how can we get some sleep?

[browne05]

Hi, My bub is 8 mths old. Diagnosed with silent reflux @ 4 weeks & on 10mg losec from 6 weeks.

Things were ok till 5 and a half mths when we introduced solids after a growth spurt. Food intollerances were suspected to nearly everything except rice cereal and golden delicious apples! We were getting minimal to 0 day sleeps and up every 2 and a half hrs overnight.

Two stays in a mother & baby unit, 2 paeds, a naturopathic allergist and a visit to a distressed infants clinic at the Children's hospital later, Toby has greatly improved. (This has still been by trial and error though.) He now has 2 - 2 & a half hrs sleep across the day, the food intollereance have almost disappeared and we can now include dairy in his diet. I am still breastfeeding, but have reduced that to 4 -5 feeds per day (3 during the day, one rollover and most nights one overnight). He is certainly a lot happier and is now putting on weight and developing. However, we still aren't getting much sleep overnight. We are up either every 2 and a half hours or once overnight for an hour and a half. In total we are getting probably 5 - 6 hrs sleep - but broken into smaller lots. It is exhausting and we don't seem to be getting any better.

At our last stay in a mother baby unit, the nursing staff had no joy getting him to sleep any better or to take a bottle, so I could get a break. In desparation before going home we spoke to the paed about using vallergan to sedate him to break the night waking. This had very limited success on only some nights that he took it. I'm all out of options. Do you have any ideas?

Thanks
Karen.:fingerscrossed:

[RISA]

Hi Karen,
It sounds like you have been through a lot with your little one, and also that you have made a lot of progress!! Well done! I am amazed that you have managed to sort out a lot of the intolerances already, and the fact that he is doing so well obviously reflects on the amount of effort you have put into it. :)

It sounds like you have tried a lot of things too, but the one thing that I don't see you mention is whether you have tried experimenting with his medication. Very often if reflux is still an issue, no matter what you try with regards to their behaviour, whether it is sleeping or something else, it makes no difference. The key to his sleeping improving may be bringing his reflux under better control. There are several options with that- it may mean increasing his Losec, and if that doesn't work, either changing it to a different medication, or adding in others.

As you know with his other treatments, it is trial and error, and the medication part of it is also. Babies (especially those over 6 months) seem to tolerate quite high doses of reflux medication, so that may be the simplest thing. If that doesn't make any difference, some doctors with try Zoton- even though it is a similar medication, for some reason it will work better on some kids than Losec (or the other way round for others). Some doctors will also try adding in Zantac which seems to increase their effectiveness as well.

One other thing is that you may also be able to try altering when you give it. Some babies do well having a daily dose of Losec, while others do better having a twice daily dose.

It might be worth talking to your doctor about those options.

Is he happy now? Apart from his sleeping problems, do you notice any other issues that could be even remotely reflux related? does he cough/splutter/gag, does he 'lose the plot' over simple things, is he irritable or demanding, does he hiccup a lot, or drool a lot, does he have bad breath?? All those things can be reflux related, even if you haven't tied them together. Also, if he is teething at the moment, or crawling, or constipated, or even overtired, that might explain why things are so difficult at the moment, as they can flare reflux.

I hope that gives you some ideas, and I hope you find something that helps.

Glenda