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!!??

Thanks for reading/listening.:cry:

delara I don't have any experience with reflux but I couldn't read and not post :hug: 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 :hug: 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.

take care

:comfort: 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.

Hun,

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

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.

Best wishes, I hope it gets sorted soon.

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 - :hug:
xxx

Hey Delara,

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.

:hug: :hug: There are lots of ladies here who know what you're going through :hug:

made appointment with GP - fingers crossed he can help me get some losec.

It really tears me up inside to think about giving her meds at this early stage - Im so afraid of damaging her!
U know, before I got pregnant I was never really maternal, wasnt so into babies and children - its incredible how you change.
At least know, from reading some feedback, its not forever, just until they develop a bit further, and then she can be weaned off.
Thankyou!

You'll get there hun, it's hard seeing your little person in pain hey? :hug:

We found the tablet form of losec to work better than the made up suspension - we just dissolved the tablet in a tiny bit of water on a teaspoon and gave it to her that way. Was much easier than trying to get her to take the nasty suspension which tastes utterly disgusting.

:hug:

Hi Delar, hugs to you and your little one. When it's tough it's tough but there will be an end to it. I hope you all find relief soon.

I too have had no expereince with reflux or colic but there were times in the early weeks where i had my books out and was googling the subjects wondering if my children may have. We somehow got through those times with the boys and all was ok.

With my little girl i wondered the same again but the difference this time is i have a carrier and i have found when she is unsettled this helps so much. Providing she's not hungry i can put her in this and she'll be asleep in minutes. It helps so much when bub is overtired and the changing of positions or patting can be stimulation enough to make it difficult for them to sleep.

I hope th GP appt comes around for you really soon and you get some answers but in the mean time if you get an opportunity you may find a carrier can really help sooth.

Good luck oxox

Hi Myboys...still havent got a new user name huh?!! :)
I cant wait until monday now to hopefully start the medication.
You are so lucky with your baby girl! arghhhh! that would be GREAT to just be able to put in a carrier and wullah!
OH WELL, we bothhave been blessed.
I have also been told that the losec tablets dissolved in water work much much better than the liquid losec - there u go.
having a better day than yesterday.

Still, walking around on eggshells and have hardly left nursery. Looks like it will be that way for following 10 days. sigh.

Nope Delara i'm working on it :lol:

Delara we are both so so lucky and blessed and it sounds like you are doing absoluately all you can to make your little girl comfortable. Bring on next Monday!!

I know my close gf's DS had silent reflux and he used to squirm and bring a lot of his feeds back up, he ended up on the meds for it.

DD is really quite good but when she gets unsettled/overtired it can be quite difficult and she has more of these times than i remember with my boys. She can really SCREAM, and the carrier has been a bit of a lifesaver in helping this at times.

Hope you get a good night tonight and things start to settle soon. Good luck again xox

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

:hug:

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!