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?

[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?

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[entreat]

No way. It was HELL without medication, then we did another 6wks with the wrong dose of losec. Horrendous.

I guess it depends on how bad it is. Jack had reflux and high acid. He was actually burned (blistered) on his bum from the acids.

[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.

[AnyDream]

I did Medicate my DD but I also took her to see an osteopath. She had a torticollis and the osteo explained that the same postural issue was irritating the vagus nerve (that also runs through the neck). 3-4 visits and it was pretty much all sorted out.

[Butterfly Dawn]

2 of my kids have had reflux and colic together. I just battled through the reflux- I used infacol for colic with great success. We had millions of spew cloths, used carrier and sling alot and a dummy really helped after feeds to help keep everything down.
ATM we are not able to get reflux med for children, and here they say a huge amount for children have reflux for the first 4 months as their little tummys are still developing.
I would suggest looking at Osteopath/ ciro and cranial plate work, before medicating.