reflux diagnosis? feeling devastated, having a baby was never meant to be this hard.
Baby girl is 3 weeks old and screaming, having sleeping difficulties and leaving mum and dad with the blues.
We have a bad feeling she has silent reflux.
We have put her cot mattress on a slope with foam wedge, I am thinking this is helping.
Used a bit of "infants friend" which has helped a little.
Today has been horrible after two pretty easy days and nights...WHY!!!???
Its leaving me exhausted and crying. I cant stand seeing her in pain and distress, this is not how i envisioned motherhood.
I am thinking after today of finding a good paed who understands silent reflux, but I bet it will be a long wait.
I just gave her 2 mls of mylanta out of desperation.
I sobbed the whole way through it, WHY am I giving my baby this stuff? Shes 3 weeks old for christ sake....
Its so hard.
Has anyone got some good advice and some words of hope for this stressed out mum?
Next thing you know my milk supply will be affected, after all the struggles of BF for past few weeks...erghhhh....how do I COPE!!??
delara I don't have any experience with reflux but I couldn't read and not post I'm sure one of the many lovely BB Mums that have gone through it all will be by soon with some words of advice it's really tough having a new bub even when everything seems to be going well, so I understand how frazzled you must be. You're doing a great job, and I hope things calm down for you and Dad and your baby girl soon.
My DD was diganosed with reflux at about 4 weeks old - so we were put onto Losec and with in a week she was a different bub. I would say get to your GP or Pead and get some help/
I hope you and your DH and your bub are all feeling better asap!
The first weeks can be tough, but it does get easier.
My bub had colic, which can present similarly to reflux. It was tough and lasted til she was about 10 - 12 weeks, but there were things we found that did help a little. I was also able to continue exclusive breastfeeding (this is also true for reflux too see http://www.breastfeeding.asn.au/bfinfo/reflux.html)
DO you have a local maternal child health nurse? They can be good resources, and can let you know of good local Paediatricians if you want to see one.
DO you have a baby carrier? Taking baby for a walk in a carrier can help give you or her Dad some fresh air, and the movement can help get bub to settle and to sleep.
The bath was a lifesaver for us. It really helped to settle my little one, and a few times she was given 4 baths in one day.
Giving bub Infant's Friend before her feed helped here.
Letting bub sleep on my (or DH's) chest during the day meant that she slept for longer and better and we were there to settle her if necessary. This helped cos we weren't then dealing with extra sleep deprivation.
DH was great at jiggling baby and rubbing her back after feeds.
I would give bub a break during the feed and would rub her back for any burps.
It helped me to think that even if i couldn't take away her discomfort or stop her crying, it had to nicer to have Mum or Dad there to help her through it.
Look after yourself and your DH, take a break if you can and let the other parent look after her for a little while.
Just remind you again that this will pass, it will get easier and you will enjoy being a Mum.
no advise just lots of hugs n kisses
parenting is never easy especially when u have these hurdles..
i agree take her to the gp n get them to look her over also..
GL hun xoxo
A good gp can help, ds was diagnosed at 4 weeks too. As soon as he was on meds he calmed down, no more screaming and he slept better. Driving in the car helped us along with a vibrating rocker, the movement keeps them calmer.
Hugs hun, its tough to see them like this and absolutely not what you were expecting!!
Go see your GP tomorrow, explain its for your 3 week old and they should fit you in. Any half decent GP will be able to help you out here, just explain whats been happening and that you suspect its silent reflux. I thought i would have a fight on my hands to get DS diagnosed, but my GP jumped on it before the words came out of my mouth!
My DS was diagnosed with silent reflux at around 4 months, controlling my diet had a huge impact on how well he coped (and still does!), he was particularly sensitive to caffeine, soft drink, chocolate, dairy, tomato based sauces, any kind of vaguely spicy food and nuts. Try and be as bland as you can for a few days and see if there is any difference. Also, do you have a carrier where bub can be upright against your chest? This is a wonderful calming and soothing position for them and you will get some rest with it.
Sending you some more big hugs, it does and will get better!!
If its reflux the best thing is to get it diagnosed and medicated ASAP, no stuffing around, silent reflux slowly damages. There is no need to see a paed, a general gp can prescribe zantax or losec. Infants friend won't help with reflux though.
DD2 started about 3 weeks, within 2 days she was vomiting up her own stomach acids, I rang my gp, she faxed a prescription to my local chemist that day and we started zantac (I've had previous experience with GORD with my niece so my gp trusted my judgement). Within a few days she was so much happier, it took another couple weeks to calm down much more. At 5 months we trialled a decrease in med's and found she was much better, by 6 months she was off the meds.
If your bub does have reflux its not the end of the world, its quite treatable, and while you may find they are still a little irritable and sensitive because it may not hurt as such but still be umcomfortable, they can still be very happy little darls. There are heaps of little things you can do to help, like raise the cot, have bub sleep upright as much as possible (a rocker or swing is great for this), carry bub with you in a sling. Change bubs nappy before a feed and turn them sideways to do so not lift their legs to their chest. Dummies help produce extra saliva to reduce stomach acids, as well as being soothing. Try to space feeds out to a minimum, say 3 hours, what can happen as is the stomach empties it starts to hurt, and to help this they want to feed as the milk is soothing temporarily, unfortunately it become a vicious cycle as each time the stomach fills and empty's it can cause discomfort.
