Advice Please - AR formulas, reflux, vomiting issues, pediatrician

Hi,

I'm just after some points of view/advice etc from those who have experienced this.

My DS has been vomiting almost after every feed for about 6 weeks now. We are giving him Nan HA Gold. He is vomiting a large percentage of what he is eating (we've caught the vomit with a bucket and measured it!), but he is still putting on weight. When he vomits, it really is projectile vomit and comes out of his nostrils too. He isn't too upset by it and he isn't crying or screaming.

We saw the paed the other day and he said DS has reflux and suggested going to an AR formula because it is thicker. We tried Karicare AR and he just spewed the same, except the spew was no longer projectiling across the room as it is so thick. Also, the AR formula made him scream and cry when he was eating. He was bringing his legs up and squirming and looked to be in pain. We stopped giving him Karicare AR and have gone back to Nan HA gold today and he is no longer crying/screaming/in pain when he is eating.

I read online that gaviscon infant might help. Has anyone had experience with this? I talked to the chemist today and he was hesitant to sell it to me as DS is under 1 year old and it wasn't recommended by the paed. (As a side issue, does anyone know a good paed in Brisbane as I'm not impressed with our current one - any recommendations would be greatly appreciated).

hi

we went through this.
I actually tried Karicare HA AR - which is a hypoallerngic thickened formula and it was the first time in 4 months DS didnt vomit!

but omg constipation!!! it was heartbreaking

So we went onto pepti-junior - got a script from the paed (it is about $20 for a 400ml tin otherwise)
and we havent looked back,

I think as they get a little older they tolerate the feeds better too.
but the pepti junior made a huge difference to my DS.

If you are east/southside. We saw Dr Scott burgess at redlands hospital.\If you get a referral from your health clinic nurse or Gp - you can book into the public clinic to see him bulk billed too.

He is great, wonderful bedside manner and would even ring on weekends to see how my little one was going .

HTH

We used Gaviscon Infant when DS was little (no one ever questioned it?). It did help in some ways, in that the volume that came up was less, but what did come up was so thick he would sometimes choke on it, especially the times it came out his nose :(. But as he was borderline FTT everyone was happy that he was keeping more milk down. I personally found that the AR formulas were useless and upset his tummy.

I think you are right to seek a second opinion. If your baby is happy and healthy, and still gaining weight, then I'm not too sure what the problem is (apart from the mess and washing for mum ;)). Hopefully another paed will be able to give you some more suggestions.

Good luck :). And remember, it will get better, they don't chuck forever!

Thanks guys! I will give Gaviscon Infant a go and see how it goes. I really don't want to try any other AR formulas as the screaming and crying was too much yesterday.

I'm on the hunt for a new paed too. I'm seeing my GP on Wed so she might have some good suggestions.

Just so you know - peptijunior isnt a thickened typical reflux formula.

In actual fact it is thinner than standard formula.
It has the cows protein completely broken down making it easier for digestion - incase it is an intolerance contributing to the vomitting.

HTH

I agree with the previous poster who said that if he is happy and gaining weight that maybe it's not such a problem (excpet dealing with all the vommy :hug: )

hey there,
i sympathise with you, i had the same problem with ds but not for as long, if he handles the nan better than the ar - i think there are thickeners that you can get over the counter that you can pop in with the nan formular, at least it will make it thicker for him without him having to have the ar...that maybe one option for you...but just check with doc first. Good luck!

Karicare HA AR did the trick for us. I remember there were changes in his poo for the first week - can't remember which way it went, but the projectile vomitting stopped immediately. After a week his poo was back to normal & we never looked back. I was worried what would happen when we went on to cows milk but he transitioned over without any issues at all at 12 months.

Thanks everyone. We've started him on Gaviscon Infant and he hasn't vomited on us since starting it. Hopefully it is what he needed!

Hi to all on this thread

I have been reading your posts and I have tried the Nan HA Gold formula, but before that I tried the organic Bellamy's formula. When I introduced the Bellamy's formula in each feed last week and my boy got constipated - but am not sure if it was the formula or the introduction as he still drank it with no problem. I gave brown sugar water and he did a brown thick poo a week later. I changed to the Nan formula and he is now waking during the night and is really irritable between feeds. I don't know what to do cause I can't work out if it's the formula's I'm using or the introduction of formula. I was expressing breast milk exclusively before.

Does anyone have any advice as to whether it's the formula, the introduction of formula or an intolerance. I feel like I have a colicky baby, whereas before he was so content and slept through the night.

Please help!!!

Hi Setof3,

Sorry to hear you're having problems - our issues haven't resolved themselves yet either (more on that later). I honestly couldn't tell you why your baby would be having problems - I'm so clueless on these things, but I hope they work out soon. If it helps any, we never had problems with the Nan HA Gold when we moved to it. Daniel was happy with it and never woke up at night unless he was hungry.

