silent reflux - onset at 3 months?

[helenwombat]

My ds, now 3 months, has always been a 'difficult' baby. Even as a newborn he was nigh on impossible to get to sleep & screamed an awful lot. For hours I tried to get him to nap in the day time (rock, pat, pram, bouncer, car, dummy, sling.. you name it), but he couldn't & just ended up overtired & cried even more. At mother's group I was so jealous of all the mums with their babies lying peacefully on their mats whilst mine screamed. At first we thought he had colic & infacol seemed to help, then he seemed to grow out of it, as he burped better & didn't seem so much in pain (was still a terrible sleeper but cried more with overtiredness than with pain). He was still a windy baby - farting lots & hiccups several times a day.
Breastfeeding had always been a breeze, however, - he latched on straight away, fed beautifully & put on weight.
Until now! About a week ago, he started to go all rigid after feeding & not relax until he had burped (sometimes a good while later). The last couple of days, this has worsened to the extent that he is screaming & pulling off the breast after a couple of sucks. He then screams for about 10 mins, nothing will settle him. The scream is horrid - really piercing as if in great pain. Poor little thing, just horrible. Eventually I put him back on the breast & he sucks & is calm again until the next feed, where this all begins again. In the afternoon, because of his overtiredness, the screaming never seems to stop & it is verging on impossible to feed him.
I assume it is silent reflux - he often makes gasping sounds & wet burps.
So my question is - can reflux just start at 3 months, or do you think he always had it & it just worsened? Is there any chance it could disappear without intervention or do you think we are stuck with it now & will have to go down the medication route (I am praying he is better when he wakes up tomorrow morning)?
Also, do I really need to go on an elimination diet? I am allergic to milk myself, so do not eat dairy anyway. I read that I should go off wheat, corn, soy, cabbage, beans, apples, citrus fruit, sugar, caffeine, alcohol & many other things. I'm not sure I would know what to eat (is there a list of things one CAN eat instead?).
Lastly, do you have any helpful hints/advice? I am so scared/upset about this. We've had a difficult last couple of months & everyone told me it got better at 3 months! Aaaaagh!!!

[Me&MrMagoo]

Sounds exactly like us!!!!

The breast refusal is what clued us into there being a bigger problem than colic. We were admitted to hospital his refusal and screaming were so bad ...

I tried everything!!! I ignored it hoping it would go away, we tried a naturopath, chiropractor, an osteopath, nothing helped, and then we were admitted so I resigned myself to the meds...

And he is soooo much calmer on meds!!! Still has bad days and is the worst sleeper in the world both day and night!!! But he's calmer!!

I can't eat dairy and soy, and wheat in moderation ... Everything else I did by trial and error by writing a food and symptoms diary. I can't drink oj, can't eat pasta sauce too much.. It took a while but we got there!!!

[MrsTiggyWinkle]

first thing i would say is have you changed your diet in the last week? Have you looked on Sue dengates website for ideas on food to avoid?

Also i would try something non
invasive before starting meds, as pp did. My chiro does kinesiology (sp?) which is a way of diagnosing food intolerances/allergies in infants. Its a bit newage but basically involves holding a piece of suspect food near the infant or putting it on their skin, then doing a resistance test. Both my girls are intolerant of dairy, and we took then off, but problems continued. In one visit with the chiro he did some tests, pointed me towards sesame, we took her off everything with sesame and 24 hours later voila, happy baby! If you suspect food problems and find someone who knows what they are doing it can be a massive shortcut, to point you in the right direction, or confirm that food is not the problem.

