anyone chosen not to medicate baby for reflux?

[HotI]

just wondering if anyone has chosen not to, or it was suggested that they not, medicate a baby with reflux.

i am getting conflicting advice and looking for more info.

[Kazzo]

DD1 had reflux and I was told to give her meds but never did, I just adjusted my diet and the way she was positioned when she slept and that did the trick for us.

[HotI]

what did you change in your diet?

[PumpkinZulu]

Yep! DD had reflux from about 3 weeks until 4 months. It ended up resolving itself as she grew. The GP suggested Losec but medicating her wasn't something I felt comfortable doing. I altered my diet which seemed to help a little and fed her on demand, which was a double edged sword, as the sucking seemed to help but the full tummy didn't always turn out well. I found a dummy extremely useful for when DD just wanted something to suck on without the effects of the reflux after itms. Also lots of bouncing to sleep etc helped tremendously.

ETA with diet, I don't know what others did, but I limited/cut out dairy, onions and garlic, tomatoes, oranges and chilli.

[Aussiegirl777]

DS had reflux but he was what they term as a 'happy chucker'. He started at about 5 weeks and he's almost 11 months old now and it's only just eased off now.

We took him to a paed and I told him straight up the I was only interested in meds as a last resort. Paed agreed as DS was happy and putting on more than enough weight. He was formula feed so we changed his formula and kept him upright longer after feeds. We feed him in smaller amounts more frequently and also elevated his bassinet for sleeping. Honestly I don't think any of this really made a significant different. I just got used to going through millions of bibs and lots and lots of clothing changes.

It can be very frustrating I know. Is your baby in pain from the reflux?

[Kazzo]

I did not eat anything with garlic, onions or capsicum in it. Nothing that had caffeine, even the smallest amout like chocolate. I limited my dairy, still ate cheese but drank soy milk. Just trying to remember what else. I know I limited my green veges but that was more for wind. I remember I ate very bland for the first 4-6months and then I just slowly introduced some of the foods back in. I also drank lots of water but I have never really drank anything else anyway.

[HotI]

It can be very frustrating I know. Is your baby in pain from the reflux?

Yeah, he is quite unsettled alot of the time but especially after feeds. I have piles of spew cloths everywhere! Dr thinks he has both colic and reflux.

Just starting to look at my diet (breastfeeding) now. positioning after feeds and laying down for feeds (when i can) helps sometimes.

My DD had colic til 4 months old, so i know we can get through it, just not sure if it is worse for baby to medicate or not.

[PumpkinZulu]

Also DD never had sleep problems from it, but did experience pain after feeds. We got into a good routine of feed, bounce, and into the close carrier to start the sleep off.

[Kazzo]

I would never lay DD1 down for about 20 minutes after a feed and when I did lay her down it was on a raised mattress and I put her down on her side I also never patted her back to get her to burp, I just lightly rubbed her back, I was trying to not force the burp, just let it come up on its own and she seemed to throw up less if I did it that way. We did lots and lots of tummy time too.

[Miss.September]

We didn't. We elevated the end of the bassinet where her head was so she slept on a slight angle (like the hospital bassinets) and removed garlic and onion from my diet. I didn't change positions for feeds. She was really restless after feeds and once she went to bed, but as soon as we made the adjustments, things started to get better and we didn't have to medicate.

[*EJ*]

With my boys i think they both had your 'to be expected' amounts of relux but nothing that ever came close to needing medication. I did my best to stay away from foods that are likely to effect bub, eg acidic and gas.

With DD it was a completely different story and she threw us for a sixer. It was pretty clear she had Silent Reflux. By the 5-6 week mark we'd gone from every second night being bad to every single night being hell. From 6pm she would scream, there was nothing at all we could do, you could not put her down, she arched her back like crazy, swallowed and cringed in pain, she was so tired in our arms but would wake in a split second and scearm. It wasn't until about 11pm that she'd finally pass out and sleep. I demand fed, never looked at the clock just did whatever i possibly could to keep her happy and to make things easy for me and the family. If i could have controled things with my diet i would have, i was trying my very best. I would blame myself every night for her discomfort, it was always because i ate this or because i ate that but i really don't know. I think it was just her, it was completely different to reflux my boys experienced. It couldn't have all been blamed on my diet could it??

I tired the osteopath and she hated it, she cried the whole way through her 3 appts. The osteo did say that she felt and improvement by the end of the session as she'd been able to clear herself out a bit with all her screaming. By the 3rd osteo appt we were on zantac. I noticed a difference and even though i hated giving her the meds it improved things around my house hugely. I have also heard you can try watered down cammomile tea and mylanta. I tried them both though and it was still distressing trying to get her to take them. Later in the year when DD was about 5-6months i was seeing a naturopath (for me personally) and she was quite horrified that DD was on zantac. I did say that i wasn't entierly happy about it either but it definately helped us out when we needed it. On Zantac she started to get slightly better quality sleep and she was such a happier girl. She didn't smile until the 9 or 10 week mark until the reflux was sorted out. After speaking to the naturopath and taking into account the reasons i was seeing her we took DD of zantac completely, cold turkey. I was a little nervous and in the first week i could see all the signs coming back again but i think it was actually allowing all those digestive sensations to be felt again and by the second week she was fine.

