Reflux - what worked, and how did you stay sane ?

[Mellymoo]

Hi there

I have spent the past 4 days with my 9 week old daughter practically velcroed to my arms, while she screams hysterically from reflux.

I am taking her back to the GP tomorrow to see if we can try something different.

We were up until 10:30 last night trying to get her to go to sleep - she kept waking up every 10 minutes crying and screaming and nothing seemed to work, she fell asleep very late through sheer exhaustion of being awake most of the day upset.

So what worked for you ? She is on Zantac but that doesn't seem to be working. We bought some Infant Gaviscon from the chemist yesterday, but on the packet it says not to give to Infants under 12 months. Can I still give it to her - I notice a lot of people on these forums with young reflux babies give them Infant Gaviscon. Can you also give this in addition to, say, Zantac ?

Also, she has 140ml bottles and weighs over 4.5kg. The packet says to give 1 sachet in not less than 115ml of her milk if she weighs 4.5kg and under, and if she is over 4.5kg (which she is) to give it to her in not less than 225ml of milk - but she only has 140ml bottles, so how much of the sachet do I use - or do you use ? I'll talk to my GP about this tomorrow before I give it to her, but just crious to see how much you use.

Also - how do you manage with a reflux baby ? I'm finding myself getting quite stressed and upset that nothing I seem to be doing is working. Getting upset over the smallest thing and getting quite angry about lack of sleep / rest etc. Help !

Thanks

[Oscar's mum]

I don't know if this is any help for you but for us we bought Isla a baby hammock to sleep in which helped sooo much she slept through the night from a few weeks old in the hammock before that we couldn't even get her to lay on her back we would have to sleep in the recliner chair taking turns to hold her upright all night whilst she slept.

I also couldn't live without my baby slings (hug-a-bub and Baba sling). I have found it sooo useful to put Isla in after a feed - especially the hug-a-bub to keep her upright for a while after her feed but still let me get up and do things around the house.

I still find I have her glued to my arms all day but by having a sling it has made it a bit easier on me.

Speak to your Dr about the infant gaviscon, but I would probably avoid it. We have Zantac for Isla and to be honest it did nothing for her, I have since taken her off it and go back to the Dr soon to see what they recommend - I have heard Losec is meant to be good.

[mummajuice]

Mellymoo I know how you are feeling :hugs: we went through similar issues with DD1. The best thing we did was take her to a baby chiropractor. It didn't stop the problems but certainly made life a little easier. We had days where DH would hold her lying face down along his forearm cause it was the only way to stop her crying and get her to sleep.

We did use the Gaviscon on advice from our GP but found it was hopeless cause it was too thick to get through her bottles and she was sucking in more wind. Infant's Friend is a good tonic if you can get it where you are it's worth a try.

The slings are great, as it elevating the head of your bassinet/cot with a towel under the mattress.

Hope this is of some assistance to you. DD seemed to stop at 6 months (co-incidentally when we switched to Carsein Dominant Formula, could be something in that too).

[Nowhere]

I can really sypathise with you on this one as my dd kenzee has got servere reflux and i know how hard it is and there are not alot of people that understant how bad and hard it can be as reflux is more then just a bit of spit of as you know

As far as what worked with my dd nothing really worked she ended up having an operation to fix it as she was having life threatening problems from it, but i have got some ideas o how to cope with it and things that i tried with kenzee

The medication regime she is on seemed to work pretty well in the way that is eased the burniong pian some what for her we zantac and losec given 3 times daily and then gastrogel when needed the reason for all three meds is the Losec is a proton pump inhibator so it will reduce the acid production the zantac slows down the production of the acid and the gastrogel is an antacid which nutralises the acid that is there it is simaler to mylanta only in gell form so it can be more soothing on there osophagis,any of these 3 will not reduce any vomiting but can help withthe pain and screaming the other medication that i have found some what helpfull is domperadone it aids gastric emptying so there is less in the tumy to reflux this can help if she is puking with the reflux as well as getting pain obviously discuss the meds with the pead first LOL i know you would do jusdt have to say that so i dont get in trouble

other things that sometimes help are smaller fequant feeds, holding up right pretty much all the times as you are maybe invest it a baby carrier i use mine all the time in fact kenzee is in it as i type LOL but i sugest it you do get a good one with back suport beleive me you will need it, also for night sleeping i purchased a specialy sleeping bed for mikenzee its called an AR pillow you can purchase them from the web they come from the US it helped us alot i realy cant recomend it highly enough it keeps then proped up on a 30 degree angle but doesnt make them slouch as that can agrivate reflux as im sure you are aware

