Feeling overwhelmed-reflux? Update-silent reflux

[Joybell]

Hi

My LO is almost 6 weeks- he is my first born by emergency section after a long labour. My recovery has been tough.

To start with he was quite windy so we switched to dr browns bottles and infacol which worked ok. Not perfect but fine. He is on aptamil first milk.

A few weeks ago we stopped using infacol every feed as he didn't appear to need it so much. He was managing to burp ok.

Anyway, this past week he has been a nightmare. Farting mainly, so powerfully it wakes him up screaming. He grunts and grumbles and cries from 4am til around 7am. Just wont settle in the morning.

The farting gradually got worse, seemingly very painful and he wasn't pooing very often.
We then noticed that when he was taking a bottle literally within 20 seconds of the milk being swallowed his tummy would grumble gurgle loudly and he would go red and contort. He would also scream so much his head goes all sweaty. It would then almost immediately push out lots of painful farts.

He gulps and gasps and coughs over his milk, only taking the first 80mls or so at a push then cry scream and refuse the rest. Horrible.

We have been trying colief for the past day or two which I thought was working but today has been awful. Crying all day. Hungry cries, he takes a small amount screams in pain, refuses the rest and evntually conks out from screaming. He is up again an hour later to restart the process.

We have also noticed he is bringing up small amounts of milk quite regularly now when he didn't before.

Today was my first day fully alone since my husband went back to work and I didn't have family visiting to help. I am a wreck and feel useless.

I called the HV who said it sounded like reflux- do you guys think so? I am going to the GPs tomorrow so fingers crossed things improve from there. I didn't think the farts and tummy gurgles sounded like what I thought reflux was. Does reflux just start like that or should it have been evident from birth?

Sorry for the essay I'm just at my wits end- today was so difficult!

Joy x

 

[leahsbabybump]

hi hun first of all hang in there your doing great
there are 2 types of reflux silent reflux and another type which my son has he scrreams constantly and is projectile sick after every feed not just a small mouthfull it shoots out everywere and if your not preared soaks him and soaks you and also the sofa we have to get surrounded by towels etc at feed times lol :-/
anyway sound like could possibly be silent reflux i dnt have no experience with this but there are some mommas on hear who have babies with it the mite be of help to you

 

[leahsbabybump]

also my lo doesnt have painful wind :-/ not sure if that is a sign of reflux tbh
i know it sounds silly but are you winding him well after each feed till hes burped a few times :-/ do you think could just be trapped wind as this can make then sick

 

[Joybell]

Leah- thank you so much for taking the time to respond! Sorry you are going through reflux with your LO, I hope it improves soon. I suppose I should count my blessings that he isn't projectile vomiting on top of all this too!

Joy x

Edited to add- maybe we aren't doing the best job of winding him, we used to takes AGES over it to start with but as he seemed to be getting better we wait til we get one burp in the middle and one at the end and usually leave it at that. Hmm.

It's the almost instant reaction to the milk hitting the tummy that is puzzling me. Win two of three gulps of milk you can feel and hear his tummy go and hen these horrendous farts. It's odd.

 

[fionagrace]

Hmm it does sound like it could be reflux..
At 2 weeks old my son started with colicy crying, arching his back and turning red during his feeds. He had lots of painful trapped gas and spent most of the day in pain straining. We later found out he also had silent reflux which I believe caused most of those problems.
I read that it is common for reflux to be caused by a dairy intolerance so I cut cows milk from my diet which has really helped a lot. He still has some bad days but at 5 months things are so much better.
Good luck I hope you find some answers!

 

[Joybell]

Thanks Fiona. Glad to hear there's light at the end of the tunnel!

 

[rainbowskin]

It sounds like reflux to me.. my son has it pretty bad here are some things that have helped: gripe water, having him sleep or sit upright for 30 minutes after every feeding, burping/winding him a few times during each feeding especially when he starts gasping, and using wide vent aire slow flow bottles when I give him expressed milk.

 

[Joybell]

Hi

My gp today diagnosed him with silent reflux. We have been given infant gaviscon and have done two feeds so far. It appears not to be making a difference. We have also switched to hipp organic from aptamil as I heard its kinder on tummies.

How quickly should the gaviscon work?
Would you increase a teat size as the formula is now thicker?

