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Wobbles
14-08-2010, 15:24
I have a six week old little boy who seems to be suffering a lot.
Right from birth he's been unsettled, but at the time i was breastfeeding and he wasn't too bad. We then moved onto S26 because my milk supply dried up.
From then on we've had nothing but trouble, and sleepless nights.
We found he is a very strong sucker and so had to go and buy a heap of new teats to slow him down as he was vomiting every feed. We're using the pidgeon peristaltic teats. We then had to add karicare thickener because he was still feeding too fast, and vomiting.

I took him to the GP when he was a week old, who said that my LO has reflux, and told us to use Karicare AR, as well as gaviscon. This did nothing but make him dreadfully constipated, and lessen the vomiting. He still had reflux, so the GP prescribed Zantac which he was one for a week with no improvements so i stopped giving it to him.

He's progressively gotten worse. He's irritable all the time, very unsettled, won't sleep longer than half an hour unless he's being held, is always grumbling, grizzling and grunting in his sleep. I switched him to a lactose free formula thinking he might be lactose intolerant, added the thickener, and while he wasn't vomiting, he still had reflux, his poos turned to runny liquid, and was still just as unsettled and irritable.

I took him to a paed on Thursday who thinks he has a cows milk protein intolerance and has given us some sample tins of Ele Care which we started thursday evening. He threw up every feed for around 10 hours until i added the karicare thickener. He's not vomiting as much, but still chucking up after most feeds, projectile vomits. Has really bad reflux, and is even more unsettled, irritable, unhappy, won't sleep, in pain, wanting feeds every 2 hours.
The only improvement is his poos which are now more solid, but he's quite clearly in abdominal pain.

So in six weeks we've tried 4 different formula's, Gaviscon, Zantac, Infants Friend as well as a natural stomach calm liquid, with no improvement, in fact he's worse now. I'm getting around 3 hours of broken sleep each night, i'm exhausted, suffering with depression, have a 3 year old to look after as well, can't get in to see the GP and can't contact the paed until Monday.

Any ideas people? i'm at my wits end!

Aaliyahsmummy
14-08-2010, 15:47
I think from what I have read you have tried to many thing. I know the gp said it can take even a few weeks for things to start working 100%.
If he's having wind pain try infants friend,we have found it to help our little one alot!

Hopefully someone else has more advice, we are still trying to work out my dd's reflux here.

petalwings
14-08-2010, 15:50
:hugs: :hugs: :hugs:
sounds like you are exhausted hun. I have no experience with this but from my limited knowledge changing formulas so often could be part of the problem as baby's digestive systems are very sensitive and need time to adapt.
Is he soiling enough nappies?
If so, please take some time out for you today. If he isn't soiling enough nappies then you should take him to hospital as dehydration sets in very quickly.
Hopefully some here with a similar experience will be able to help.

Eliaar
14-08-2010, 16:04
He sounds like my little boy when he was about 4 weeks old. The only thing that worked was losec, they put him on 5mg a day but then increased it to 10 mg at 12 weeks. He was also put on Elecare until he was 12 months old. The losec and Elecare didn't stop the vomiting but it stopped the screaming. I would hold him up right for 30-40 mins after every feed to try and keep as much of his bottle down. I tried all the thickners but I just think it made the vomit thicker and harder to clean up. Watch all the colic stuff, I found that made him worse. I know it is hard as I was the same living on very little sleep and what made it worse he was a twin so I had his sister to look after too.
On the bright side at 11 months it just stopped, I went from me being up sometimes up to a dozen times during the night to resettle him, to him sleeping through the night at the flick of a switch.
I will say anybody that has a full on reflux baby like we have had can't help but get depressed and it does put a lot of pressure on everybody.
Good luck with your pead on Monday

kiwichuck
16-08-2010, 20:03
How's your lil man now? Did you stick with the Elecare? And get to see his paed or gp today?
Our allergist always says it takes the gut 2 weeks to recover from upsets due to allergens/intolerant foods.

:hugs: to you both

purplepumpkins
16-08-2010, 21:25
How is your little man now? Can I suggest maybe taking him to a chiropractor.....I know some people dont believe they do anything, but I did end up taking my son when very young too for reflux and crying etc all the time. If you are like me you will give anything. Our pead did end up putting my bub on meds too, which did help for a while but eventually I stopped them and started solids early at around 4 1/2 months and a big improvement. I hope thing settle down very soon