Not Sure!

[Blakes Mummy]

I am totally confused. My bub is 8 weeks old and i am bottle feeding him.
He is on wind medicine to help him as he has had a problem with this from around 3 weeks old. Over the past few weeks he has been vomiting:barf: more than he was at the beginning but still thriving with how much weight he is gaining and the whinging is minimal although when he does whinge about the pain it is PAIN screaming. He has always been a fairly good sleeper but over the past week he has been waking up more frequently and not eating very much with feeds he will wake up an hour later from the feed and be starving. Before and After feeds he has his fist in his mouth as far as it can go.
The GP has said that it could be reflux but i am not sure it is:confused: all the babies i have heard of or interacted with that have had reflux have shown more severe symptoms, what do you think?

[RISA]

Hi,

Congratulations on your new bub. It sounds like life with your bub is a bit stressful, but you are doing quite well. It’s good that you have had him at the doctors, to try to work out what is wrong especially as it can all seem so confusing.
Of course we are unable to determine whether any child does or does not have reflux, but we can tell you what is normal/common, whether his signs are indicative of reflux.

The signs you are describing all fit very much into a typical reflux picture. There is a confusing range of what is normal for reflux, and can range from the child who may have occasional spit ups but who are generally happy and healthy through to a sickly child who has growth issues and feeding/sleeping issues. Some have no weight problems, while others pile on the weight, and others have failure to thrive; on it goes. Some can be happy a lot of the day, while others are distressed all day; some vomit profusely yet others don't ever vomit. Even more confusing, the way reflux presents has no correlation to the amount of pain they have, or the amount of inflammation present. Quite simply, they are all different, and what works for one may not work for another. How did the other children you know who have reflux, present?

The way you are describing his feeds are also quite typical of reflux. Many babies seem worse about an hour after a feed because that is often when the stomach is most actively digesting the meal, and the acid levels are high. It makes sense that this is the time many babies are refluxing most. A common response then is for babies to figure out ways of helping to settle the pain in their throat/tummy.
To do this they often
a) want to feed frequently as the milk can be quite soothing for them (often small amounts)
b) shove their fist down their throat.

It can be difficult not to get caught in a trap of feeding them hourly, as they seem desperately hungry at the time, and we know that their last feed wasn’t all that great. It seems reasonable they are hungry. The problem with feeding them so frequently is that their stomach never gets a chance to empty properly, which means they are always trying to digest a meal, and these mean your bub is likely to reflux more (which can cause the reflux to spiral out of control).

I hope that helps make sense of it, and if you have any more questions, please feel free to ask,

Glenda