Joy x

 

[floofymad]

Hey. Poor you and LO. Tbh it sounds like reflux but maybe caused by cows milk intolerance. Everything about the instant reaction to the milk suggests it. My LO was the same with farting and painful tummy cramps etc. I don't think gaviscon will help that much really but it's the first thing they'll give you to try. My LO is also the same with burps and we just can't seem to get it right, theyre always bothering her. Pm me if you want x x

 

[floofymad]

Ps meant to say we increased a teat size when using gaviscon. Also do you hear LO Refluxing and regurgitating inside often?

 

[floofymad]

Pps my LO has a terrible rumbling gurgling tummy too

 

[Mrsmitch80]

Hi, my lo had all the same symptoms and it's horrible!

Yes about the bigger test size as the gaviscon makes the milk thicker. You should really see a difference quite quickly but gaviscon didn't work for us

We tried aptamil comfort but it made no difference, she went on ranitadine and domperidone which improved things a little but not much, then the ranitadine was increased but things were still awful!! We tried nutramigen as it could have been CMPI but she wouldn't touch the stuff!!

I am combi feeding and all she wanted to do was feed from me, little and often so that's what we've been doing until the last week or so when I've tried her with the new hipp milk.

One thing I've learned is to not expect a reflux baby to go 3-4 hours between feeds, they feed little amounts all the time. I found that stressful at first but I've got used to it now.

We weaned at 17 weeks as lo was always hungry but feeding her bottles was horrendous, it has improved things so much so that she is off everything but the ranitadine and just has a low dose now.

I know how stressful it is, we just got through it by me just having to sit and feed lo when needed and not doing much else!! Ours started at around 7 weeks, she's just about to turn 5 months and things are so much better, I actually have a happy baby now.

I'd say that if the gaviscon doesn't work soon don't suffer, keep going to your gp until you find something that works. Good luck xxx

 

[leahsbabybump]

hi hun gaviscon should work immediatly just like it would if you took adult gaviscon were on gaviscon doesnt really make much differance were also on ranitadine to lower acid levels in stomach should reduce pain but that doesnt help also domperidone which pushes the food throughthe digestive system quicker also no effect were waiting for a letter from peads so they can check us out further.
anyway i would say if the gaviscon hasnt started working yet to go bac to you gp and try for something else for some people ranitadine is a god send
hope you get sorted hun reflux sucks i hate it i would hit it with a stick if i could seriously though its not nice youll get there though

 

[Joybell]

Thanks everyone. Two perfect pain free feeds overnight then we were slow in making a feed at 6am and he only managed half and screaming again.

He currently has a stuffy nose and weepy eye and sounds stuffed up. Wonder if that could affect his feeds?

GP appointment for Tuesday for a check up on the gaviscon. Will be going earlier if things don't Improve.

 

[Wannabeam]

Hi

I could have written your first post myself word for word! Let me tell you now hun, it does get better honestly, I know how you feel.When OH is late home and I have had LO screaming all day and most of the night I practically throw LO into his arms when he gets home and go and cry somewhere, hate seeing her in pain. I have found walking around with her in the baby carrier helped keep her dozy and the movemnt helped with the wind.Also holding her so that her head rested on my shoulder as I watched TV or walked about helped her occassionally burp by herself. Do you have a swing? I put LO in it until she goes off and then I slowly stop it swinging and dream feed her, she still only takes 50-80ml at a time but she takes it wihout fussing, if she wakes up I turn the swing on so that she can't instantly feel the pain in her tummy. Also,make sure you put the colief in luke warm milk as it burns easily and doesn't always work, we made this mistake and so it took longer for her to get better. There is a formula for vomiting and constipation that helped her through the rough times caled Frisolac Comfort (only available at chemists), this helps loads as it's thicker so fills them up even if they only take abit yet is kinder on their digestive system. Also,we use infant chamomile tea, it helps relax her and her insides before each feed.

 

[Barristerbaby]

Hi

My LO is almost 6 weeks- he is my first born by emergency section after a long labour. My recovery has been tough.

To start with he was quite windy so we switched to dr browns bottles and infacol which worked ok. Not perfect but fine. He is on aptamil first milk.

A few weeks ago we stopped using infacol every feed as he didn't appear to need it so much. He was managing to burp ok.

