Using gaviscon

[carolyn99]

Hello everyone,
I was wondering if any of you mummies have experience of using gaviscon for silent reflux and could give me some advise.
From just a few weeks old my LO was very unsettled and quite often seemed in a lot of pain. We ended up taking her to A&E at 4 weeks as i thought she may have silent reflux. They said it seemed like it might be and gave us gaviscon to try. This did seem to calm her down a bit. However, they didnt really explain anything. just gave us the gaviscon and sent us off. Since then i have been putting one sachet in every 4oz bottle she has (about 7 a day). This worked for about a week but then she started getting very distressed again. So i took her to see a gp who wasnt very helpful but gave us ranitidine to try as well as the gaviscon. This did seem to help but soon after she became very constipated. When we took her to a dr for this he said she shouldnt be having a sachet in every feed and should only have 4 sachets a day. He suggested either using half sachet in a feed or only using gaviscon for 4 of her feeds in a day.

My question is would half a sachet still work the same? And if you only use the gaviscon in some feeds how do you decide which ones? does it mean that baby will be uncomfortable after the other feeds?
Sorry for such a long post but i am desperate to hear from someone who has experience of this and can help.
Any help would be greatly appreciated

 

[Geminiblue]

didnt want to read and run. Has anyone mentioned colic? if not it could be that, and Coleif is brilliant and a colic bottle my friend swore by it. Sorry that didnt really answer your question did it but my feeling is if the remedy is not working then it could be something different from the original diagnosis...baby massage is an option too and may be free xxx

 

[riotfox]

We are currently using Gaviscon, Ranitidine and Domperidone for silent reflux. Lucas has 2 sachets in each bottle as he has 8oz in his bottle. It says on the packaging max of 6 bottles. We are quite lucky as Lucas has 6 bottles a day. If he had more I would probably pick a night one as he is sleepy and more relaxed then. xx

 

[Siany1982]

I have 2 children, one is 5 and one is 3 weeks, both have had/are suffering with reflux, and have had/having Gaviscon powder. I give my 3week old son one every feed, thats what the dr told me to do, but now u say about only having a certain amount a day, I may phone them and ask their advice.
As for the constipation, my health visitor has said to give my son a bottle a day of pre made formula, one in a carton, that is supposed to help unblock them. I gave my son one yesterday for the first time and he did a good pooh last night...
Also Apitmel do a formula for anti colic and anti constipation (yellow one)...
For the chance of it being colic, Im using the above mentioned milk and Dr Browns bottles, they are great for colic... Also I have found that my son doesnt dribble much of his feeds with these bottles compared to the Avent and Tommee Tippee ones...
I hope something from this essay may help u...
Siany

 

[toni64539]

Have u tried the ranitidine on it's own, 0.6 ml every 8 hours? No constipation and worked a treat on silent reflux, he's like a different baby! X

 

[Siany1982]

Just found this website, and its helped me understand it more, I didnt even know my son had silent reflux, just thought it was basic reflux he had, but reading this and the website below, I now know thats what he has... I have really bad acid reflux and I am on medication for it, so Im really worried that he will have this long term...
Anyway, heres the address.... http://www.pollywogbaby.com/refluxandcolic/silent-reflux-infant.html
Hope it helps
Siany

 

[Rowesb]

Have u tried the ranitidine on it's own, 0.6 ml every 8 hours? No constipation and worked a treat on silent reflux, he's like a different baby! X

the ranitidine dose is weight calculated hun
gaviscon, T was prescribed it 6 times a day, just spread tham as evenly as you are able to, this should offer almost constant relief, hopefully.

Toby was breast feed, just incase anyone reads this wanting info about tryign to get gaviscon into a bf baby, ignore the instruction I expressed 6 lots of 30 ml and would add the gaviscon to this at each feed (with the colief, it was like being a walking pharmacy when I was out!!)

 

[carolyn99]

Hello,
Thank you for all your replies and your help
I started using the gaviscon by doing one sachet in six of her seven feeds a day and she was still very distressed. So we ended up in a and e again yesterday and they changed her dose of ranitidine from 0.29ml 3x day to 1ml 3x day and have also added 1ml of domperidone 3x a day.
She slept quite well last night (in comparision to how she usually sleeps anyway). So fingers crossed this will help. I hate seeing her so unhappy.
Thanks again for all your help
xx

 

[Siany1982]

Its horrible to see them in so much pain isnt it...
I went out the other day without a sachet of Gaviscon and Fynn cried for 2 hours after, it was horrible, I felt terrible... We actually would have run out of them tonight, so had to go to the out of hours dr to get more today...
Im going to go to the drs again this week to get the prescription put up to a few boxes, cause one box only last 5 days also it isnt on repeat prescription...
Anyway, I really hope u and the drs (at A&E) have finally cracked it for u and the LO...
Siany xx