AS for how do you cope with reflux, know that it is okay to cry and get upset and know that you are doing the best you can in a hard situation for me what helped was i founf a web site called Infantrefluxdisease.com and it has loads of tips on surving infant reflux and all the mums there really understand there are lots of us on there that are still going through the wholereflux thing and there are some on there thats children have gotten over it, maybe check it out you will be made verry welcome there are lots of mums on there with kids that are really servere like my DD but please dont let that scare you of not all reflux is as bad as some of the kids on there, but we all suport each other no matter what you wont be judged or any thing like that we are just a group of mummies that hate reflux and help each other cope my name on there is Mikis mum so if you go on say hello

I hope i dont get introuble for telling you about that site on hereits totaly diferent to bub hub and is advertised by risa with hasa link from bub hub so i shouldnt well i dontthink is will any way

[raisingwhirlwinds]

Mellymoo - staying sane? Yes, a very good question for Mum's with reflux babies.

I am not really sure how I got through DS1 because nobody diagnosed it and I was even told reflux didn't exist - so...no meds for my poor little man and very little down time for me. I think I managed by just accepting that this was how things were and that I needed to be there for him as he needed. I remember a time when I fed him at mums group and he screamed the place down after 2 mins on the breast then chucked everywhere and then did it again and again. The other mums there were almost in tears watching it, but I was so used to it as it was my normal routine.

The hug-a-bub, as mentioned above by Oscar's mum came in very handy and reduced my stress even though he was still attached to me.

For DS2 things were so much different. I was stressed out at the start, but after encouragement from a friend to see a good paed who knew lots about reflux he was put on zantac and was a completely different little boy. I trialled removal of the meds every six weeks but he ended up being on it for almost 12 months.

With Zantac, the amount of the med needs to be adjusted by weight. If this is not working for you, perhaps a visit to the docs might be worth considering. The next step would be Losec as it is stronger than zantac (or there are others). Sometimes the doses take a bit of time to get right for your baby.

My best advice for you would be stay strong, go with the flow as best you can, but don't accept your lot without seeking as much advice as possible.

There is a great expert section for reflux on the bub hub where people from RISA ( a reflux org) can answer any questions you have. You might want to put a post there with any specific questions and details about your bubs symptoms and see what they have to say.

I totally feel for you and will be thinking of you.
:hugs::hugs::hugs:
D

[bpato]

My advice is ask your GP for a referall to see a Pead Gastroenterloigist.

DS was one when he finally got diagnosed with Reflux, after way to many visits to our pead and GP and getting told he was just a chucky bub.

At our first appointment with our Pead Gatro DS was put on Zoton. It was amazing the change in him, and his eating.

How to survive???????? I can't answer that as at nearly 20 months we are still living with the eating differnt texta issues. Just take one day at a time, and if you can keep family close by to help. I have been lucky as Mum is always on hand.

Hope this has helped

Belinda

[Mellymoo]

thanks girls.

I took DD to the Chiro on Monday and apparently she has a whole bunch of areas around her neck and spine and pelvis that were out of whack, which apparently effects the nerves that lead to the tummy which could be the cause for her reflux / colicky-ness.

It was amazing to watch the chiro treat her - before and after. She slept for 3.5 hours after her treatment - she has never slept that long in the daytime before ! He also warned me she might do a really gross poo afterwards as the bodies way of 'cleansing' of sorts - and she did - it was the foulest poo I have ever seen and was all green.

She has a few more treatments to go but I think she has settled down a bit since then - not sure whether that is just coincidence, or whether it's the chiro or the change of medication (used to be Zantac, now has been Losec for the past week) or a combination of all of the above.

She still has some pretty bad moments and cries a fair bit to go to sleep, but the intensity of the crying seems to have lessened a bit.

Thanks again