[helenwombat]

Tusmama, oh no! I was hoping you'd say 'he sounds just like mine, ours got better within a week' or something. No, seriously, poor you! Hospitalised? Was that because he just stopped feeding? Glad he is calmer now. Which meds worked the best?
It is so horrible. I was so hoping my ds would improve at 3 months & I could forge some sort of life/make a friend or two, not get worse. I moved here when pregnant & thought I'd make lots of friends at mothers groups. I only made one meeting because he screamed so much I had to be out of the room.
I am so reluctant to medicate him - really want it as last resort (but will try anything if nothing natural works). I have now stopped eating wheat, corn & citrus fruits as well as dairy to see if makes a difference. As I said before, I wish there was a list of things I CAN eat - soy & wheat seem to be in everything. I can't think of anything in my diet that has changed in the last week or two - the day he started being really screamy at feeds, I'd eaten corn chips which is why I thought maybe corn!
Unfortunately, I have been taking him to the chiropractor since he was 4 months old (for what we thought was colic) & she doesn't know what the problem is. Occasionally she clicks something in his back & says 'that will help his digestion' but it doesn't & otherwise she
just suggests black out blinds to help him sleep! Annamac, I will ask about kinesiology. My mum suggested cranial osteopathy but there don't seem to be any around here.

[Me&MrMagoo]

Hey helen, sorry it wasn't a positive reply!!

Definitely try all non invasive routes first, but don't leave it too long if you're not seeing results, I left it too long and bubs ended up with a damaged aesophagus!!

We got hospitalized coz he seriously did not stop screaming and I was beyond exhausted and did not have the energy to do the running around for blood tests etc so paed admitted us and all the testing came to us.

My bubs is also cowsilk protein intolerant and soy protein intolerant, and mildly wheat intolerant. I seriously thought there was nothing I was going to be able to eat!! But k have cornflakes for breakfast, spelt bread and pasta, oat milk instead of soy, sheeps fetta instead of regular cheese ... I was actually quite surprised at what was available to eat ... If you're still not sure you're best off seeing a dietician ...

Good luck!!

[Me&MrMagoo]

Oh and bad catnapping is part and parcel of reflux, there is nothing that will change it!!

My ds has woken hourly from midnight since he was 8 weeks old ...

On bad days I'm lucky if I get three 10 minute catnaps out of him all day!!! But we never get longer than a 40 minute sleep cycle even on awesome days!!

[KyD]

Hi, you sound sooooo much like us. We had Bad colic for 6 weeks from 5 to 11 weeks. She was polite tho and once she passed out at 8pm she would sleep for a while but the screaming some days would start at 11am. I always thought there was something else niggling her as she would lay on her anppy free mat and play mat and constantly gag and reswallow, and at 10 weeks took her to a GP who told me it all sounded normal and she would grow out of it. At 11 weeks things changed a bit, there was a shift and the gas and wind and overstimulation that had seemed to be a prob subsided but there was still something, she would grizzle ALOT - my mum was convinced there was a prob and my MIL was blaming Poor breast milk! (Both had had 4 kids so i was listening) at 13 weeks we put her on an AR formula due to yet another blocked duct - the change was amazing but she got constipated bad so we switched to a diff formula which made the undiagnosed reflux sooo bad, she wasa waking every 40 mins all night almost from the da we out her on it, took her to a different GP and he suggested Gaviscon infant - i had my baby back :) I think the degree of refluxing is different in all babies, Maddies was not much but it bugged her big time. The second GP said to me "if you are worried i am worried". He understood that as a parent we know out babies best and if you think there is a prob then there probably is. Our colic maksed the reflux for ages, but it sounds to me like you should definately follow up on it - either through natural remedies or meds.

[TripleTime]

DS reflux didnt show its ugly head untill 3 months, now at 14 months its still freaking hear!

So yes it can come at the drop of a hat at any age. The longer its left untreated the more damage it does & can lead it bigger problems.
Knowing what i know now, id be going to a Pead ASAP to get a management plan.

