my little reflux baby

Comment by harriet scott on January 16, 2012 at 16:20

hi, my baby is nearly 6 months and was diagnosed with reflux at arond 3 months.  it all started with the screaming and the vommiting in the evenings, i went to my health visitor who said that it was normal and all babies do it, summer is my first child and so i wasnt really qualified to say if i thought she was wrong, i knew from my instinct though that this wasnt normal.  eventually the symptoms persisted and got worse and she was sreaming from around 5 am til around 11pm the next night, i went to the health visitor a further 2 more time and was given the answer of " i really dont know".  summer was getting worse everyday, screaming in agony, being sick, hicupping, dark green poo, she was refusing her bottles, and it would take 2-3 hours for her to drink half a 7 ounce bottle so we took her to AnE and we were lucky enough to see a gastroenteroligist who diagnosed her with acid reflux and cows milk protein allergy.  I must say though that the doctors we saw before the specialist didnt seem to know what was wrong with her and wanted to admit her for 24 hour observation.  The gastroenteroligist prescribed aptamil pepti 1, gaviscon  infant and omeprazole, she has been on these ever since and has improved a great deal, however she is still sick and does have times where the screaming starts but its easier to cope with now we know what it is and it isnt any where near as often.  We have seen a dietician who changed her milk once to neocate but that made her alot worse and it really smelled like bleach so we put her back on the aptamil.  we have since sen the specialist again and are due to go back to both in february.  both have said that she will grow out of it by age 2 at the latest but in the meen time its a day by day struggle, just when you think your getting there something happens like she cathes a cold so the symptoms are 100 times worse (no exageration) or like now we are trying to wean her and so we have to avoid all dairy products...thats the easy part but even simple things like carrot and pear have proves to make the reflux worse, its only been a week of weaning but its like going back to the start, in a way it seems to get harder and harder and its so hard to try and stay strong, any bedtime routine has gone out of the window so its from the minute we wake up til we all go to bed we are battling with reflux.  and its also like people dont understand it, or understand just how hard it is, even grandparents and friends so im very glad to have found this website.

Comment by Flic Cooper on January 17, 2012 at 11:31

Its so so hard and noone seems to understand you really have to be parents that have dealt with reflux baby to fully understand how hard it is and to complete understand and sympathise with others dealing with it.  It seems that anything i could have classed as "me time" is completely non-existant, im including showers and going to the loo! i cant put my little one down at all only at night otherwise she is pretty much guaranteed to be sick or struggle its so horrible.  My little one is now on Neocate milk (along with omperazole half a tablet (5mg) once a day and domperidone 1.5ml 3x a day) and we are under a dietician at the hospital, she is trying her out on this milk for a week to see how she goes then have to take her back after that  to be checked, im strating to think my baby could have motility issues as she frequently will throw up old stuff for example i gave her an omeprazole tablet at 6am in the morning and at 5pm in the afternoon she threw it up! a lot of purple coloured beads (bit like poppy seeds) i mean surely that cant be normal? she also doesnt pooh for 2 days sometimes 3 days and when she does it is always green since being on neocate its darker green and there is not really that much of it considering its 2 days worth! anyone have any advice on why this is? or experienced motility issues with their bubs?

Comment by harriet scott on January 18, 2012 at 16:10

ye i completely understand about the poppy seeds in the sick, its not that often anymore but at first she was throwing up a few hours after i gave her the omeprazole tablet and that was in her sick.  we found the neocate really made things worse, summer is on 10mg of omeprazole once a day and gaviscon with every aptamil bottle, iv decided to stop weaning her until i see the dietician next which is early feb because this last week its like shes getting worse and the only thing ive changed is introducing solids, she isnt even really drinking her bottles at the moment, today she has had one bottle that she had a 6 am, it took her til 10:30 to drink it and since then she just crys asif shes hungry but then refuses the bottle, i really dont now what to do, its always one step forward 5 steps back and evry decsion seems to be the wrong one, i really thought that once we started to wean her things woukld get better cause thats what everyone said and its just made er worse. and you're right no one understands unless you have witnessed it first hand.  I really hope your baby gets through it soon, its horrible to watch your child in pain.

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