Anyway, this past week he has been a nightmare. Farting mainly, so powerfully it wakes him up screaming. He grunts and grumbles and cries from 4am til around 7am. Just wont settle in the morning.

The farting gradually got worse, seemingly very painful and he wasn't pooing very often.
We then noticed that when he was taking a bottle literally within 20 seconds of the milk being swallowed his tummy would grumble gurgle loudly and he would go red and contort. He would also scream so much his head goes all sweaty. It would then almost immediately push out lots of painful farts.

He gulps and gasps and coughs over his milk, only taking the first 80mls or so at a push then cry scream and refuse the rest. Horrible.

We have been trying colief for the past day or two which I thought was working but today has been awful. Crying all day. Hungry cries, he takes a small amount screams in pain, refuses the rest and evntually conks out from screaming. He is up again an hour later to restart the process.

We have also noticed he is bringing up small amounts of milk quite regularly now when he didn't before.

Today was my first day fully alone since my husband went back to work and I didn't have family visiting to help. I am a wreck and feel useless.

I called the HV who said it sounded like reflux- do you guys think so? I am going to the GPs tomorrow so fingers crossed things improve from there. I didn't think the farts and tummy gurgles sounded like what I thought reflux was. Does reflux just start like that or should it have been evident from birth?

Sorry for the essay I'm just at my wits end- today was so difficult!

Joy x

Hi Joy,

I wonder if you may get this message or even remember what the outcome was in the end as this post was SO long ago now. Here's hoping you do because I'm desperate for some help!

I write this because your post sounds exactly like our problems. My son is now 6 weeks old. We were told he has colic as he didn't have many reflux symptoms but is very windy, has a lot of stomach discomfort especially when farting/depositing (!), hiccups and notably gets very fussy at about 4am after his feed (he seems to go down fine after his 10pm and 2am feed). He really groans and kicks, he cries out every 10-30 mins or so but is so sleepy he falls back to sleep. His tummy also seems to gurgle and move as soon as he's fed.

We put him on Hipp comfort milk for colic and constipation which did help a bit but didn't totally solve it. Then I moved him onto Dr Browns bottles and a bigger teat due to it being thicker. That's helped with his wind as he's not gulping as much but now he seems to be showing more reflux symptoms - he's crying during feeding, spitting the bottle out and arches his back when being burped.

I'm now wondering if he's had reflux all along and the thicker comfort milk helped a bit so it wasn't as obvious.

Does this sound familiar?

Was your baby diagnosed with reflux? What did they give you? We have tried all the other things (regular burping, different bottles, keeping him upright, raising the cot etc). Did you find anything else helped?

 

[Teri7489]

It's a tough task helping a baby with reflux so huge hugs. Both my kids had it and it wasn't fun, but things that did help (apart from what you are doing )

*gaviscon can cause constipation so keep and eye out for that and ask gp for lactulose if you notice his poo starts to go hard.
*Look up baby massage videos especially ones on the tummy. It will help to get his poo moving, remove any trapped wind and also settle him before bed. Just try not to do it straight after a feed as it my case him pain from lying down or vomit.
*warm baths when really unsettled. can be soothing and doubled with massaged and help to relax both of you.
*if a larger size teat if too fast then use a sterilised pin to make a size one teat slightly larger. It makes it just big enough to allow the gaviscon through but not so much that it's too fast for him that he gulps air down making more trapped wind.

I hope you can get him sorted soon. Huge huge hugs xxx

 

[Barristerbaby]

Thanks so much. I'll keep an eye on the constipation. Doing the baby massage but that is often too uncomfortable for him. He does love his baths though.

Will definitely try the pin trick!

He also has colic so I'm getting quite tired but hoping we'll see a steady improvmeent in a couple of weeks

 

[Joybell]

Hi Barrister

I'm the original poster - my son is now 5(!) and I've not long found out I'm pregnant with my second.

Yes he was diagnosed with reflux and we were given Gaviscon for every feed. It wasn't a magic instant motion rather we preserved with it an different milks etc for a few weeks and it got better. We found Hipp milk the best in Dr Brown's bottles. We also tried varying teat sizes.

Even reading my post makes me emotional now, it was such a tough time!
I hope you find some help!

 

[Barristerbaby]

Thanks so much. And congratulations! We're also going through the comfort milk and dr browns!