Struggling with reflux ....dreading feeds

[nicksi27]

Hi ladies I'm really struggling with Emily's reflux and it's making me dread each day because of feeding/wind issues. She's 3 weeks on Friday and has been diagnosed with milk allergy (she had blood in her poo and her brother had milk allergy so they diagnosed it on that info alone) and has been put on neocate which my ds thrived on. DS never really had feeding issues apart from occasional vomiting he had really bad blood in his stool and the milk changed all that overnight. However from birth emily has had

Choking on bottles
Difficulty bringing up wind so falling asleep feeding
Arching back during feeds
Hiccups after every bottle

She is on ranitidine twice a day and gaviscon for the reflux (silent). The choking on bottles is worse some days than others and it terrifies me. She's a good baby and settles and sleeps well but after feeds she gets really bad hiccups so feeding seems to take well over an hour each time because she falls asleep if we cant get her wind up and then the hiccups take ages to go. The night feeds are the worst because it's some times taking 2 hrs from start to finish I'm exhausted. DS used to feed, have a nappy change then sleep which I jusy wish we had now.

Does silent reflux get better with age? I'm getting so stressed out and anxious about feeding. I feel trapped in the house because I feel too anxious to feed her if I go out anywhere in case she chokes and I can't get her wind up. I feel guilty that I'm not enjoying having a gorgeous new baby ...the last few weeks have been awful and OH is going back to work soon leaving me with DS (3 years old) and emily which I should be looking foreward to but I'm dreading it. I feel like my life is just a constant worry about feeding and nothing else at the moment x

We have been using infacol and it seems to have stopped working so I've bought dentinox today so add to bottles with the gaviscon. I hope it's ok to use them together? Weve also tried Dr brown bottles which she didn't take to, faster teats which made her choke more, have elevated the crib etc

 

[Smanderson]

Hi, ds1 had bad reflux so I really sympathis, it's really hard going! They do grow out of i and things will get easier. I was wondering if you have had your dd checked for tongue tie? Ds1 used to take an hour to feed and it turned out he had tongue tie. Does she make a clicking sound or have milk escaping at the sides of her mouth? Xxx

 

[Babybump87]

I was also thinking about tongue tie . DD2 had all the symptoms you listed . She had tongue tie which we got snipped and things improved apart from the reflux . She was later diagnosed with Cows Milk Protien Allergy ( which went untreated / undiagnosed ) for a long time!

Maybe a trip back the GP for a stronger medication we used Gaviscon in each feed some people were prescribed stronger ranitidine etc . Worth just getting a general check up .

Like PP said it does get better when properly managed and you can do it ! Good luck ! X

 

[Babybump87]

Sorry just re read your post about Emily having CMPA ! Has she only recently been put on it ? . It could be she just needs time for the milk to kick into her system to settle all the other symptoms

X

 

[nicksi27]

Sorry just re read your post about Emily having CMPA ! Has she only recently been put on it ? . It could be she just needs time for the milk to kick into her system to settle all the other symptoms

X

She's been on neocate for 13 days now and her poo is starting to turn neocate green which I'm hoping is a good sign. We have noticed she has what maybe an upper lip tie. Going to get her weighed today so we are going to ask the HV about it. We have noticed that in the last few days emily is taking more ounces since we stopped giving her infacol. I've read infacol can make reflux worse so we decided to see what she's like off it.

 

[Babybump87]

How did you get on today with the HV? We skipped Infacol with DD2 and just got Gaviscon . Glad she's taking more ounces now .

 

[Teri7489]

What kind of bottles are you using and what size teat? With gaviscon it thickens the milk the longer it's mixed so it gets harder and harder for them to drink. Often you have to go up a teat or use vari-flow to ensure they can get a good flow. My son was on both ranitidine and gaviscon for a bit (had to stop gaviscon as it caused bowel problems) but I had to feedo him a little bit, stop to wind which worked well with a bigger teat then feed more and so on. If I let him have too much too quick he would vomit the lot up. But the smaller teat he would just suck and suck, get frustrated or fall asleep be full of wind and be super uncomfortable. Not sure if it's the same with formula as he was breastfed/bottle fed expressed milk. Sorry for the ramble, late at night and I'm useless at explaining things lol x

 

[mmomm1]

Nothing really helped my son better than 1oz baby's magi tea in a 4oz bottle. I tried all different formulas, but it never eased up at all.
just remember, they tend to outgrow it pretty soon, my son is about to be 6 months old, and he rarely spits up anymore, but some days he has bad days still.