Hi everyone, we are pretty sure our 6 week old little girl has silent reflux, she has all the classic symptoms & really isnt happy, it is horrible to see. The doctor wont say for definite but he has given us gaviscon to try. Just wondering how other parents cope, she is just so unhappy & obviously in pain & i am really worried our little girl will never smile or be happy. Does anyone have any tips at all? I am still breastfeeding with 1 extra formula bottle a day, really struggling to give her the gaviscon as she just spits it out & then gets all upset. We are using cow & gate comfort milk for the bottle, it says you shouldnt mix gaviscon with that though so we miss it on that feed. I have heard good things about that milk so i am considering using that for all feeds & not worrying about the gaviscon. I would really appreciate any advice or thoughts about this as i am really struggling at the mo. Thank you xx

My little one is the same, we use comfort milk every feed now as she still got the reflux when I breast fed so had to stop . Also use it in anticolic bottles and try and keep her upright after a feed, I got a sling to help with this and to be honest it all works like a dream. She is so much better and gurgles and coos and is always smiling and now I can lay her down on her mat and she doesnt scream like she used too. Gaviscon was our next step but Dr and HV said to try the milk and bottles first and am glad I did as they worked really well

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We think our son has silent reflux. We saw the GP last week and I broke down crying to the health visitor as it was geting me down so much. Silent reflux combined with terrible wind. As Charlie is on prescription milk for being low birthweight we can't change his milk, but our GP told us to add extra water to his feeds as he thinks the milk could be too rich for him. We are currently giving 5oz water with 3 scoops powder. He's drinking the whole bottle but doesn't seem very full as he's getting less calories. There has been a significant improvement. He also has gaviscon in his bottles which to be honest seems to be making him worse. Think we might have him back at the doctors on monday but at least we're getting somewhere.

we used to give evie a bedtime bottle of aptamil comfort with gaviscon which I think has the exact same ingredients as c&g comfort as they're made by the same people. I was told not to use it with milk that contains thickeners with it, however aptamil is thickened with potato starch which means gaviscon can be used too, i rung the helpline to check. You may need a higher level teat if this is the case though as it thickens it further x

Hi there, We use cow and gate comfort and infant gaviscon. I asked the Gp, Health Visitor, Pharmacist and rang the cow and gate helpline. The milk doesn't have a thickening agent in so can be used with the gaviscon. It certainly hasnt done little man any harm. It makes the milk very thick, and coats the bottle. We had to buy variflow teats for thicker liquids which work great. By 8 weeks the colic had settled and the refulx is being controlled. It worked for me but take advice from the professionals around you.

Thank you so much for your replies, they are really helpful. That is really interesting about the milk, i didnt think we could use them together. Must admitt i am considering switching completely to formula now as it seems like it could be a better option for her. Talking about bottles, does anyone know much about anti colic bottles? We are using the tommy tippee anti colic bottles at the mo but i keep hearing good things about the Dr Brown ones & i am wondering if it is worth switching to them. Thanks again x

We use the TT anticolic plus ones which have the thingymejig down the middle like the Dr Brown ones and I have no problems with them, we were going to get Dr Brown as everyone rates them but thought we'd give these a try as we had them anyway and they have done the trick. Make sure its anticolic plus as all boxes say anticolic but they jsut mean the teats have a valve in which didnt work for us

x

We think our LO has silent reflux. He seemed to be cring all the time and there was nothing we could do to help, he arched his back and cried during and after feeds, he started waking up every hour in the night, he wouldn't lie flat, he always seemed to be suffering and all the health care professionals told me it was just colic and nthing to worry about! In the end I went to GP who prescribed colief which made him worse! So I went back and finally prescribed gaviscon. The same day I went out and bought aptamil comfort and mam vent Anti colic bottles from mothercare (they have really good reviews and are cheaper than any others! Thy are just more of a palava sterilising as they have abut 5 different parts to each bottle) the day after I already saw significant improvement!! He was so much more placid in the day and smiled so much more, he slept more in the day which was a breakthrough and the nght after he slept 6 hours! He now sleeps 4 hours to start with at nght which is much better than 1 hour! We also bought a swing which he loves! It's nice to see him awake and not crying! He still has symptoms of reflux but it's just calmed down much more which has made him much more settled and happier. He still chokes during feeds which worries me so if that's not sorted in a week I'm going back to the GP. I breast feed too in the day and formula at night and struggled to find a way to get the gaviscon down him when breastfeeding, eventually after trying syringes etc I now put the gaviscon in a bottle mixed with 30ml of warmed boiled water and a teaspoon of gripe water and I give it before the feed (instead of after as stated on the gaviscon instructions) as he just won't take it after a feed but takes it without a problem before the feed. Breastfeeding is suppose to be better for babies with
reflux but it just means being careful with what you eat which I'm bad at as I eat rubbish! Hope you LO improves on the gaviscon like mine did! Let us know how you get on!

my lo had silent reflux.i stopped breast feeding due to this as she was so uncomfortable and put her on formula.we tried so many formulas and the reflux got worse.she would cry for 3 to 5 hours at a time.but the doctors didnt know what it was at 1st as silent reflux is hard to diagnose,plus she was as good as gold when i went to the gp so i looked a bit like i was exagerating.and plus she was putting on weight.we tried gavascon with no luck and also enfamil ar which just made her worse and very constipated.we put her on cow nd gate comfort as a last resort and also mam anticolic bottles and she improved drastically. we tried switching her milk to a normal one recently and she went back to square one.so we are sticking with cow and gate comfort.i would highly recomend it.