Reflux & weaning to cows milk. HELP!

[lissy]

DS was diagnosed with reflux at about 9-12weeks, & was prescribed Nexium by his paediatrition. At about 8months he seemed to be coping so we trialled him off his medication, he was fine, seemed to have grown out of it.
Now at 12months I've started weaning, swapping one breastfeed per week over to cows milk. I just swapped his last feed of the day over to cows milk last week. Thursday night he vomited & emptied his whole stomach, again Friday after he woke up from his sleep, again saturday night, sunday no vomit, then again monday night. We have been back to the GP a few times & it seems he's finally thrown his hands up in the air & decided it must be his reflux again.

Has anyone else had reflux come back after being off medication for so long? And how did you wean to cows milk? Does anyone think that could be whats causing this?

Having said all that I woke up this morning feeling completely seedy (not a drop of grog) & still feel that way this afternoon.

[chody47]

I haven't had this problem exactly, but I'm wondering if something we had with DD might be similar....

My DD also had reflux and probably came off her medication around 7ish months. Everything was going fine....at around 10/11 months she started vomiting (as you described, emptying the entire stomach) every time we gave her yoghurt and then smaller vomits after other dairy (e.g. after her cereal with cows milk). I wondered if it was something to do with the dairy side of thing (although she had been having yoghurt and cows milk on her cereal for quite some time and never had any previous issues). I stopped giving any to her (besides cheese) for a few weeks and then slowly introduced it again and everything seemed fine...... Do you think the sudden switch to having so much cows milk might have something to do with it???

As for how we weaned to cows milk....we haven't completely yet. DD has two bottles a day (both formula) and has cups of cows milk with meals during the day.

[onthefly]

Did you ever check for allergies? A lot of babies with reflux actually have an underlying allergy and it is very commonly to dairy protein.

[lissy]

Thanks Chody47 if he doesn't improve I might try that. Yes I had been wondering if maybe adding that night time cows milk bottle might have just pushed him over the edge with a little too much full cream milk in his tummy. I've gone back to watering down his bottles as GP suggested & he seems to be doing ok on that.

MadB no I hadn't looked into it since he was diagnosed with reflux, as the dairy he had been having hadn't caused him any grief. May have to.

[Three Graces]

Our fist son had reflux and we weened him off zantac around 7 months. I saw a naturopath who suggested we try a baby probiotic from the chemist to help his digestive system, which seemed to help. We also kept him off cow's milk products and used a goat's milk formula. The milk protein in cow's milk is pretty long and hard to digest, compared to the protein in goat's milk. There is now a product called A2 cow's milk, in the supermarkets which doesn't have a particular protein. I'm drinking it myself now, as DD doesn't seem to like my breastmilk when I'm on normal dairy. It's almost like drinking from the poisoned chalice for her (poor mummy doesn't get chocolate either).