Going against Dr's advice - please read - Opinions needed

[YorkieMom]

So if you've been following any of my previous threads lately you may have noticed I've been having some problems with my LO feeding and sleeping. He's got horrible gas and wind and is constipated. Sometimes he arches his back and screams and screams during his feeds. He get hiccups a lot, and has almost every other symptom of silent reflux, so I really thought my LO had it.

He rarely brought up his feeds though, which is why I thought it was silent reflux. The issues seem to come and go, but at night lately he's been waking up loads because he's kicking up his legs and really straining to fart.

The night before last he was up almost every 45 mins crying and he was just so uncomfy. Well last night was so much better. The only thing I did differently was add 2.5mls of Dentinox Colic drops to his feed and he drank it no problem, plus an extra 30mls (210mls total), and then slept for the longest he ever had before (6.5hrs since his last feed, but probably 5 of that was actually sleeping). He woke up for his next feed and drank another 210mls with the drops in and woke 4hrs later. The next bottle I gave him didn't have the drops in it, and he only drank half of it - I'm not sure if this was because it made him uncomfortable, or because he wasn't actually hungry???

I put the Dentinox drops in his other feeds for today, and then went to the Dr appointment I made for him because I wanted to discuss silent reflux and a possible cows milk protein intolerance as I wasn't sure why we were having so many issues over the past few weeks.

At first the Dr was going to have us on some hypoallergenic formula, but he changed his mind and told us not to give my LO any of the colic drops such as Dentinox, Inficol, Grip Water, etc and to just give him his regular formula as usual, and then give him 2 sachets of Gaviscon mixed in with 10mls of water using a syringe at the end of his feed.

WELL - I tried that tonight at 6:30 and it took us over an hour and a half of crying and screaming to get a little over half his feed in!!! I felt absolutely awful for doing it, but I think I may have figured out what the problem was - everytime he drank I could hear air bubbles being swallowed and gurgling around in his gut. It was so hard to wind him, I literally had to do it every 3 mins and it took an average of 15-20 mins of rubbing and heavy patting to get a burp up. With the Dentinox they came up quite easily. In the end I ended up caving in and giving him the Detinox drops with a syringe.

Now he's finally asleep, but he's only got half a feed in him. I'm not sure what I should do now. The Dr wanted us to do the Gaviscon thing 4 times a day every day until Wednesday!!! He wanted to do this in order to rule out anything, and to see if the Gaviscon was actually helping, making sure nothing else would effect the results of it.

What would you guys do? I'm thinking of not bothering with the Gaviscon and just trying the Dentinox drops for the next few days to see if they help. Maybe he doesn't have silent reflux or a milk protein intolerance after all - maybe it's just painful wind and gas???? Is there a possibility that the Dentinox drops could help with either the silent reflux or CMPI? The drops are thicker & goopy, so they may thicken the formula a tiny bit which may be helping???

 

[OmarsMum]

Did you change the teat size when you started to use gaviscon hun? What bottles are you using?

 

[MillieMoo]

Oooh that's a tough one butid say do what you think is right! I mix 2 sachets of gaviscon in with my lo's feeds as well as giving her infacol before hand. Could you give both as they do different things?

 

[YorkieMom]

Did you change the teat size when you started to use gaviscon hun? What bottles are you using?

No, I haven't changed the teat size. He's 10 weeks today, and is using Dr Browns bottles with a size 1 teat. I haven't gone up to a size 2 because I heard size 1's were better for reflux.

 

[Leanne09]

Sounds like my LO did. I found those drops great but not in the long run. We changed to Dr Browns bottles and he was instantly like a diff baby. We changed at 4 weeks old and he has not suffered from any screaming with the painful wind he was having. They were like miracle bottles. I highly recommend them xxx

 

[YorkieMom]

Oooh that's a tough one butid say do what you think is right! I mix 2 sachets of gaviscon in with my lo's feeds as well as giving her infacol before hand. Could you give both as they do different things?

He specifically told me not to becasue then he wouldn't know if the Gaviscon was actually working or not. We're supposed to go back and see him next Wednesday to report back. He wants to rule out a few things and try a few things before he refers us to a pediatrician.

 

[YorkieMom]

Sounds like my LO did. I found those drops great but not in the long run. We changed to Dr Browns bottles and he was instantly like a diff baby. We changed at 4 weeks old and he has not suffered from any screaming with the painful wind he was having. They were like miracle bottles. I highly recommend them xxx

We're already using them.