So an update on our situation. We changed from Nan HA Gold + Gaviscon infant to S26 AR and that was working ok. Not too much vomiting, and not too much crying/screaming during eating. Only problem now is, he WON'T eat much AT ALL. He has maybe 1/4 to 1/2 his 180 ml bottle (whereas before he used to eat the whole lot). We thought it might be the S26AR so we went back to Nan HA Gold (we have so many different tins of formula it's not funny) because he was eating that very well before. No luck - still refusing to eat. He pokes out the bottle with his tongue, wriggles around and eventually ends up screaming (it doesn't sound like pain). We've tried extending the time between feeds to see if that helps, but it doesn't. Yesterday he went for 5 hours between feeds (this is a baby who usually eats every 3 hours) and he only ate 40mls.

We have seen the dr again and he spoke with the paed and they agreed to give Losec a go. I don't think it's made much difference as I'm not entirely convinced he had reflux in the first place. Daniel's weight gain is slowing down, but he hasn't lost weight. He's still his happy old self and is peeing and pooping regularly. We just don't know what to do to make him eat more. We don't want him to associated eating times with crying and stress either. Any ideas, anyone?

first port of call with a refluxer in my opinion should be a dairy free diet. Dairy intolerance seems to be the root of a lot of reflux - every person I know who has had a reflux baby who has gone 100% dairy free has seen the reflux stop. If something with dairy sneaks in accidentally (easy with breastfeeding), the reflux will return.

Maybe try a lactose free formula, everyone was telling me DD was suffering reflux and to try the AR forumla and thickeners as DD was a vomitor and losing weight. She would bite me when breastfeeding so I ended up trying the S26 LF formula and she stopped vomiting and has thrived ever since. Looking back at photos of her when she was breastfeeding she looks very pale and sickly. Your breastmilk contains lactose regardless of what you eat so it could be the problem, DD improved on the regular S26 Gold formula but the vomiting only completeley stopped once she stopped breastfeeding and went onto the lactose free formula.

It could be that he knows that he doesn't feel well when having a feed so he doesn't want it? DD was like that too but she was eight months. the S26 LF formula is available at Coles, Safeway/Woolworths and chemists.

I would tend to agree with River. There is a link between reflux and dairy intolerance in babies. (Certainly is in our case).

LF formula may help, but it is not dairy free. So if it is the protein, rather than the lactose, that is a problem then LF formula probably won't help. IHTMS.

My dd vomitted and had the runs all the time I breast fed.She was diagnosed as intolerent by the paed and with reflux by the gp. Now looking back I`m not convinced of the reflux diagnosis nevertheless I do have experience of using various formulas. apparently HA formulas are always used as a first line before any lactose free, goat or soy versions as the lactose is partially broken down which is supposed to be most appropriate for intolerence as opposed to the latter for allergy. I used the plain HA-AR formula as opposed to gold which wasn`t available at the time. I wondered if the gold variety might be quite rich if the problems hadn`t occurred with the organic brand.
Due to constipation, I changed the routine to just HA in the daytime and HAAR at night.My theory being that dd was more likely to throw up whilst laying down if it was reflux. At 7 months after weaning onto solid and one or two prolonged episodes of gut problems i started dd on gold follow on normal formula and fingers crossed it`s working so far. She has always been an erratic feeder ie) whole bottle one time half next and sometimes a quarter if really distracted and excitable. I try not to worry about this and so long as she is otherwise healthy it`s okay.
As far as reflux is concerned, the paeds in my area tend not to like to diagnose reflux and in turn do not treat it.Some gps however will treat with meds sometimes zantac sometimes PPI drugs like losec.My dd hated the meds and they were an absolute nightmare to give her. They appeared to work in the short term but the formula feed really seemed to make a huge difference and I eventually told the gp I was stopping the meds.
I felt really bad for ceasing breastfeeding but now I look back and think that I did what I had to do to keep my dd healthy.

I saw a pediatrician on Monday and my DD was diagnosed with a milk protein allergy. He is now on a prescription formula which is sooooo expensive, but at least his irritability and abdominal pains will go away gradually, should take about 2-3 weeks to be fully out of his system. I am happy this situation has been resolved and I can get him onto the right track.

That's excellent - at least now you know what was going on and it can get better. I hate not knowing what is wrong!

Losec seems to be working well for us, so fingers crossed eating will only keep getting better!

Am soooo glad that you now have some answer's - so hard when you don't know what is bothering them :hug:

After months of scratching my head and numerous Paed visits, my DS was also diagnosed with Milk Protein allergy and i now have him on Karicare Soy formula (Soy doesn't work for all babies) and a dairy free diet - also still use Brauer Stomach Calm at night before his night bottle . . fixed his vomiting and irritability within days

Hope everything continues to get better for you and bubs

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every person I know who has had a reflux baby who has gone 100% dairy free has seen the reflux stop.

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While I 100% agree that this is a great idea, and I highly recommend giving it a go, it doesn't work for everyone. I know someone who went fully dairy free, and it hadn't helped after 4 weeks. She ended up using Losec.