux.co.uk and bought a 30 degree wedge pillow for hin to sleep on, along with a safety sleep wrap to stop him sliding down. This was a fab buy for us.
Hes now just over 4 months and us alot better. Our problem is now trying to get him to stop sleeping so much in our arms as he is so used to being held!

 

[littlemiss83]

Jomc - How did it go with the Nutrimigen? Is you LO still on it? Its stinking isn't it.

This is our 2nd day on it & LO seems to be ok, i'm not gonna think too much about it til a couple of weeks down the line, with everything he's had so far its only worked for 2/3 weeks then stopped, hope its not the same with this. Actually hope LO does have a cows milk allergy or similar as at least it is easier to stop, you stop the cows milk & the reflux/symptoms stop.

Hows everyone doing??

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[Zoeox]

So glad i found this thread. lots of advice. Im sure Jack has reflux but no-one seems to want to say so. we have tried changing from small to cow and gate still the same though. He has gaviscon but again only a little difference, being its not as much vomit. Feel sorry for him. xxx

 

[Zoeox]

Any other tips how i could help lo. forgot to say he has a small cushion wedding him up in bed and always sounds like he has a blocked mucussy nose and throat xx

 

[Susanne]

What a good idea to do this thread! Samira has also been diagnosed with silent reflux 4 weeks ago and put on Gaviscon. Our story seems quite similar to yours, littlemiss, including the blue spells etc. Scary stuff when you don't know what's causing it! Gaviscon helped a bit but made her terribly constipated, so I've stopped again, and GP won't prescribe anything else. She's not too bad at the moment - it's been much worse than this - so I'll just carry on without Gaviscon and see how she goes, if it gets worse again maybe I'll start her on a smaller dose than before? Not sure.

One question: Samira sleeps terribly bad at night, do you think this may be due to her reflux as well? Although nighttime is the only time she actually doesn't strugglr whilst feeding at all, so I thought the reflux was better during the night, but HV seems to think that this is what may make her wake up so many times. What do you guys think?

 

[littlemiss83]

Susanne - i'll send you a PM about your LO's reflux - I think reflux can strike at any time, apparently reflux babies sleep worse & have broken up sleep & are easily woken? Alot of reflux babies only sleep 2/3 hours at a time. My LO hasn't been all that bad night time wise, I think thats just lucky coz most reflux leads to disturbed sleep, we've had blue spells at night but always sleeps ok.

Zoeox - heres my favourite tips....keep LO upright while feeding & also for 30/40 mins after feeds (I know this is a pain but it means all the milk gets digested properly) dont let LO get into a slump, keep the spine straight at all times (for example raise the entire changing mat at the top end rather than using pillows under head). Try to minimise the use of car seats & baby rockers as sometimes when their legs are scrunched up, it puts pressure on their tummies. Also, try not to use elasticated waistbands or anything else that might be slightly tight around their tummies. Keep cot as elevated as you can manage at the head end, without LO sliding down. Also, never place LO down flat, wether its down on your bed or on changing mat, its very sore for reflux babies to be laid down flat, and it can make LO reflux...always keep head/chest area elevated. This is a difficult one, but once you get used to it its not too bad. Wind LO after every 2oz or so (sorry I dont know if your BF'ing or not, if you are i'd wind every 5/10mins). Try not to move LO about too much, even if its not after a feed, reflux can strike even hours after a feed.

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[jomc]

Jomc - How did it go with the Nutrimigen? Is you LO still on it? Its stinking isn't it.

This is our 2nd day on it & LO seems to be ok, i'm not gonna think too much about it til a couple of weeks down the line, with everything he's had so far its only worked for 2/3 weeks then stopped, hope its not the same with this. Actually hope LO does have a cows milk allergy or similar as at least it is easier to stop, you stop the cows milk & the reflux/symptoms stop.

Hows everyone doing??

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Yep still on nutramigen. Its going good for him. He was badly constipated on sma and aptamil, even the comfort one but on this he has no problem with number 2's. Although, it does make it go green in colour lol

 

[Maybe_mummy]

Well Alyssia is on the gaviscon but one sachet shes 11.7 now so I suggested as per the packet she needs two scahets now not one but dr has said to leave her at one. She seems to be getting worse, vommiting a lot more, hiccups are back, fussing during the feed and arching (this never really went away) and shes chewing as if something in her mouth??! Her moses basket is raied and we are keeping her upright after feeds. Just spoke to dr and shes said to up her to 2 but then whats the option after this if it dosent help??

 

[littlemiss83]

It sounds like your LO has reflux pretty bad - gaviscon is what they always give first of all, then if that doesn't work there is other meds & if they dont work there is stronger ones again. My doc said its trial & error & with any medicines, you start low & build up to stronger if needed, its alot of pissing about to get something that suits.

Jomc - We started running out of nutrimigen on Thursday, foned docs, the prescription wasn't ready til today & it needs to be ordered by the pharmacy, which means today we've had to go without & my LO has already had quite a bad blue spell coz we had to go back to cows milk (stuff that was in cupboard) fingers crossed we get it late afternoon today. And my LO's poos have been 100% better, he's been constipated and irregular since birth, now he does one & doesn't even strain & its same time every day. Think even if LO doesn't have a CMA, its still good formula for their tummies

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