 

[mummy2lola]

Hun gaviscon can b given even if giving infacol/dentinox/gripe water and I have always been told to add the gaviscon to the feed aswell,only need the syringe if baby
doesn't drink all the bottle so you would give it BEFORE the milk as it forms a film in the stomach to stop food or acid rising.u do what YOU feel is right,no one but u knows ur baby and what's best xx

 

[xcharx]

Maybe just try the gaviscon for weekend & if no improvement make an emergency appointment for Monday & explain to the doctor that the gaviscon alone isn't working (if its not) x

 

[OmarsMum]

Did you change the teat size when you started to use gaviscon hun? What bottles are you using?

No, I haven't changed the teat size. He's 10 weeks today, and is using Dr Browns bottles with a size 1 teat. I haven't gone up to a size 2 because I heard size 1's were better for reflux.

Dr brown's teat flow is very slow hun. Try size 2 & see how it goes. Omar was on size 3 with Dr browns at 12 weeks with anti reflux formula.

ETA: Milk gets a bit thicker with gaviscon xx

 

[mummy2lola]

Oooo forgot to mention that if u add gaviscon to the milk u will need a bigger flow teat.doc told me it thickens it slightly and I noticed that even on size 2 teat sometimes they would get booked so Lola is on size 3 and has been since 10wks xx

 

[MillieMoo]

Oooh that's a tough one butid say do what you think is right! I mix 2 sachets of gaviscon in with my lo's feeds as well as giving her infacol before hand. Could you give both as they do different things?

He specifically told me not to becasue then he wouldn't know if the Gaviscon was actually working or not. We're supposed to go back and see him next Wednesday to report back. He wants to rule out a few things and try a few things before he refers us to a pediatrician.

Well I suppose in that case you really need to give it a try to rule things out otherwise you won't know either! If you are just going to give the gaviscon for a few days then I would put it in his bottles instead of the syringe as he might take it better!

 

[YorkieMom]

The reason why the Dr said to only give Gaviscon and nothing else is to be able to see if it actually works. If I were to be adding in other things, then he wouldn't know what - if anything was helping.

Also, he said to give the Gaviscon in a syringe because if I mixed it in with his full feed and he didn't take his full feed, then he wouldn't have got all the Gaviscon in.

I'm so torn. I hate seeing my LO in so much pain and so distressed, but I really want to be able to make him better.

 

[littleblonde]

i would do as someone above has said. Keep it up till monday as the dr has said. if no improvment then make an emergency appt. if dr wants to rule things out before refearing you then you need to follow that really. just incase it something that hasnt been thought off. go up a teet size as well. that could even be part of the problem. my dd2 has been on size 3 dr brown teets since 6 weeks. the age on teets is a guide

 

[YorkieMom]

i would do as someone above has said. Keep it up till monday as the dr has said. if no improvment then make an emergency appt. if dr wants to rule things out before refearing you then you need to follow that really. just incase it something that hasnt been thought off. go up a teet size as well. that could even be part of the problem. my dd2 has been on size 3 dr brown teets since 6 weeks. the age on teets is a guide

Thanks. My hubby is just on his way home, so I'm having him stop off at Tesco to buy some size 2's and 3's.

 

[littleblonde]

fingers crossed. I hope it works. My eldest suffered with terrible wind. Used to here the bubbles rise in her when feeding. So i no how you feel.

 

[stardust599]

If it's reflux Dentinox would actually make it worse as it relaxes the valve at the stomach of the stomach to let gas out which also lets excess acid (if there is any from reflex/GERD) and causes pain to reflux babies.

Dentinox and Gaviscon can sort of cancel each other out as Gaviscon creates a foamy barrier at the top of the stomach to stop acid/milk coming back up. Dentinox effectly reverses this by breaking down the foamy barrier!

So if Dentinox was working I'd just stick to it for a couple of weeks and then try the Gaviscon if needed xx

 

[YorkieMom]

fingers crossed. I hope it works. My eldest suffered with terrible wind. Used to here the bubbles rise in her when feeding. So i no how you feel.

Yes, I can hear them gurgling away as he drinks, and I can hear them inside is tummy after he's off the bottle as I'm trying to burp him. Poor little man!

 

[Dalila]

my LO does the gulping and the gurgling noises he also has become quite fussy from gas lately. I haven't tried the stuff you have but I do have to burp him at about every ounce sometimes half ounce and then burp him fro 5-15 minutes after that and then burp him occasional once he's put down. once he makes a "painful" face or a scrunches his brows (he usually makes a sound as well) I usually pick him up and burp him. sometimes he just wants to lay belly down on my chest while i rub his back from tailbone to head to help bring up the gas...my mom also taught me if you hold your baby in front of you and rock him using just your hands (slowly so he doesn't get sick) also helps bring up deep burps. it just not something to do right after a feed unless you want to see an eruption. LOL

 

[Reid]

i would keep going over the weekend with what the doc is saying and if hes still the same come monday id phn down and see if u can get a app that day at least this way u can say we have giving it a go and its not working. hope he gets better soon xx