Suspected Reflux, can you help confirm?

[jackrose]

Hi all,

I have an angelic, 8 week old baby girl, breastfed on demand. Generally she sleeps well and is well settled, (yay!) however, she will sometimes regurgitate the entire contents of her stomach. Of course she has the odd spit up after feeding or when she burps, but this vomiting or regurgitation is much more and generally involves an entire change of clothes for myself but at the very least a change clothes for her and of the soft-furnishing covers.

She never shows signs of distress or any other significant behaviours that I have noticed before throwing up so it is impossible to predict when it is going to happen, at best on a couple of occasions I have just had a 'feeling' she was going to and sure enough, couch covers were covered again! The only pattern I have noticed is that it has always occurred when she is lying down, on her back or on her side (once when she was 2 min into a feed.)

Sometimes this will occur a few minutes after a feed, other times it will be quite a while after. Sometimes it is undigested breastmilk in a liquid form, somtimes it is partly digested curds.

She is also never distressed during or after a vomit, just a little startled at all of the milk coming from her mouth and nose! She will usually want to feed again a few minutes after and will keep the second feed down.

I am not overly worried as she is putting on weight at an incredible rate and has a healthy output (!), and I am grateful that she is not in any obvious pain or discomfort, my question is... does this sound like a variation of reflux? Can babies have reflux without the pain and discomfort? Is is normal to vomit or regurgitate a stomach worth of food?

Advice or information would be much appreciated, it is about 10 days until the next nurse appointment.

[mickyndan]

Hi,

I think the general rule with Reflux is if they are in pain, arching their back, kicking up their legs during and after a feed. My DS (who has mild reflux) was doing all of the tell tale signs so took him to the DR and was diagnosed. He was also quite a large regurgiator as well, was very unpredictable with his spit ups and they seemed quite large. However, I was told that even though the vomits look large, it wasn't the full content of their stomach - even though it covered your whole lounge (LOL). Maybe try raising her cot mattrass, keeping her up for about 15 minutes or so after a feed and the most important thing..... be ready!!!! hee hee... Good Luck with it.. If you are concerned I would see your GP or wait for your next nurse appointment if you can.

[jackrose]

Sounds perfectly logical!

Thanks for your response, it is hard to believe that it isn't the entire contents when you look at it, but in retrospect, she doesn't seem overly hungry after the vomit.

I certainly cannot complain at all as she doesn't have the pain associated with reflux (is that where the term 'happy chucker' comes in?!?) and I can imagine that is a very distressing experience for all concerned.

Thanks for the advice and good wishes, I hope your situation with your DS has improved.

[Je$$_84]

jackrose-

My DS wasnt diagnose with reflux til 8 months... from bout 2.5-3 months when i started supplement feeding he would projectile vomit the entire feed accros the room. it would come out so quickly and as you said would warrant an entire change of clothes etc...

He wasnt in any pain that we could tell at first which is why it took so long to diagnose... I ended up (on the advice from friends) having my GP request a barrium meal scan done. The put a liquid substance in with the feed and lay them down under a machine and kinda x-ray whats happening. They could see that even though he wasnt showing his pain that the stomach was forcing the food back up... in the end he was prescribed medication to stop the stomach from forcing the food out and calming the indegestion type burning... (which causes the pain) If your concern definatley get bubs checked out

[scarlet121]

It sounds like reflux to me. The good thing is that it isn't giving her any pain.

Basically reflux is a weak lower oesophageal sphincter, and this is really normal and common in babies, when you worry is when they are in pain with it, this means that the reflux is acidic and is burning them and they may need medicine to decrease the acid content.

It sounds like your bub is doing well with it, this would be classified as a happy spitter. Just watch out for other reflux signs they would be things like crying, screaming, glurping noises, arching back, feeding refusal or fussyness, these may indicate you need meds.

[fionas]

Hi Jackrose

My DD is a happy chucker too! My MCHN said they only intervene if a) it is distressing the baby or b) it's interfering with weight gain.

I"m a pretty relaxed person but now I just want it to go away! Some days I end up with a river of spew down my cleaveage!