How do you know if it's reflux?

I'm starting to suspect DD gets reflux. She has been an extremely hard/'bad' teether since 6 months, they take forever to cut, come up and down, up and down, bleed sometimes, and cause her extreme pain. It's been pretty much constant since she was about 6 months, and often she'll cut multiple at a time.

Can reflux be related to teething? I don't think it would be DD's diet. How do you even know if it's reflux? All I know is, whenever DD is at the peak of her teething pain phase, lying her down to sleep is a nightmare. She'll scream, go stiff, claw at her face (which I think is her teeth). It's really distressing for all of us. Any suggestions?

Not sure about reflux but teething can cause ear pain which is often worse when lying down. Poor little thing I dont have many suggestions other than pain relief and oral gels, I know lots of people that swear by amber necklaces but Im too paranoid about choking to use them :(

ETA If she is sleeping in her own cot could you prop the mattress up with a pillow underneath? This helps my little ones sometimes

Amber necklaces definitely don't work for us :( I'm a big believer in them...for other people's kids. We give we pain relief, don't want to, but when she's scratching the crap out of her face and screaming because the pain is so bad, I do. It only seems to help a tiny bit. We've tried propping her up but she won't settle like that unfortunately :( At a total loss. We've not tried any gels or anything because I'm dubious about the alcohol content. But it is worth a go at this stage I think. We've tried all the homeopathic treatments too.

Reflux does get worse with teething. There have been a few posts talking about o it over past few months. not sue how to link on my phone, and I killed my computer.

Cool, I'll do a search on here, thanks HotI :)

She's been fine all day aside from sleep times again as usual at the moment. Currently crying and fighting DH who is bouncing her in her room. It's only around nap times. I'm 99% sure she's not under or over tired, I'm just really at a loss. It's becoming incredibly draining.

Ears can cause the symptoms you are describing. DS went from a great sleeper to awful in a matter if weeks and i have only found out in the last few days its a chronic ear infection. I was given a nasal spray to help until he has grommets put in and suddenly he sleeps again. No back arching, rubbing at face, screaming and coughing all night.

I found using saline sprays up the nose helped a fair bit along with a humid room. Allows the lo to breath easier. Otherwise look at the infant gaviscon which helps with reflux at night.

Reflux usually eases up once they're sitting up or crawling and I think you'd definitely know by now if she suffered from it. I think it would more likely be her ears.

Not her ears, I've been at the doctor every fortnight for ages now, the closest we've come is a bit of fluid when she had gastro, but that cleared up quickly. Doctor must think I'm a hypochondriac lol.

Oh pz I can't imagine how badly that must suck :( have you tried infants friend? Or any teething tablets? We used infants friend, which usually worked. By the time I'd heard about teething tablets and bought them, she was pretty much done with teething, so never got a chance to really try them :/

Glad she doesn't have an ear infection, sometimes teething pain can cause referred ear pain which can be worse when lying flat. I hope you find something that works, we tried homeopathic treatments with dd1 but they were ineffective for her. Panadol worked best for us, we live in Adelaide and my friend picked up a teething gel made by the women and children's hospital pharmacy and its great

Sounds like a gel is the way to go. Thanks Novella :)

I've not heard of teething tablets either. What are they?

It's insane how much teething affects her. Two totally different babies in terms of sleep, comfort etc, pre-teething DD and post-teething DD.

Hylands made the tablets but I think they were recalled and are no longer available, they do make a homeopathic gel too but I've never used it so can't comment. I don't like giving medd but I feel there are times when my children have been really distressed as opposed to grizzly and it's those times when we use panadol and gel. It's such an individual thing trying to work out at what point you feel comfortable giving medication to your children in different situations

Has she cut her eye teeth yet? We went through 6 weeks of pure hell when DD1 cut hers at 18 months. I will NEVER forget it :lol:

I doubt she has reflux hon. I've had two reflux babies and you know pretty early on that they have it. And like Tinks said, it most often settles by the time they are sitting up, eating solids or crawling.

Back on the teeth, DD1 was an ordinary teether (especially those bloody eye teeth!) and she was always much worse at night. So is DD2 for that matter. Both girls weren't/aren't that fussed by teething during the day (except for the eye teeth, lol) but night times have never been fun. I found the only way to settle both my girls when they've been really miserable is with Nurofen. And when it's really, really bad, I use panadol as well which is perfectly safe.

It sounds like you're not a fan of medicating and that's totally fine, each to their own, but I look at myself and how I feel when I'm in pain - miserable!! And so I take some pain relief. So I figure I don't want my kids feeling miserable with pain either. I understand parents not wanting to medicate their children but I don't honestly understand allowing a baby or child to suffer in pain when they don't need to.

Sorry, went off on a tangent there. I hope your DD finds relief soon. And if it's eye teeth, I send lots of coping vibes your way!!

Which ones are the eye teeth? :lol: she has her top two front, the one to the left of her front, her first molars up the top on both sides, bottom four front teeth, first molars down the bottom on both sides, and she's currently cutting the tooth to the right of her two middle up the top ones, both her canines, and the bottom ones between the 4 middle teeth and molars down the bottom. Phew! Does that make sense? :confused:

The crappiest part? We give her Nurofen every night when she's like this, which is the majority of the time :( It really only does a small amount for her pin which I find perplexing. Have tried Panadol too, and a combo of them. No real joy for her :(

Okay so according to this chart, the only teeth she's not cutting or she doesn't currently have are her second molars. Everything else is through or coming though now. It can take her a good month or two to cut a tooth :/

3111

Eye teeth are the fangs :lol: Evil little bastards! Molars are awful for a lot of kids too but DD1 was no where near as bad with them. But from what you say, it sounds like her molars and they certainly wouldn't be much fun. Hugs all round hon!

Do you top up the Nurofen after 6 hours? And if she's had the Nurofen you can give her panadol straight away if needed, you don't need to wait for 4 hours. They can safely be used together. It sounds like you're already doing that though.

The teething tablets mentioned by a PP were great but they were recalled and I've never seen them again. I did see though just last week that the same company has released a gel :D It's call Hylands Teething Gel. Give that a go.

The only other thing you can do is offer chilled teething toys, frozen face washers (or similar) for her to gnaw on of ice cubes / frozen fruit in those little mesh holders. Not overly helpful at night though.

Fingers crossed she's over the worst of it soon. It's awful when they're in so much pain :hug:

Thanks guys :grouphug: That's actually the first time I've actually looked at a teething chart, so we're almost through it! Definitely the most challenging thing I've faced as a parent so far! May give the gel a go, it seems to be harder for her as she gets older. At least when she was younger she had boob milk, that seemed to be the best pain reliever of all.

Thanks for sharing the tooth chart. Teething is a horrid time. We had a crap three months when DS2 got 2 bottom teeth and 4 top teeth at the same time. We are good now but judging by the chart we've got a long way to go.

Hope they cut through soon.