Please please please some advice desp needed

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Permalink Reply by Sian Thomas on March 12, 2010 at 7:26

I know how you feel, my little girl started like this from about 2 weeks old, she does not drink much at all and never has, her weight is not great she only puts on about 1oz every 2 weeks which worries me in itself, i also have been put on nutramigen, but before she was on aptamil pepti, but this played havoc with her tummy and she was awful for the weeks she was on it, only taking 5oz in 24hours on monday(nightmare i was worried she was going to dehydrate), she does not take great amounts of the nutragamin but is a much happier baby, she is also on ranitadine 3 times a day, this has helped with the screaming on bottles but not the amount she takes, my h/v suggested i weaned her at 12 weeks, which i did but it did not make any difference and she does not take great amounts of food, i think they will make you try the new milk for at least 4 weeks to give it a fair try, people have said you can flavour it with nesquick although i have never done this because i dont think it is the taste that makes my little girl not drink it!
Its awful being so worried, have they not suggested you try any drugs for her?, my little one has slept through from 4 weeks no matter how little she has eaten and its an awful worry.
I think sometimes you just have to go with her and if she does not want it dont force the issue as it only gets you stressed, its hard and we are all in the same boat, why dont you ask your pead for neocate thats supposed to be a wonder milk!!
Sian
xx

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Permalink Reply by Karen Bright on March 12, 2010 at 11:38

thanks for replying. yes she is on ranitadine 1ml 3 times a day and i think it has made some diff although not agreat deal i don't think. She still very squirmy, chews on her fist constantly, has hiccups and frequently brings up what i think is the acid as you can see her nearly choke and her eyes water. However, the screaming on the bottle had stoped but i'm thinking that was prob more to do with the fact she decided out of the blue to drink more and actually seemed hungry, although this has now stopped unfortunately. Interestingly I fed her before I went to bed last night so whilst she was asleep and she drank 4 oz's and then when she woke duing the night she drank 5oz which considering sh never normally drinks more than 3oz's in one go was pretty good. However, as soon as she was awale this morning and I tried to feed her she was not interested again. She did reluctantly drink 4oz in the end. I just spoke with pead's secretary and have been advised as I thought I would be to persevere and when she realises that this is all there is then and she hungry she will drink it. I have thought also that I would try and spread her feeds out slightly more to see if sh any hungrier. I had been feeding her every 3 hours cos it was taking an hour to feed her, but may try every 4 hours now. I am due to go back and see Pead a week today. Not heard aboutt the nesquik thing that sounds quite interesting.....

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Permalink Reply by Kerrie Fitzsimons on March 12, 2010 at 13:43

Hi just a quickie re the Nutramigen, my little boy was lactose intolerant and was on Nutramigen from 8 weeks old until he was 13 months - it does taste pretty rank but he grew to love it anyway!! He was a non-reflux baby (unlike my LO) and drank it well so maybe it's just teh reflux side bothering your little one and not the taste....? apparantly they don't have many taste buds before 4 months and if you can get them drinking it they'll never know any differnce - my boy certainly didn't. Hope that helps if any and best of luck

kerrie x

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Permalink Reply by Sian Thomas on March 12, 2010 at 17:52

i have had another crap day today, she is only takiing 3oz at a push, just when you think you are seeing light at the end of the tunnel, there it is again a dead end, i gotta wait 2 weeks till i am back in the hospital, and its getting me down, i just want to know what is wrong for definate mky little girl has had no tests done whatsover, i hope this nutragimen starts working soon cause im at my wits end, so im in the same situation too, if my little girl does not start putting on weight she wil still be the same size when she is one!!!

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Permalink Reply by Kathryn Shaw on March 12, 2010 at 18:28

When my 7 week old baby started on nutramigen, 2 weeks ago i was adviced to introduce it gradually as it is such a different tasting formula we were on sma gold at the time so started on day one making 4oz sma with 1oz nutramigen which she had all day then the next day we did 3oz sma and 2oz nutramigen and so on until day 5 when it was then the whole 5oz's of nutramigen she took it no problem and although does not always take the whole 5oz anymore she didn't seem to notice the difference in taste.
Think the irregular feeding habits seem to be typical of reflux babies never know what feeding pattern she is going to follow from one feed to the next just have to see what she does you can't force a baby to feed but i'm sure when they are hungry they will let you know.

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Permalink Reply by sarah Jane Twort on March 12, 2010 at 18:41

Hi firstly i know how worried you must be feeling. I have only just come home with my 7 week old daughter who suffers with BAD reflux which affects her breathing when having a bad attack. its such a worrying time and especially when your baby is not eating. My baby was on on Nutramigen and did not like the taste and did refuse a couple of bottles however i persisted and she did drink it when very hungry, i would suggest to you that you keep trying but have a back up formula in case your baby refuses and then speak to your Dr the next day and try something else. My baby is now on Neocate and seems to be going down well. Good luck x

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Permalink Reply by Kathryn Shaw on March 12, 2010 at 19:06

Do you find the Neocate improves the reflux symptoms at all?, my 7 week old baby has been on nutramigen for nearly 2 weeks now and although we have seen some improvement she is still suffering and have been told if shes still the same next week that they will prescribe Neocate.

