Michelle's Page

Dear Dominic,
I am sorry to hear that you have reflux and it is no wonder that you and your Mum are fed up. Your Mum must find it difficult when all you can do is cry to tell her how uncomfortable it is. My Mum has been giving me medicine for about 5 months now and I dont vomit as often ( I know you dont vomit as yours is silent). I can even lie on my tummy without making things worse. Mummy can now give me milk just before I go to bed which is very nice and I can go to sleep better.

My mummy was always sad when I was crying and she sometimes cried as well.

I hope the medicines work for you too.

David

PS My Mummy keeps meaning to put more info on her profile but gets distracted. She comes from Aberdeen so noticed the new group.

Hi Michelle

I read your reply to the discussion Silent reflux where you asked about the barium swallow.
My baby daughter had it done some weeks ago.
It is used to rule out physical abnormalities on the upper digestive tract. Basically your baby's given a bottle of chalky fluid and they visualise through Xray what happens when your baby swallows and how the barium travels down the food pipe and into the stomach.
They can also see if the barium refluxes. Of course our little one didn't reflux at all during the test, so we did look a bit silly.
The liquid barium is flavoured, our baby didn't mind the taste at all. I guess your challenge will be getting Dominic to actually drink from the bottle.
I'm afraid I don't have any advice for that. I breastfed Alexandra for 7 weeks until my milk supply basically went. The little one was hardly feeding due to her reflux and I was at my wits end. Unfortunately we had to be quite forceful with the bottle, and I don't recommend this at all, but we couldn't feed her any other way.
Hope someone here will be able to tell you about their transition from breast to bottle.

I really hope things improve very soon.
Helena X

PS: After the barium, you should expect a WHITE colour bowel movement- the barium is not digested, it just goes through your baby's digestive system until it comes out the other end.

Hi Michelle,

Sorry did not reply yesterday had a rollercoster 24 hours.

Tried Chamomile tea on Thursday night and it seemed to settle her very well - she slept quite well.

However, she was really bad on Friday lots of screaming and not wanting her milk at all so I thought I would try the next thing on my Internet Research list - Soya Milk. I was looking up acidic and non acidic foods on Thursday night as I thought I would try weaning her as that is the advice for Reflux babies in America - to wean early.

Soya is on the non acidic list as opposed to Cows Milk which is acidic. I got some Cow and Gate Infasoy from boots and gave it to her yesterday afternoon and a MINI MIRACLE has occurred - she cant get enough of it!

She has gone from 3oz max per feed/screaming in pain/spitting up to 4.5 and 5oz feeds/calm/happy/gurgly in just 24hours.

I am proceding with caution though as my friend who's little boy had reflux told me that the Soya milk has a limited effect as they become intolerant to that too - but I dont know about this and have my fingers crossed that her pain is at last eased.

I still put her Gaviscon in with her Infacol and Gripe Water and she has had almost no wind today either.

Have you tried Soya Milk? or know anyone who has tried it?

AngelKidsMum x

hi there
no worries re asking Qs. happy to help. no idea how you accept friend requests on this site though...
help!
fran xx
ps email if u need it is francescaquerci@hotmail.com

Hi Michelle
they will, they will. It seems like such an ordeal now, but it will pass and then you'll forget what it was like (and you'll think about having another ;-) ) so don't lose heart.
The dairy free diet - it's not so hard once you get into it. I don't miss much at all now and have even got Denis (husband) doing it and his hay fever has gone. So that was a success. I was looking to improve his eczma which has improved but his hayfever has miraculously also gone. First time ever. he is now mowing our lawn at the weekends!?!?
what do u relly miss being dairy free? mabe i can think of an alternative that is "nice".
Re the breastfeeding / bottle. As much as everyone says that being on formula (hypo allergenic) is the way to go i have decided to carry on breastfeeding as i found that once i was dairy free max was very happy with my milk. I have managed to get him to take the NUTRAMIGEN from the bottle but only with sweeteners so i'm a bit against doing that 3-5 times a day. Also, at what it costs and a GP that won't precribe it Max would bankrupt us so its probably a good thing that the breastmilk is still flowing. I'd keep breastfeeding if you can, (assuming you stay dairy (milk protein )and soya free) as that really is best for reflux babies, as told to me in the book LIFE ON THE REFLUX ROLLERCOASTER. fantastic book by the way. you should borrow it off Michelle (on this site) Makes you realise that in the grand scheme of things we only see a tiny bit of what reflux is like. Her daughter had severe GERD and OMG what she went through. Poor thing.
Anyway, sorry to go on and on and ignore me if i rant on about something you don't agree with. i am one of those mums that caught on to the whole "attachment parenting" thing and who thinks Breast is best and yada yada yada but i do know it isn't for everyone and i respect that.
have a nice evening
fran xxx
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