3week old with silent reflux

HI girls

My youngest son is 3.5weeks old, and has silent reflux. He has been on infant gaviscon since Friday - no help!!!, but we're heading back to the dr's on Tuesday hopefully for something that will work. Dr said our next trial will probably be zantac.

I'm feeling quiet overwhelmed by it - and trying to get family to understand that a good burp won't fix him is very frustrating:wall:

I'm sure over the coming weeks/months I'll be flooding this section for advise, hope not for too long:pray:

Just a few questions.

*did your bub have to see someone other than dr?
*how long till they were better?
*how long will bub be on medication?
*any tips or advise?

Thanks Zoe

Hi Zoe!

There are quite a few 'experts' on reflux around here that always contribute so I'm sure they will offer you some help.

Answers to your questions:
*My bub saw a Paed (the one who we saw for our 6 week checkup, we just kept seeing him)
*We are on Losec (after trying Zantac for a bit) and at the moment I'm trying to miss a few doses and see how my bub goes without the medication. She is almost 5 months old and has been on it since she was 8 weeks. Hopefully we can stop it soonish, but it still may be a few more months.
*Tips and advice I'm sure other people will go into great detail.

Just remember (or make other people understand!) that reflux is SO painful for our little ones and it can take a quite a while for them to grow out of it so be patient.

All the best hun, hope your little man outgrows it very soon..

We were told our son Isaac has silent reflux at 7 weeks after he had a barium test done..

He was put on a thickener which was added to his feeds. I was expressing but if you are breastfeeding you can give it before a feed on a spoon. It is the brand Karicare...

Hi Zoe,

I am here too!

My bub did not see a paed until he was 12 months, we now see a paed gastroenterologist. In hindsight I think that we should have seen a paed a lot earlier.

Parker is not better :( he is three. The statistics show that up to 95% of babies have outgrown it by age 1 (generally I find 15-18months), 98% by age 2. I they have not outgrown it by 3, it is generally termed as something they have for life :(

In general most babies tend to 'grow out of it' when they are either sitting or walking, both these things tend to straighten out the esophageous and make it so the reflux can't ge as high. Some babies need meds till 18 months, some only till 5 months, it just depends. It is a little cliche but true.

Other than the other tips before, I really don't have any. Prop bedding, keep upright as much as possible, take dairy and soy out of your diet, if bottle feeding use a hypoallergenic formula are the main ones. Make sure the doctor works out the right dosing for zantac as it is very weight sensitive and even the slightest weight gain could make it not work.

It is hard as all refluxers are different, I always say go with your gut, as it can be a long road to find the right medicine and dosing for your bub.

Lee good luck with the med wean, If you find that it isn't working out too well, you could try Caros suggestion to wean very slowly rather than miss a dose. It has been theorised that if you are on reflux meds and then stop it all of a sudden the acid producing pumps go into overdrive and actually produce more acid...so the wean may not seem favourable.

Thanks girls.

OK now my biggest question........

how to get others to understand????????

Had a shocking experience today (at playgroup of all places - you'd think other mums would be supportive), being told he was hungry, or needing burping ect................arr so frustrating. No my baby is in pain!!!

He hasn't improved at all - thought he might of been for a feed or two, but has had a pretty rough few days. Off to the dr in the morning.

Thanks again, Z.

Aww Zoe you poor thing. It can be so horrible can't it- when you are out and about with everyone else looking on.

How did you get on at the doctors?

Caro- thanks for your personal opinion. We all have different experiences and knowledge which I respect, and is always good to hear other opinions. As it is we are happy to continue as we have been. Guess each baby (and their mum!) are different so I will just see how she goes.

Hi Zoe!

Jake was diagnosed with Silent Reflux about this age too. I also tried the infant Gaviscon which really only seemed to constipate him, and all manner of homeopathic and chemist potions and remedies to no avail. He was put on 20mg of Losec at 4wks and has been on it ever since, apart form 4 wks at about 6mths when we tried weaning and life returned to hell.

I was, and still am BF, and found foods high in salicalytes (sp?) like tomatoes, strawbs, onion, red wine (I once used it heaps in cooking) really upset him and now we are on solids we still need to avoid the bad ones like tomatoes. Chocolate was a baddy too :(

Tips - elevating cot head was best for us, plus using a carrier and holing him upright for at least 15mins after a feed. Also I found infacol really helped to get his wind up quickly with minimum pain - in my exp it hurts them too much to burp and they avoid it as much as possible. Also a cosmetic thing if his skin is all burnt from his acidic saliva pawpaw ointment works a treat.

