Reflux & Colic General Chatter & Support

[black_rose]

Hugs belfie! I read your post about your son, that would have been awful. I have had to through everything I knew about settling the girls out the window. I have to just hold him too, tricky some times.

Sounds like we have all had a hard journey, I am lucky that my gp specializes in kids and has been on the ball with the meds.

Erybery I hope you can avoid feeding aversions. Ds prefers the bottle now but he will take a bottle we think it's the let down, but he is lactose intolerant too.

Scarlet thanks for posting, hearing from others who have been there helps.

[Razzberry]

Belfie - Im glad its been caught early and is on losec as it works much better then other meds. As for how long it takes for it to kick in and mak a difference, it normally takes about 2 weeks I find for the full effect, however if the throat needs to heal it could take longer

I agree that you can't just do the usual settling things. It used to annoy me when people would say just let her cry!!!! Yes it may be okay for a baby who is not in pain but when they are in pain it is cruel just to leave them. When I went to tresillian, the best thing about that place was seeing other mums with their 2nd or 3rd baby with them as it just proved that you can do all the same things and you can still have a baby who is a bad sleeper / reflux and its nothing that we are doing wrong.

As for he dosage, I would keep an eye on her and def talk about increasing the dosage if need be to stay on top of it. I think if her reflux had been under control when she was little we would have avoided the BF problems/ weight loss and sleep and settling issues.

Black Rose - I hear you on the Holding them - ALL THE TIME lol

[belfie]

OMG! She's asleep. And get this... it's in her bassinet! I am seriously in shock because this is unheard of at this time of night. She had her second osteo session this arvo, and presumably (touch wood) we've got the "sleepy" reaction this time, not the inconsolable screaming reaction. I had (earlier today) decided to go back to the GP and talk re dosage on Monday (am there for DS anyway), but now i'm not so sure. I might make appt in case & see how she is on the weekend.

Erybery - thanks so much for sharing your story, tbh I think it is a very cautionary tale for me. I'm so sorry you had to go through all that, it must have been awful. I was interested that you said about 2 weeks to work cos that's what we're on at present!

Black_rose - it's just amazing how different it is, isn't it. And I think many of my friends must think I'm carrying on, but honestly a "non-putter-down" baby is just a world of difference. I've been feeling like every day is just mental, but finally tonight am feeling there is some light at the end of the tunnel. She's actually done slightly better day sleeps this week, and my new theory is get her to sleep by hook or crook, then at least all I'm battling at the end of the day is colic/reflux, and not crazy overtiredness from a baby who has been awake for 10 hours as well!

scarlett - thanks for all the useful info. I was interested to see how much your son is on at 6 weeks, supports my theory that my DD isn't on enough. It's a shame there's no consistent practice with this either. It shouldn't really be about how much the parents jump up & down. I'm quite sure the only reason we got a script for Losec so soon was because I convinced the GP that a) I wasn't an idiot, b) I was a second time parent, c) I KNEW this baby was in pain and d) I'd done everything else I could. The challenge now is working out when she's on the right amount or not.

The book i mentioned earlier is "Colic solved" by Dr Bryan Vartabedian. Described as "The essential guide to infant reflux and the care of your crying, difficult-to-soothe baby!". I thought the title was a bit misleading saying colic when it really is all about reflux!

I'm a bit nervous about summer & the weather getting warmer. Will it get too hot for our sling? We already get pretty hot & sweaty just with warmer weather this week... and I don't know how i'll get her to sleep if I can't wear her. Ah well, guess that'll be another challenge huh, either that or maybe she'll improve so much we won't need to use the sling as much...? aah I can hope!

hope everyone else's day is going well & for those with little one's still, they're all sleeping peacefully!

[~clover~]

omg, haven't seen this til now!!
will be back when I can!!!

[milly5]

hi ladies,
typing onhanded too!
yep, colicy baby, and sleeps upright in mums arms, but just try and put her in the bassinet! its so hot today too, and she is all sweaty and stinky from lying on mums sweaty chest.
CHN suggested I express off the foremilk, but I am not sure if that really made any difference. I have tried Brauers colic relief drops, but DD cries when I put them in her mouth and spits it out. I even tried sliding it down the breast, but that didn't work.
and I can sympathise about getting nothing done - I am lucky if I get breakfast before midday!

[black_rose]

Milly it's hard isn't it, I made my lunch but it had gone stale by the tine I got to it this afternoon.

I have to express for Ds, the only time he will bf is early in the morning. Still want him to have the benefits of breastmilk for as long as we can.

[Chuckie]

Hi ladies,

I thought I might sneak in here and get the opinions of some reflux experts!

As you can see my bub is now 7 months old so I will give you a quick history.

