My reflux experience

Comment by joanne on December 7, 2007 at 20:52

hi michelle.
ive just been reading your post and found it very intresting. my son is 13 weeks old now and we only found out he had reflux at 9 weeks. my doctors havent really told me much about reflux i only know what i do from reading it up on the internet. my son has been put on gaviscon and rinitidne meds. they havent told me how long he may be on it for. we also had to change his milk as they said he could also have a intolerance to it. so far things havent been as bad as what they were. but still bad. sometimes i think im going through it alone. how long have your children been on meds for or is it still on going.

Comment by Michelle on December 7, 2007 at 21:15

You really aren't going through it alone but I know what you mean, it feels very lonely when you are looking after a poorly baby on your own all day and noone around you understands! My son came off his meds at 13 months and fortunately he has been fine ever since. We are still struggling a bit with my daughter who is now 10 weeks. She really turned a corner at the beginning of this week and I felt like we had a normal baby but the past few days she has become bad again. I am putting this down to giving her a few ounces of pepti junior formula in the evening to settle her. I haven't given her any tonight so lets see how she gets on? What formula is your son on? I would give the ranitidine 2 weeks and if no improvement I would go back and see if you can get him on losec mups as sometimes the ranitidine isn't that effective. I have found that everything is trial and error so hang in there it does get easier!

Comment by joanne on December 9, 2007 at 21:08

hi. thanks for writing back hope you are all well. my son is now on sma lf milk,. it does seem to be helping him more when feeding, hes is not struggling as much as before. i have found that he is more sickey though. he have been on the ranitidne since we first found out that he had reflux that was 4 weeks ago. some days he isnt that bad but other days he is screaming all day. what i cant seem to understand is that everyone with a child who has reflux haves bad nights as well as days, but with my son he only seems to suffer through the day and he sleeps all night. can anyone answer thhis. many thanks

Comment by Michelle on December 10, 2007 at 20:33

I read somewhere that some babies who have reflux sleep really well at night cause they are so exhausted from screaming all day?

Comment by Helen on December 13, 2007 at 18:25

Hi Michelle!
I wish this web site was around 2 and a half years ago! My son had ( and still has) reflux. We ended up at A&E when he was 11 days old. We were given Gaviscon (which a Paediatrician later told me that it is ineffective with breastfed babies). We also went private initially out of desperation.He also had a barium to confirm the reflux. He was put on Ranitidine & Domperidone.(This made him worse!) I am interested in your comments about dairy intollerance as we were advised to quit dairy with my son at 15months. By this point he was still sick reguarly, always irritable, he would have approx 15 poohs a day, and we were still sruggling. It made a big difference but things have not been perfect. Very recentely he had an endoscopy & biopsies were taken, it has emerged that he has no Lactase enzyme and is therefore severely lactose intollerant. This is something he will not grow out of. Ironically a lot of medications (incl Domperidone) contain lactose!!
I admire you for having baby no.2, I think we have been scarred for life! I wish you all the best, hang in there! Also....maybe try a dairy free formula? Helen

Comment by Gillian Fordyce on December 13, 2007 at 20:54

Hi Michelle
Thanks for your comments, you are brave having number two after number one having reflux, although you have the experience of seeing it getting better. I think we will stop at two. I hope your daughter is doing well on her meds. Anna is still up and down at the moment, the uncertainty of it all is very hard about what each day will be like, difficult to plan things. I feel a bit stronger in myself and now don't care what people think about my screaming child, they can stare all they like. Saw the consultant at sick kids today who was as much use as a chocolate fireplace, I get the distinct feeling that they can't be bothered as its only heartburn!! I tried to discuss dairy free and she was very conflicting in her advice, I am however going to ignore her comments and continue on the diet anyway. She appeared more concerned that Anna still does not sleep through the night and that she feeds so often on her bad days. Her advice was to give her cool boiled water with a bit of sugar - like that will settle a reflux baby Ha Ha HA !!!! She obvoiusly has no idea that 1 I feed for a bit of peace and sanity and 2 it helps maintain her weight which she actually never even asked about. I despair I think I may go private but in Edinburgh the same consultants who work in the NHS also work in the only private hospital here so I would be paying the same idiots. She did say I could double the losec if I wanted to, I get more and more despondant as time goes on. I just wish one of them would support and side with me. I have to take her back in 3 to 4 months if she is no better, if she is don't bother! Makes you want to go back, and to think I have worked for the NHS for almost twenty years. Oh well we will se what tonight brings, restless or not vomitting or not who knows. Apologies for the down in the dumps blog. Oh the doc did say that as Anna was constipated prior to the domperidone that a dairy intolerance was unlikely as they tend to have diarrhoea - any thoughts?? Ta ta for now Gillian

Comment by Michelle on December 13, 2007 at 22:11

My experience of the NHS was horrendous. We didn't bother with Lauren, but they told me my sons reflux was caused because I fed him too much milk and he was overweight. Well...... don't even get me started on what I thought of him!!

Lauren has never diarrhoea, in fact her stools have always been more towards the firm end of the scale and often pellet like and she DEFINATELY has an intolerance so I wouldn't listen to that. In fact her stools are always all over the place, sometimes quite hard, mostly green, and I have been to the doctors so many times about it that she said as long as she is putting on weight and generally healthy then who cares what colour and consistency they are so I have given up worrying about it now!!!

Comment by Lisa on February 16, 2008 at 17:58

Hi Michelle,

Thanks very much for your message. It's awful that our babies have to go through this but it is a real comfort knowing that I'm not alone.

Joe seems to be taking his meds ok so far although I think I might have to up the dose from 5mg to 10mg a day.

Enjoy your week away Michelle, don't feel guilty, you deserve it.

Take Care
Lisax

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