So if you can get away without it go for it, but if you need to and your comfortable with it maybe consider it. From my own expereinces now i can see the differences in severities and feel we did the best we could with the knowledge and quideance we had at the time.

If you are uncomfortable with medications maybe visit and naturopath to see if there are any other natural alternitives.

I was referred by a fellow BB member when i was having trouble with DD to the book Colic Solved. The essential guide to infant reflux and the care of your crying, difficult-to-soothe baby! by Dr Bryan Vartabedian. You might find it worth the read. I have loaned my copy out but i could try and get it back and loan you my copy.

Good luck i hope the disruption is minimal

[black_rose]

Yes, dd2 went unmedicated. I managed it by keeping her in her sling and vibrating bouncer and she was only dressed in bodysuits and onsies as clothes around her belly made her worse. Luckily it stopped at 4 months. However ds was medicated as his symptoms were much worse and it still flares up now and he is 18 months.

[Razzberry]

I didn't want to as I hated the thought of a baby so young being medicated (however she is almost 2.5 years and has only just come off medication!)

We tried changing my diet, elevation of cradle, breastfeeding positions/timing, keeping her upright after feeds, giving thickener before BF etc and she just continued to get worse. Even with medication it only ever took the edge off. If a baby (and you) can handle no meds then that is great - however, my dd was severe and even with meds developed pain association with my BB's that noone could fix after seeing lactation consultants, the ABA, tresillian, midwives, mchn etc. She also didnt learn to isolate her muscles as was so tense all the time as she knew the pain was coming so had physio for a year to help that. She started losing weight (after putting on heaps at the start due to comfort swallowing) and stopped growing in length too, never slept.

So what I am saying is of course if you can get away without medication that is great, but for some bubs not being medicated can cause more harm than good. Also because so much damage was done to her throat by the time we started the meds it took weeks to work as the damage needed to heal. My DD wasn't a big spewer either, was more silent with extreme pain!

[HotI]

It is good to hear both from those who did and did not medicate, thanks!

Another question for those who breastfed- did you ever try feeding EBM by bottle or cup - to reduce the air and whatever else introduced by feeding directly from the breast? I am wondering if this could help?

[*EJ*]

I had no luck with bottles, mine have never liked them. It could be worth a try though, anything that helps is a step closer to not needing to go down the medication path.

If i hadn't of had the chance to see the varying severities in my children my unexperienced thoughts may have been surely there are ways around not having to give medications to such young ones. But being there now i definately see differently. It's still not a nice thing to do but in some cases it does help.

I should have my book back the end of the week if you want to have a read. If you can find the time to have a read

[onthefly]

Have you read Colic Solved?

All babies have reflux, but some have pathalogic reflux which causes problems - ie, difficulty feeding, not gaining weight/growing, rather than "laundry problems". And some have other problems which may be misdiagnosed. Nearly half of babies with reflux (the problematic kind I mean) also have an intolerance to dairy protein, for eg.

I've also read that sometimes babies with undiagnosed tongue tie (esp posterior tt) are misdiagnosed with reflux because the symptoms of not feeding effectively look very similar to reflux (partic silent reflux).

If babies are getting a lot of air when feeding it can be due to an ineffective feeding style which can be due to the pain associated with swallowing.

In any event, it's probably a good idea to get medical advice from a specialist.

[*EJ*]

I've offered my copy of Colic Solved to HotI if she'd like it MadB

I read it after DD had finished on the zantac Timing wasn't great for us but it put a lot of things into prespective for me still and confirmed that the things i saw DD doing were not just her being a fussy bub. They were for a reason which i always thought anyway but had a hard time with MCHN just bushing it off as 'normal' which made me then question myself.

[BMW]

DS2 had reflux and we chose to medicate and it was a bit mistake. He started sleeping through at 6 weeks but his reflux wasn't resolved. At 10 weeks I saw a pead who prescribed 2 doses of losec a day. Poor DS ended up severely constipated and screamed for a a weekend trying to poo. I made the choice, along with my GP to stop the losec and just modified my diet. After the bowl issues resolved themselves he was a lot happier. Yes it wasn't great for me, but I wanted to breastfeed. So cut out all dairy, eggs and a few other things. He never got back into the great sleep, but he was a lot happier. Also, he ended up severely allergic to dairy, so cutting it out of my diet was a big key to his reflux. You have to be careful to check for milk solids in things too. They affected DS too.

DS1 also had reflux and I medicated him and it worked well for him and us.

Have you tried a naturopath? I have some friends who swear by them for help with reflux. Eliminating food from my diet worked best for DS2. Losec was the wrong direction.