Silent Reflux

[LG_Birmingham]

Hi my son, currently 15 weeks old has silent reflux. It's proving very hard to manage. He had gaviscon which did help but couldnt be given at every feed and made him very constipated. Then he had Lansoprasole which cut down the crying but he started waking every hour or so in the night again. Now the doctor wamted us to finish the course and see what happened and we're back to screaming every feed. We're exhausted. Does anybody have any advice for us?

[Lwreflux Partner]

Hi silent reflux is very difficult. Is your little one still taking Lansoprasole? I wonder did your doctor talk to you about the possibility of cows milk intolerance? It is very often linked in the first year or of life. It might be worth asking about it. If you are breastfeeding you can try going dairy free (only under doctor supervision) or if bottle feeding sometimes they try a Formular milk like ‚neocate‘ it is prescription only.

Also if stopping medication it needs to be done slowly and reflux will get worse for a few days, until the stomach learns again to produce normal levels of acid in the stomach alone.

I hope this helps and welcome to our new group.

Tracey

[LWRgem Administrator]

Hi, I can totally sympathise with the good forward as backwards your describing.

It a tough slog, but it will get better!

My top advice would be keep a diary. As detailed as possible.

Sleep, crying, feeding, Medicine, even bowel Movements.

When you return to the doctor after the period of time you Have a great piece of information that can show patterns between behaviours. It shaves off soooo much time!

Also- lots of video too.

As for the current situation- no harm at all letting the doctor know what’s happening. Some meds do cause sleep issues.

Good luck x

[LwRmum Partner]

Hi, wanted to send a big virtual hug to you as I’ve been there and it’s so tough but you’re not alone ♥️ I used cow & gate carobel which is available over the counter in most pharmacies and I think you can still get it on Amazon. It’s a milk thickener which I found was a lot more useful than gaviscon xx

[london_reflux_mum]

Hi, you are definitely not alone! We didn’t get along with Gaviscon either and I would definitely recommend going dairy and soya free for a couple of weeks to see if that helps - lots of babies are sensitive digesting to dairy but they do grow out of it! Also I agree to try to keep a diary of symptoms, which I know is so tough when you’re exhausted but there are great free apps that you can use that make it much easier.

Are you still on lansoprazole? If it’s impacting the nights, could you try splitting the dose to half in the morning and half before bed?

Also my little one started teething around 15/16 weeks and that massively impacted his reflux so there could be other things going on as well! Sending lots of hugs x

[LG_Birmingham]

Just wanted to let you all know that it seems to have passed. He's nearly 6 months old now. I don't want to jinx it but it's been a few weeks since screaming at the breast or hearing the milk chugh back up has happened!