Other people - well I only know too well what you mean! Luckily the first playgroup I went to had another refluxer and there was a level of empathy there, except he used to vomit and there was always the question of how can he have reflux if he doesn't vomit....:wall: I basically avoided shopping centres unless I had DH with me or it was a "good" day but even then it was a cry fest. My Dr told me reflux babies get overstimulated bcos they can't sleep too well from the pain and then we take them into a shopping centre with its bright lights and lots of sound and their stimulation goes off the register hence the scream fest.

We are still on medication and there are still days that I know he is pain, and he is walking so the uprightness hasn't helped us.

Good luck PM me if you have any other questions!

Hi girls

Well we went back to the dr's first thing Tuesday morning, and Lachie is now on Zantac. 0.6ml twice a day. Poor little thing absolutely hates it - just the smell is enough to put me off:(

He has had 5doses and I kind of don't want to say it incase I jinx us, but I really think I can see an improvement. Today has been wonderful.

BUT he is taking less milk (?maybe he was having more with a growth spurt - he put on another 300grams last week) and is having lots of spit ups. Tonight I could see and hear it coming up and he spat some out swallowed most. Any ideas??

Thanks for being so supportive, Z.

he may be drinking less bcos he was gulping milk to sooth the burning and now the burning has reduced?

I hope it works for you...
Zyon hasnt had any meds since about 3 days after arriving in Bali, he slept 6+ hours each night there (3max in Melb) He was happy, laughing actually chuckling & giggling, so we stopped the Zantac & gaviscon & he was & has remained fine...
I think me having had no milk/dairy helped his tummy get better & stronger, last night I fed him at 9pm & he was awake smiling & talking at .... 8am! OMG 11hours!
I am so glad we seem to be over it all... But I keep him upright for a good 30-45mins after each feed before putting him down to sleep...

Good Luck!

Zoe, just found this thread, but really hoping your bubba is improving. I agree with all the positional stuff, but if he's on Zantac, get your doctor to write you a sliding scale of the doses for when your bub puts on weight.
Darcy was diagnosed at birth. I just learnt to smile and go hmmm to all the 'well meaning suggestions' fairly quickly.
We found the zantac great, and finally stopped at 12 months but like the others said, it's variable. I was lucky i didn't have to cut stuff out of my dietand now even Darcy will get a tomato out of the fridge and eat it like an apple.
Do what works for you.

HI girls

ARRR :wall:

Lachie is now 7 weeks old (will be 8 weeks on Thursday), and has been really well for a few weeks. I was having lots of trouble keeping up my milk supply, so we have him on thickened formula which he loves.

EXCEPT the past few days he's gone back to his old ways - screaming non stop and has even been vomiting up - not sure if its just been from screaming so much, or part of the reflux???

He's still only on 0.6ml of Zantac, but I think he needs to have this increased. I can't get him to see the dr till next Tuesday. Is there anywhere I can get the dose guidelines from? He's now 5.7kgs (this was last Wednesday, so probably nearing 6kgs - put on .5kg last week).

Any ideas would be great. Also is it possible for a bub to be at first a silent refluxer and then start vomiting?

Thanks girls,
Zoe

For 6kg the daily dose of zantac is
Minimum 2ml a day
Maximum 4ml a day

So divide that by how many doses you are giving. It definately sounds like it needs to be increased, it is so weight sensitive, in the end the doctor gave me the way to work it out so if we put on weight then I would increase it.

Yes it is possible for them to go from silent to non silent, it may have to do with the meds not cutting it at the moment, since the zantac is in his system you may find that it doesn't take long for the increase to kick in.

The other thing it could possibly be is the formula, hypoallergenic formulas are better for refluxers as they are easier to digest. If you have just recently gone to full bottles feeding this may make an impact on his reflux also.

we found thick formula to make things worse.. much harder for her to burp n when it did come up it hurt her moreif u havnt already id try a normal formula or even ha like others have said

Thanks girls

What formula would everyone recommend? When we put him from EBM to FF we started just on 'normal' formula (can't remember which one now??) but after 3days of big projectile vomits were advised to switch to thickened ?????

hypoallergenic formulas - what ones are these?

Sorry so many question I know, I'm just feeling lost again - he was going so well.

Thanks again, Zoe

Thickening it does help but if he didn't vomit before but started with the formula then I would change it. What one are you on at the moment?

Hypoallergenic ones are just broken down a little more than normal cows milk formula so it is easier to digest. One that is over the counter is Nan HA, any with HA are hypo. If these don't work there are some that you can get with a script...but it is sometimes hard to convince a doctor to go this road.