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Permalink Reply by Karen Bright on March 12, 2010 at 20:52

Hi ladies I can't thank you all enough for taking the time to reply. I cannot express just how much it helps to know other people are going through similar things (not that I would wish this on my worst enemy), cos all my friends who have children, not one of them has been through anything like this. So far today, thankfully she hasn't refused any more feeds and on the whole has drank relatively well I suppose. It does appear to have given her a bit of a stomache ache though when she is trying to poo, going bright red and gets very upset. I'm just hoping that this is to do with the change of milk. I'm just really hoping that when we go back to Pead next friday he will change the medication because I don't think the Ranitadine is actually doing much, I can see when she trying to drink and then she starts getting al squirmy and pulling off and getting upset. I have also been reading about other people talking about anti depressants etc and I feel that if something doesn't change soon forget anti depressants they going to be karting me off somewhere. I think for me at the moment everything feels so much worse because my 3yr old is causing me worry with her constant illnesses as well. Oh the joys of children!!!

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Permalink Reply by Kerrie Fitzsimons on March 12, 2010 at 21:07

I've got a 2.5 year old Karen and your right , it's so hard dealing with another child as well as dealing with your LO. I'm glad she had a better day today and keep pushing with the Paed. My LO slept a bit better last night and the change in how you feel is amazing. I'm still going to docs on Mon for the anti-depessants to try and help but sleep really is a miracle worker. It's hard to get help from outside (sometimes 'cos people don't understand how hard it is as with our relatives) and sometimes hard to let go too but any chance someone could watch her and your toddler even for a few hours - get a nice bath, a drink of wine, blub for half an hour then have a little kip??? I know it's only temporary but it feels good.

Regards the poo did anyone tell you it might be very green....? Just so you don't get a suprise with teh Nutramigen!

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Permalink Reply by Karen Bright on March 12, 2010 at 21:23

Cheers Kerrie, you know when my 3yr old had the reflux it took till she was 9 months before I let my in laws (my mum not really that helpful) have her for the day and that was only cos we were going to a wedding where children weren't allowed, but I swore that I would never do that again with this and put so much pressure on myself. But hey ho, here we go again and it feels like it would be even harder to leave this one cos her reflux/generally behaviour/drinking milk can be so varied that I would really struggle to relax leaving her. The temp relief I do have is that the 3 old is at nursery3 mornings a week, but I do agree that sleep deprivation is a form of torture and with no sleep everything else feels so much more harder. I just want a break in one way, either with more sleep or the baby feeding and being more settled or the 3 yr old not beng ill, just one of them and i'll be happy (well probably not totally).
Re: poo, yeah I read on the tin it said about green poo cheers..

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Permalink Reply by Kerrie Fitzsimons on March 12, 2010 at 21:48

I know we don't ask for much do we? Just a wee chink of hope/respite/light at the end of that VERY LONG DARK TUNNEL!! Oh bugger it and have another glass of wine that's always a good soultion (though had to be strict with myself as was happening EVERY night!) Sometimes your sense of humour seems to have departed permanently doesn't it? Oh well, maybe one day we'll find it again................!

I also appear to be the only one able to settle my little girl and feel I wouldn't want to inflict her on anyone else either but they are resilient and fickle little so-and-so's and probably would be great and not even miss us at all!!

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Permalink Reply by Sarah Moore on March 15, 2010 at 20:23

I have only skimmed so apologise if I repeat anyone else. Josie is 11 months old and still has reflux (but managed much better now). The first 4 months of Josie's life were hell. She was hospitalised due to a breathing incident at 8 days old due to reflux. At 6 weeks she went back into hospital and was prescribed Nutramigen. Josie's milk intake plummeted. We persevered for 6 weeks (during which she would have 1 oz and 2 oz feeds). At one point, I was at my wit's end and reverted to Aptimil. To start with she took more but then totally refused feeds. I started feeding her asleep as this was the only way to get her to take anything. The dietician at the hospital said to try Neocate as it wasn't quite as grim as Nutramigen. To cut a long story short, we started Neocate and omeprazole and after 4 weeks of that, gradually building up feeds she was taking loads more. With Nutramigen we would get to the end of the day on 9 oz. I was worried sick about dehydration and weight gain. I truly believe she needed a purer feed than Nutramigen and luckily she got it even if it were by accident.

Someone on this site once said to me that babies will not feed if they are in pain so you need to find the cause. It's just so frustrating when the drs say to give things 6 weeks (that's a VERY long time when your baby is small and in pain) and what they have suggested is not the answer. This site has been a godsend to me. I have received so much useful info and felt like others understood what I was going through.

I really hope you get a solution soon xx

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