Did Mylanta or Gaviscon make any difference for your bub?

I posted a thread a while ago in the reflux sub-forum but didn't get much response, so thought I'd put this one out here.

Went to the Dr with DS2 today concerned about his reflux. He is putting on weight really well and has times when he is settled and isn't your classic screaming reflux baby, but the Dr listened to my description and could still hear him swallowing his regurge etc and has said we should try 1ml of mylanta or gaviscon before feeds or when he's having a bad time with the reflux. If this doesn't help he'll go to the next level with medication. Did either of these help anyone else?

DS2 is fully breastfed and we are otherwise quite healthy and happy on the whole, but mummy is sick of changing her clothes and pjs endlessly and of washing all the time and knowing her little man is feeling yucky when he swallows it back down and it hurts...

We used baby gaviscon. Reflux is horrible. DD2 was pretty shocking with it and constantly refluxy. It wasn't a miracle cure, but it helped a fair bit. She could go to sleep without waking up 20 mins later screaming in pain and looking like she had tasted something nasty. Propping her cot up on an angel also helped a little bit.

DD2 didn't like being fed the gaviscon though so I used a syringe while I was breastfeeding her and slipped it into the corner of her mouth next to my nipple and got her to have it that way. She didn't seem to mind as much as when I feed it to her straight. By about 4 months though, she would drink it out of a bottle.

I hope you can find some relief from reflux. It is so sad to watch them :hug:

Is reflux worse during the day or night?

That's part of our problem... there's not a lot of pattern with him. Sometimes the reflux is a massive chuck during or straight after a feed, sometimes it's a little chuck abot 20 mins later and it comes with a lot of fussing, and then other times it comes a good 2 hours after the feed, complete with fussing and writhing around and it's the 'silent' reflux, just coming up and getting swallowed over and over again. Most of the time the afternoon is the worst. Early part of the night after he goes to bed is ok - he sometimes sleeps for 6 hours then. Early morning isn't good though - after his first feed at about 2am he doesn't go back down easily and it's this feed which tends to be the biggest chuck, usually requiring me to change my pjs as well as him. That said, the worst time yesterday was in the middle of the day...:rolleyes:

My gp told me to try the mylanta and it did work for a while but we ended up having to use something else. My poor DD2 had to have the medication for over 18 months before it settled down and she had the silent reflux too. It was horrible. We also propped the end of the cot up quite high and this helped to. Good luck with this

Losec has been the wonder drug for us. My little one sounds similar to yours Lewis's mummy!

I found that the gaviscon helped for a short time but not for long. It's more for the symptomatic relief than getting to the root of the problem. I'd ask your paed or GP for losec. It works by neutralising the stomach acid so when it comes back up it doesn't burn so much.

It's horrible for them hey? My little one isn't a classic screamer either but I can tell when she has a heartburn attack and it makes me cry. Poor wee things.
Sue x

DD2 was on infant gaviscon until the paed at the hospital told us to take her off it, and that he never recommends it to parents because its too high in salt for little bubbas. He said there are plenty of other ones out there that work better than don't contain the same salt (losec was one of them)

We used homepathic remedies for DD1 and that worked perfectly (she had silent reflux)

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We used homepathic remedies for DD1 and that worked perfectly (she had silent reflux)

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What were the homeopathic things you used? I saw some stuff from Brauers in the chemist but only in a pack with a whole heap of other stuff we don't need... My dad has suggested seeing a naturopath, but I figure it's not like his diet can be changed - it's just breast milk! Does anyone know if the mother's diet can affect it? I have tried to find a pattern associated with what I'm eating but can't see one. My Dr said that for the most part it is just waiting for the sphincter muscle to mature and hold the stomach contents in. That said, one of his sons had to have it corrected with surgery at 5 years of age! I seriously can't deal with it for that long!

We went to a place on the sunshine coast that is well known for their remedies. It worked a treat. I know if you fill out an application form, they can send you remedies too if you don't live near there.

My paed said that it's not what the mother eats but the fact that the baby HAS to eat - does that make sense? It doesn't matter what the breast milk tastes like, it's not that that's causing the problem, so a change in diet doesn't help a lot.
Although, saying that, I have given up caffeine (didn't drink a lot anyway) and only eat small amounts of dairy and found that to make a small difference, but I am pretty sure that the losec is doing most of the work.

Sue x

Sorry to be full of so many questions, but this is all new to us as DS1 chucked maybe half a dozen times in his life so far...

Does the losec actually stop the chucking or just neutralise the stomach acids so the reflux doesn't hurt anymore?

I'm not actually sure about that Lewis's Mummy, I know that it definitely neutralises the stomach acid - but my little one isn't a chucker, she has silent reflux so I don't actually know if it stops the vomiting, sorry!

Sue xxx

Losec works by stopping the acid production, it is generally the better type of med for reflux. Infant gaviscon works by trying to thicken what is in there so it won't come up as easy, which is different to adult gaviscon which neutralises acid.

I was told 4ml of mylanta up to 4 times a day, if this doesn't help, then to go on the losec. With the vomitting though, like you said it is cause of the weak muscle, so no med will actually stop the vomitting, but will work to decrease the amount of acid in it so that it doesn't burn. It sounds like you need to go back and get a new med prescribed.