If you are worried about your supply then do some extra pumping to increase it but generally reflux won't affect your supply as whatever is being taken will be replaced. Reflux will make bub fuss at the breast, unfortunately there is not much you can do about this except persevere (it will get better with time), but giving a small amount of mylanta before a feed can help. Formula can also make the reflux worse, as well as hindering supply, so try to avoid it.
Wow...I feel as though I could cry after reading all your kind posts.
Thankyou everyone,
I will send her off to GP next week, I dont want this to get worse or damage her.
What a great forum this is, just this bit of support will help me get through the day.
Babyluv -
xxx
My DD had reflux which was diagnosed at 7 weeks but she had it from around 5 weeks. We were given losec by the paed and I also took her to a chiro which helped immensely. She no longer has it and we weaned her off the medication at around 5 months. She was a different baby after taking the losec and while it's not ideal to give babies medications, it helped her sleep and I got my happy baby back.
There are lots of ladies here who know what you're going through
i feel for both of you, my bub is just over 8 weeks old and i swear he has reflux, he screams non stop basically and has done since he was 3 weeks old, he wants to feed so much just about all day everyday and its getting quite hard
I dont understand this pain im going through im getting very very distressed, dad is getting destressed and his big brother is getting cranky with me constantly feeding and not having the time for him
I have been to my dr 2 times for some help for reflux and all i keep getting told is he is hungry :| i dont think hes hungry, so last night i spend 2hrs at the hospital seeing a different dr for the reflux and once again i come home with NO HELP
ARGH im going to loose it, its getting to me all the constant screaming, i even started crying at the hospital and they still wouldnt give me anything all they told me was to go home and give him some panadol and i said yeah sure but he cant live off that, the dr replies ive seen babies have it for over 3 weeks YEP SURE i aint dosing my 8 week old up on pain relief for no reason when i KNOW what he needs
Goodluck, im glad things have settled down for u, its quite hard and i could only just imagine how u felt being a first time mum, this is my second bub and OMG its still VERY stressful!
We are going through the same thing at the moment, there have been nights where I have broken down and sobbed because I don't know what to do
We went to the GP & he gave us infacol which seems to have eased the pain a bit, she is still getting pain but we've had two good days so far. Last night we had about two 1hr blocks of screaming rather than 7-8hrs of non stop feeding & screaming.
I don't have any advice, I know how tough it is and how emotionally and physically draining it is. The sleep deprivation is torture and so is seeing your baby in pain
We are using the sling alot during the day, keeping bub upright for about 1/2hr after feeds seems to help. I have found rubbing her back better than patting as patting seems to give her the hiccups which then causes her to vomit & swallow it, this is when she starts screaming in pain. Cycling her legs gets rid of wind and lots of burping between feeds.
Thinking of you and hoping it gets easier xo
My Ds2 was diagnosed with Silent Reflux at 7 weeks. He was not so much in pain but would stop breathing.. Anyways after a barium test that is what they said he had..
We were given a thickener to put in his feeds. I was BF but through a bottle. You can use the thickener if fully BF from boobies though
I think Karicare was the name.. I woudl go to your local pharmacy and ask about it
Off to see dr today, hoping to start her on some zantac and losec. fingers crossed.
It seems her symtoms have good days and bad days. yesterday was pretty good, with a nasty ending.
It will be nice to be able not to have to constantly worry about wether the day will be good or bad...but I suppose then I'll just find something ELSE to worry about!
DD1 had silent reflux also! and at 4wks we started her on gaviscon before we went on anything stronger and that worked a treat!!!
i really feel for you! i know how hellish it can be! hope all goes well at the docs!
delara, hope the GP was helpful. DS was diagnosed with reflux at 4 weeks, on Zantac from 4 weeks (which we found did nothing) and then Losec (which was brilliant!!). Like the others have said, keeping upright, using the sling etc were very helpful.
Something I found also worked well was holding DS in my arms with his head on my shoulder and bouncing gently on a fitball. Apparently the up and down movements mimic the motion they feel in utero and we found he would pretty much calm down instantly when we did that. He also loved the shower, and a couple of times even fell asleep in there so worth a try!
It's definitely a tough gig having a baby with reflux but you WILL get through it and have your happy baby back. I can also HIGHLY recommend an osteo, they're so gentle and I found it made a huge different to DS in both his sleeping habits and the amount he vomited.
Good luck xx
ETA - meant to say that I know how hard it is to give a tiny baby medicine, I felt so terribly guilty that he was on meds at such a young age, but when you see the difference it makes, well it's certainly worth it to see them free of pain. So don't beat yourself up if you do need to start meds, it's the best thing for reflux.
Last edited by lise; January 12th, 2011 at 01:12 PM.
reflux diagnosis? feeling devastated, having a baby was never meant to be this hard.
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I'm sure one of the many lovely BB Mums that have gone through it all will be by soon with some words of advice 
no advise just lots of hugs n kisses 
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