Help needed from mums of breastfed reflux bubbas

[leahsbabybump]

Just had the midwife out bubba still hasnt gone upto his birth weight and he terribly sick after every feed not just a mouthfull and sometimes he is sick 3/4 times between feeds :-/
anyway she has sent us to the gp (Were going tomoz) to see what he says to see if he recons its deffo reflux or not
I asked the midwife how would they treat a breastfed bubba with reflux (my son had reflux but was FF he just had gaviscon in bottle) and she said you cant really :-/ she said she thinks i will have to give formula top ups with the gaviscon in :-/
just wondered how true this was and/or how do you treat you BF reflux bubba?
thanks

 

[flowers04]

U can give gaviscon to bf baby, u just mix,with water and spoon feed after a feed or u could express and mix it with ur milk

I use a syringe to give it

Better to give with ur milk,my bub hates it with water

 

[leahsbabybump]

well thats what i thought i could just express some milk each morning or night to use that day for gaviscon but she reconed you couldnt
i know my bubba wont feed from a cup or spoon we allready tried to get milk in him like that as he had feeding problems wen born :-/ dnt know about syringe never tried that
do you give gaviscon at every feed the same as when FF?

 

[flowers04]

Yes you need to give after each feed for it to work,its 6 doses max in 24 hour period

My gp said to mix with bm

Good luck

 

[leahsbabybump]

thats good news then at least i know if push comes to shove i can express botlles of milk for him to mix it in with

 

[BlueHadeda]

My baby was put on omeprazole (Losec) at 6 weeks. I crushed half a tablet between 2 spoons, mixed it with about 2-3ml of breastmilk in a syringe, shook it vigorously and squirted it in his mouth. Once a day. Worked like a charm, all his symptoms and throwing up dissapeared. Good luck to you!!

 

[summer rain]

That's outrageous that the midwife has said that, it's completely fine to use expressed milk or water to give gaviscon if anything your baby is less likely to get constipated on it being BF, and no you don't need to exclusively express-just give the gaviscon with a small amount of expressed milk at the end of the feed then feed normally before that. My eldest had reflux and he wasn't given any medication due to reflux barely being recognised in those days. He was far more comfortable sicking up breastmilk than formula, as breastmilk is less acidic. When he occasionally had formula he'd be in horrible pain and wouldn't sleep until he'd either digested it all or thrown it all up, with breastmilk he still had his moments but was nowhere near as bad xx

 

[leahsbabybump]

The only thing is he wont have nothing out of cups/spoons and things like that just booby and bottle :-/
think im gunna struggle unless i express some into a bottle to mix it with :-/

 

[summer rain]

What I meant was you don't need to exclusively express just give the gaviscon in a small amount of expressed milk in the bottle and feed from the breast otherwise. Exclusive expressing is where you give every feed completely from the bottle with no feeding direct from the breast xx

 

[leahsbabybump]

i get what your saying with that but dnt you need so much milk to dialute it down so that it will come through the teat the midwife said that if you mix gaviscon with only a bit of milk it would be too thick to come out of the teat :-/ thats what made me think i would need quite a bit of milk in the bottle to dialute the gaviscon so it wasnt thick iykwim :-/

its that bloody midwife shes confused me hasnt she

 

[readytotry]

I'd try giving it with a small syringe/dropper and a little bit of expressed milk as that will be much easier than exclusively expressing long term. You'd max have to pump once a day to get enough milk to mix it with.

 

[summer rain]

You can get fast flow teats with large holes or cross cut, these would be fine to give the gaviscon with as it would come through such teats fairly easily xx

 

[leahsbabybump]

You can get fast flow teats with large holes or cross cut, these would be fine to give the gaviscon with as it would come through such teats fairly easily xx

oo thanks your such a great help i allways thought the faster flow ones were for older bubbas do you know which brand make these teats he prefers avent or TT CTN bottles do they do tose teats for these bottles?
How would i go about giving the gaviscon milk when he has fallen asleep at booby cos thats what he usually does lol would it be a case of waking him back up to give him the milk in the bottle? could i not give him the bottle milk first then let him get topped up to what he wants at breast?

 

[summer rain]

I'm not sure about your second question but I believe the Avent variflow teat works ok. NUK are exceptionally good for this as well (the large feed hole teat). The fast flow teats are for older babies but only because they'd make a normal thickness milk pour out too fast, as you'd be giving thickened milk it's fine to use the faster flow teats xx

 

[leahsbabybump]

thanks you have been a great help i suppose the doc will be able to clarify any other questions do you htink breastfeeding support services at sure start will be able to help me with this aswell if im struggling?

 

[summer rain]

They should be able to xx

 

[Miss_Bump]

You absolutely can give a BF reflux baby meds!

Evie had reflux from 2 weeks until she was walking at 17 months. We used to give her infant gaviscon via a syringe before a feed. When she was a tiny baby i will admit it took quite a while for her to actually take all her meds before a feed but it was worth it and really helped sooo much! At 8 months she needed gaviscon, Ranitidene and Domperidone which can all be given via a syringe.

There is absolutely no reason what so ever to how formula or introduce a bottle to a reflux baby and tbh, they can both make reflux worse. Using a bottle means your LO is gulping more air resulting in a gassy baby and breastmilk is by far the best milk for reflux

 

[Whitbit22]

First thing: they will most likely outgrow it. Also, try probiotics before resorting to meds. They decreased my babys puking sessions by volumes! Her reflux was worst from 3 weeks old to two months. She is 4 months now and rarely pukes. Our ped mentioned Zantac, so there ARE meds out there.

 

[SassyLou]

We found that mixing it with the recommended 15mls of water was just too much for DD to take, also I didn't want to mix it with breastmilk as we're rarely in the house due to family commitments (was worried about it going off). I found DD didn't need the 6 sachets in 24 hours to stop her being sick. After doing much research we now mix 4 sachets with 15mls of water (in a capped avent bottle) and give her 2.5mls at whichever feed is after/around the 3/4 hour mark using a syringe. We give it just before a feed and I feed her immediately. Infant Gaviscon is just a thickening agent therefore if you feed immediately afterwards the fact it hasn't been mixed exactly like the instructions say is fine.

There was another BF mum on here who also used to mix it to a paste and squirt it into LOs cheek area.

xxx

 

[elohcin]

I haven't read all the replies, but have you looked in to other possible causes of the weight issue? Tongue tie can be a huge one, and reflux can be a symptom of it.

Here is a good article worth reading-
https://bodyecology.com/articles/tr...-how-to-treat-infant-acid-reflux#.UDBB36Cp2So