What affects reflux and wind for your baby? Are they connected?

[Acacia]

ETA - Sorry about the length of this!

My DD has been diagnosed with reflux about a week ago and we've been trying Infant Gaviscon (basically a thickening agent - not sure if you get in Australia - we're in the UK) which the paed prescribed. I'm hesitant to keep her on it, as I have established that it really alters her bowel movements, from having regular (6+) liquid poos a day to having 1-2 pasty-soft but formed green poos (but definitely not constipated). I worked this out after I took her off it for 24-36 hours and her poos returned to normal. I'm now trying out reduced doses (I tried half doses and now I am trying quarter dose).

The issue is that it definitely helps her reflux, but as her bowel movements change she strains more. And one of the things that seemed to make her reflux worse on a given day was the amount of straining she did. She already strained a great deal to get poo/gas out (she has a lot of gas). On the gaviscon she has less gas to pass, so that is great and it suggests to me that as things move through her digestive system quickly (i.e. normally) she produces a lot of gas, but as things slow down with the gaviscon the wind is eliminated a lot more. But she seems to work that much harder to strain to get poo out (it can go on for hours, but always did before also, just more violent now).

I'd like to find out whether anyone else has had the same experience - whether the amount of grunting/straining that their baby does affects reflux and whether how formed their bowel movements are affect how much wind they have.

Also, I have definitely established that citrus makes the reflux heaps worse (had a terrible 24-48 hours after having OJ for the first time since she was born) and I suspect other things make it worse too, but I'm having trouble working out what specifically, as I have just eliminated just about everything I think might be having an affect on her from our experience of worse symptoms after having combinations of these foods - soy milk, most (if not all) dairy, tomatoes, nuts, broccoli, bananas, mushrooms, apple, chocolate etc. etc. etc. I can't work out what's coincidence or not! And I can't work out what affects her gas and whether it's just the gaviscon helping or not, and what affects her reflux!

What foods affect your baby's reflux and/or gas when BF? And if anyone is able to share their experience, how do I start an elimination diet as I've heard of them but don't know a lot about it.

I'm quite overwhelmed and anxious about fixing things - or a least making things as comfortable as possible for DD - and would appreciate anyone's advice. I'm continuing to read as many threads as I can about reflux!

Thanks very much,

Miss C

[Acacia]

Is anyone able to help with their own experiences? Would be much appreciated as I'm struggling and battling a lot of uncertainty about how to help DD or whether I should just stop doing anything for now.

Thanks

[Lulu]

I'll try come back in and reply properly later, but right now it looks like you are really dedicated to finding the answers. Keep it up - bbl!

[Arcadia]

Oh poor you! Reflux is so difficult to manage.

My DD was straining for poos, with heaps of wind and crying quite a bit with pain after each feed at around 4 weeks, and I worked out it was because she was getting too much foremilk. I now only feed from one side each feed and that really helped. I also stopped giving her comfort feeds so much (i.e. when she's unsettled and just wants to go to sleep) and tried using a sling to put her to sleep. This seemed to help the wind too, as she wasn't gulping in so much air when feeding.

Are her poos green or yellow/mustard when not on the gaviscon?

You've identified all the nasty culprits for reflux too, so I would keep up your elimination diet for a while. It can take 3 days before you see any effects.

How are things now?

[mjsmummy]

my DS#2 is 6 weeks today and was diagnosed with silent reflux at 2 weeks of age.

I had him on infacol to start with to rule out if it was wind or reflux, then at 3 weeks I'd had enough of getting no sleep and restless days & went to my MCH, she reccomended infant gaviscon, he is fully breastfeed so I was giveing it to him after very feed via a syringe so he didn't associated giveing him medacine from a bottle.

anyway for the first 3 days of him being on gavison he was a completely different happy baby, but then he went back to the same old screaming baby.

so last week I finally went to the doctor and they prescribed Zantac 0.5ml twice a day & so far he's a lot better, we still have restlessdays but they are not as bad as in the beginning.

as for the diet, because I am still BFing I have deffenitly found that if I eat any acid type foods, such as OJ, tomatoes etc that he will scream louder at his next feed & the medication will do nothing. I went cold turkey about 2 weeks ago & cut out, caffeine, soft drinks, chocolate,acid foods, bread & starchy foods & then I have slowly started to re-introduce some of the foods to see which ones do or don't have an effe

[mjsmummy]

I nearly forgot.. in regards to er bowel movements. you can try giving her some cooled boiled water after given her the gaviscon or make the gaviscon mixture with more water in it

my little man was straining aswell and the water seemed to help to loosen him up a bit.

good luck with it all

[happyMess]

My bub has wind and this is what I have eliminated from my diet which seems to be working a treat!

chocolate
broccoli/cabbage
fizzy drinks
anything really acidic
citrus fruits
orange juice

when I say eliminated, I do have small amounts of chocolate and broccoli

bubs wind has basically gone back to what I think is normal ! no more back arching, unsettled, red faced, unhappy baby

[KimBear]

Hi, I'm a bit late to this topic and you may have already found an answer / relief. I hope so! But I've recently seen a Paediatric Gastroenterologist after 6 months of HELL with my little one so I thought I'd post a couple of snippets I got from him. I'll try my best to get this right but obviously i'm not a doctor and I might lose something in translation... so take it with caution

Firstly, be carefully not to overfeed your little one. Its so easy to do as reflux babies are notorious comfort feeders in the early months. Overfeeding them can lead to a lactose overload (breast milk can be quite high in lactose regardless of your diet... I think?) which can cause them to be increasingly WINDY and also have acidic poos.

Secondly, just because your little one poos once or twice a day and it isn't hard, doesn't mean she isn't constipated or having problems. My son poos regularly but was diagnosed with slow motility which means he was getting (for want of a better term) backed up. This made his reflux a lot worse. Thickening his EBM only made it worse, he would experience great discomfort and definitely made the reflux worse.

And you seem to be on the right track with your diet! I think bananas can be constipating too - I know the paed gastro told me to avoid feeding my DS bananas, apples and potatoes when I start him on solids to help his slow motility.

I hope you've already found some comfort for your little one! Don't ever stop trying to make her more comfortable even if you can't 'fix' it. I kept getting told my son would grow out of it, and just to put up with it... but I fought and fought and fought and my son is finally starting to get some relief and with it we are all getting our quality of life back - its worth fighting for.

Cheers and good luck!