[helenwombat]

Thank you so much for your replies.
I am fuming/furious/upset...
We had the worst day ever today, reflux just seems to be going from bad to worse. At one point ds was gasping for breath, as if he was about to stop breathing. He screamed, in pain, pretty much the whole day (when he wasn't gulping). I didn't know what to do with him & just had to carry him around. I couldn't put him down because he would just writhe around. In his bouncer, he wouldn't sit, just go stiff & cry. We were both in tears.
Anyway, when dh got home, we took him to the doctor. I had printed out the symptoms list to show that he had all of them. I was so desperate by that time, hoping to get something to soothe his pain. But the doctor had other ideas - he ignored everything I said & said that because ds was alert & not underweight he was perfectly fine. I said that he has silent reflux. Doctor said 'who diagnosed that?' & as soon as I said 'me', he ignored me (obviously as a mother, who knows her child, I cannot be trusted to know what is wrong with him). After some cajoling, he wrote a referral for a paediatrician but wrote on it 'well boy, mother says he pulls at the breast' (which is not what I said at all). He ended the appointment with 'your son is fine, he can wait a few weeks to see a paediatrician'.
AAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh.
I will try calling the paediatrician tomorrow, but whats the betting he thinks I'm some hypocondriac stupid mother too.

[TripleTime]

If your DS stops breathing, call 000 & go the the hospital. I would even go now, tell them what happened today. They will have a Pead on staff that will be able to help.

Thats exactly how we found out DS has reflux, he stopped breathing. He did the same thing today at 14 months.

[Me&MrMagoo]

Oh you poor thing !!!

I'm with triple, go to the hospital, I would just go now!

I had to ring 10 paeds before I could get one to see me within a day instead of within 6 weeks...

You're going to have to persevere and put your foot down, be firm in saying that you know there is something wrong. Unfortunately silent reflux is so often dismissed.

[TripleTime]

Please go to the hospital now.

Pack a bag as if you were staying the night & go. Take your DH with you, be firm, dont give in, tell them there is something wrong & you need help.

[Me&MrMagoo]

How did you go Helen?? I hope everything is ok ... (((hugs)))

[helenwombat]

Thank you for your concern & the hugs (always much needed)!
I did go to Emergency, I was so desperate, & of course as soon as I got there, sods law, ds calmed down (may have been because took him in front carrier, so was upright). Anyway the doctor thought there was nothing wrong with him but called down a lactation consultant/midwife from maternity because he admitted he knew nothing about bfeeding! The midwife agreed with me that it was probably reflux & said 'go to a nicer GP & get a referral'.
So we did & managed to get appointment with paediatrician the next day!
The paediatrician was much more understanding than previous doc! He has prescribed zantac - 0.5ml 3x day. Since taking it, ds has had one bad day (but not as horrific as the day I first posted here), one good one feeding wise - he cried until burps & still gulped a lot but didn't scream in pain for ages like before. I pray it is working! I have also stuck to my very boring & bland diet & have tried to keep ds upright for as long as possible after feeds ( he never sleeps anyway, try as I might, so no point putting him to bed, but notice he especially hates his car seat at the mo, presumably because he is slumped).
Have any of you had success with zantac & not needed to move on to stronger stuff? I am quite anti-medication, but just couldn't cope seeing my baby in pain. Just hoping it makes him better & he can give it up soon (& I can have some chocolate again)!
Thank you all so much for your support, will keep you posted as to his progress

[TripleTime]

Glad to hear things are on the up.

DS has been on Zantac for since 10 months & losec since 3 months, his now 14 month & relys on them both as a piggy back for his reflux to be some what managed.

Losec solo wasn't much help & took a long time before we were bad day free & had the right dose.
With the Zantac as well, his a whole new kid. He sleeps, eats (something he didn't do before), meets his milestones, happy & generally easier to live with.

He still has moments when he stops breathing but nothing like he did pre Zantac. When he has had apena's, I've been able to manage them & just call his pead to tell him what's happened. We still have our trusty friend the oxygen tank but it's collecting dust & hopefully will stay that way.

Give the Zantac a good week & I'm pretty sure your DS will be a lot easier to handle.