anyone chosen not to medicate baby for reflux?

[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.

[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.

[*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