Advice on using Infant Gaviscon and breastfeeding

[mhazzab]

My son has been prescribed infant Gaviscon today...I've just read the instructions and it seems a bit of a faff! Any tips on how to make it easier for me to mix and use? how long does cooled Boiled water stay sterile for and can I store it for a few doses?
Thanks so much x

 

[willowblossom]

I keep a bottle of boiled water for 24hrs. I have a couple of small pots and syringes which I sterilise. When its time to give it I empty the sachet into the pot. Then use the syringle to measure 10ml of water, mix it with the powder then give it to lo using the syringe. My lo only has it morning and evening. Hope it helps your lo xx

 

[M2B83]

same here! used it one last night and again this morning and seems to be working already! yippeee!
we used boiling water to sterlize a little shot glass and spoon and then mixed it into a paste with one teaspoon of boiling water, then added two more teaspoons. when it was cool, then gave it to baby via the glass (as its so tiny) and seemed to work well!
x

 

[supertabby]

^^^spot on advice above. Also if lo spits it out you can mix in a bit of expressed milk for taste, we had to do this with DD.

We were told to give it in a bottle before breastfeeding which was terrible advice in hindsight. She was 7 weeks old and never had a great latch due to thrush from 1 week to 6 weeks. The bottle was easier for her and basically started getting harder to bf and eventually destroyed our bf relationship. I swore if our second baby had reflux I'd use a syringe, fortunately DD doesn't have it.

 

[mhazzab]

Thanks for the advice! I've been using a syringe to measure the 5mls amounts so i know its the right amount of water im using but the final 15ml seems like so much to give him? And it says to mix to a paste but mine seems to be nowhere thick enough to be a paste? I don't get it!

Did you all notice a difference right away?

 

[Snufflepop]

My LO was prescribed infant gaviscon last week. She is 4 weeks old and is really unsettled at night, coughing and spitting up her feeds. She looks really uncomfortable.

I was so excited to try the gaviscon thinking it would solve the problem and.....it made it worse!

Could not get her to take the stuff for love nor money! Tried spoon, cup and syringe and before, during and after feeds and made no difference she would spit it out and if she did swallow it at the end of the feed she would projectile vomit everything back up! Argh! We have accepted now that we just have to wait for her to grow out of this phase and try and manage it without medication like raising the head of the cot etc which does seem to be helping.

Hope it works for you though, as lots of people say it does solve the problem!

 

[supertabby]

My LO was prescribed infant gaviscon last week. She is 4 weeks old and is really unsettled at night, coughing and spitting up her feeds. She looks really uncomfortable.

I was so excited to try the gaviscon thinking it would solve the problem and.....it made it worse!

Could not get her to take the stuff for love nor money! Tried spoon, cup and syringe and before, during and after feeds and made no difference she would spit it out and if she did swallow it at the end of the feed she would projectile vomit everything back up! Argh! We have accepted now that we just have to wait for her to grow out of this phase and try and manage it without medication like raising the head of the cot etc which does seem to be helping.

Hope it works for you though, as lots of people say it does solve the problem!

Go back to your doctor - there are other meds you can try. DD was on a combination including one which relieved the acid burn in the throat - it was only a small amount and we were allowed to mix it with apple juice in the syringe (milk wasn't allowed in mix), even though she was below weaning age (advised by her reflux specialist and pharmacist). She would lap it up quickly. She also hated gaviscon but with a few mls of milk added she would take it.

 

[CupcakeBaby]

We ha an awful reflux battle. I feel for you. Xxx

Luckily she's all better now and weaned off her meds (only Omeprazole helped in the end after trying everything)

But when we did Gaviscon I mixed with the tiniest amount of water possible so it all fitted in a 5ml Dentinox syringe and gave that to her.

 

[justmeinlove]

My LO was prescribed infant gaviscon last week. She is 4 weeks old and is really unsettled at night, coughing and spitting up her feeds. She looks really uncomfortable.

I was so excited to try the gaviscon thinking it would solve the problem and.....it made it worse!

Could not get her to take the stuff for love nor money! Tried spoon, cup and syringe and before, during and after feeds and made no difference she would spit it out and if she did swallow it at the end of the feed she would projectile vomit everything back up! Argh! We have accepted now that we just have to wait for her to grow out of this phase and try and manage it without medication like raising the head of the cot etc which does seem to be helping.

Hope it works for you though, as lots of people say it does solve the problem!

Ask for ranitidine?! I couldn't get gaviscon to work with breastfeeding, but ranitidine was Awesome and really helped. You absolutely don't just have to suffer.

 

[mhazzab]

My LO was prescribed infant gaviscon last week. She is 4 weeks old and is really unsettled at night, coughing and spitting up her feeds. She looks really uncomfortable.

I was so excited to try the gaviscon thinking it would solve the problem and.....it made it worse!

Could not get her to take the stuff for love nor money! Tried spoon, cup and syringe and before, during and after feeds and made no difference she would spit it out and if she did swallow it at the end of the feed she would projectile vomit everything back up! Argh! We have accepted now that we just have to wait for her to grow out of this phase and try and manage it without medication like raising the head of the cot etc which does seem to be helping.

Hope it works for you though, as lots of people say it does solve the problem!

Ask for ranitidine?! I couldn't get gaviscon to work with breastfeeding, but ranitidine was Awesome and really helped. You absolutely don't just have to suffer.

Is ranitidine easier to administer for breast feeders? I'm still struggling to get my son to swallow the 15mls of Gaviscon mixture

 

[CupcakeBaby]

Is ranitidine easier to administer for breast feeders? I'm still struggling to get my son to swallow the 15mls of Gaviscon mixture

Ranitidine tastes disgusting so we found it harder.

As I said in my previous post - don't make up 15ml of the Gaviscon. Just do it in 5ml.

 

[justmeinlove]

Ask for ranitidine?! I couldn't get gaviscon to work with breastfeeding, but ranitidine was Awesome and really helped. You absolutely don't just have to suffer.

Is ranitidine easier to administer for breast feeders? I'm still struggling to get my son to swallow the 15mls of Gaviscon mixture

Yes for us, definitely. The amount you get is according to the weight of the baby, but there's SO much less - our LO was having 0.4ml 3x day. They give you a tiny syringe, so taste I don't think was particularly an issue, you just syringe it in and done. Our LO seemed to like it as well, perhaps because it helped?
Basically it reduces the amount of stomach acid being produced so it isn't there so much to burn. You must remember to keep getting the amount adjusted as the baby grows.

But yeah, totally awesome for us! Whereas the thing with gaviscon was that you gave it at the end of the feed, so basically no room left in the tummy, and promptly the baby is sick everywhere. We had that too.