From about 3weeks I started getting nipple vasospasm pains between feeds - terrrible kept me up at night etc. She was fine and slept (and ate) well. At about 13weeks we were finally put on a strict elimination diet and the vasospasm cleared up - the theory was that she was actually allergic to some of the things I was eating, in pain and chewing on my boobs which was causing nipple damage which was causing the vasospasm.

At about 4months my perfect little sleeper went out the window and started cat napping during the day and waking all the time at night (we have had times when she is up every 40mins!!) I tried her on solids for about a week but it seemed to make things worse - I striped my diet right back and things just got worse again.


In the last week I thought I would treat her for silent reflux (just a guess) and we went from waking every hour to about every 2 and a half hours (she is on 10mg of losec a day and has been for about a week). She has some of the other symptoms (hiccups, wet burps) but is not overly unsettled during the day just will not sleep for more than 40mins (although we have had a couple of better days this week) and is up at night a lot (admittadly it was only 4 times last night but I am tired and it is getting very draining).

I am a bit confused because the sleep probs started so late - how old can babies be diagnosed?

What do you think - is it reflux or should I keep searching for a solution?

[Razzberry]

Hi Chuckie,

It sounds like reflux to me. I'm not sure about the later diagnosis. Maybe it wasn't so bad in the beginning and then the damage was caused ( a red, raw throat) which didn't go away till she started the losec and had some time to heal from all the acid burning.
What did you paed/doc tell you about it?

My DD is still on losec at 18 months but we will be weaning her soon, fx.

[Chuckie]

Hi Erybery - thanks for your response - the dr here is pretty hopeless (small town - the only one here) so he was not much help. The good news is she continues to improve at night (although last night was a shocker!) I have an appt with a lady dr in another town next Friday and I hear she is very good so I will be interested to see what she says about it (and if she changes the dose of losec).

Anyone got any tips for getting the losec into her? I put the pill into the empty syringe and suck up about 5ml of fresh EBM and leave it to dissolve - there is always some of the losec left in the syringe when she is done though.

[Razzberry]

When my dd was little, I had the chemist make the losec up into a liquid which was much easier. The doctor you see next week might be able to tell you what pharmacists can do it for you nearby.
When my DD was eating solids for breakfast, we switched to the tablet which I dissolve in a little container and then spoon it on top of his cereal.
Goodluck and hope you can get some more answers.

[Melssy86]

my boy has reflux and has been on zantac. its helped but now hes teething and its gotten worse. he has rice cereal for breakfast. doc doesnt want him an losec. any ideas/tips on how i can help him.

[ferrals5]

Hey ladies can i join my Ella has just been diagnoised with silent reflux we went from a perfect feeding sleeping bub (for the 1st 2 weeks) to back and neck arching gulping screaming pulling off the bottle and constant moaning groaning while asleep and the battle and screams to get her off to sleep in her own bed.
To a very content happy bub who self settles and goes off to sleep in her own bed by herself all in less than 2 days with no fuss no crying thanks to zantac i need to pinch myself it worked so quick.

I feel bad that i was trying to perservere to get her to self settle before and i was getting p#ssed off that nothing was working and the last 4 weeks my poor girl was in pain we trie 8 different formulas and 2 different types of bottles until i finally gave in to my instincts that something was wrong.

[belfie]

ferrals5 - don't beat yourself up! I think you've done well to pick it up when she's only 6 weeks old, some don't get sorted till 6 or 10 months even! It's awful when they're upset like that huh and I'm so glad to hear the Zantac is working so well for you.

Melssy86 - personally I'm a devotee of Losec, so I dunno why your doc doesn't want bub on it, but I've heard that that Zantac is much more susceptible to weight changes and consequently becomes less effective as the child grow (until the dose is adjusted of course). Otherwise, i'd say all the stuff you're probably doing already - raise the head of the cot, keep bub upright to play more than flat, keep bub upright for at least 10-15 mins after feeds, I put a cushion on our change table to just lift her head slightly. If he's really having trouble sleeping use a sling, they sleep so well upright. I lived in my sling for a month or so when my DD was littler.

Chuckie - hiya hun I know your pain! We just went through another "spit it OUT" stage. I've started getting really mean (after we had some horrible backsliding due to her not taking enough of the meds), so now I blow in her face as I've syringed it in. I feel mean, but she SUCKS it in, in surprise. So we're back on track again. I also used to stroke under her chin to encourage swallowing. My paed suggested sprinkling it on her food, but she doesn't eat things quite consistently enough for me to feel that would work (you know, half goes in, half goes down the bib/on the floor etc!). I was surprised by your volume of liquid though, 5ml is a lot. We use about 1-1.5ml, but it's only half a tablet (so she gets 5mg). Is yours half or whole tablet? - oops sorry just re-read and I see that you're on 10mg. I suppose given the 5mg works for DD it doesn't really matter .

[ferrals5]

Thanks belfie it was a process of elimination until we had no choice but to see if it was reflux.