Is this Reflux?

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone, another newbie here!

I was just wondering if I could get some feedback about my 8 week old DD here – a friend with a refluxy baby suggested that DD could have reflux.

DD is a very slow and fussy feeder (breastfed) who seems to want to feed all the time – sucking fists, anything she can get her mouth at! Her feeds take at least an hour, and for most of them, after a certain amount of time she will start to squirm, pull off and cry (occasionally scream) and arch her back sometimes, but will obviously be still wanting to feed. This happens mostly late in the afternoon and evenings but sometimes in the mornings too. I burp her often during her feeds but I think she still gets quite gassy as I can feel and hear her tummy rumble often. I’m not sure if being gassy really bothers her though as she only cries during feeds. Sometimes after a burp she will cry when she sees my breast but then if I take her off and cuddle her, she will be rooting around for my nipple. She gets the hiccups during nearly every feed. Her poos are mustardy and not foamy, I eat very little dairy as it makes my tummy play up if I have too much. She has dirty nappies at most feeds.

For a while I thought it could be OAL so I would express a little at the start of a feed. This stopped her gulping quite so much but hasn’t helped beyond that. I’ve tried various wind remedies but they haven’t had much effect, nor do different feeding positions. I’ve tried giving a dummy to her but she’s not that keen on it, if she does take it she soon spits it out and wants to feed again.

She’s a great sleeper at night, anywhere from 10-11 pm through to 6 – 7am. During the day she she doesn’t settle quite as well and tends to wake after an hour, and won’t really settle after 5pm until she goes down for the night.

Generally I think she’s a happy baby, it’s just these dramas with feeding and constantly wanting to feed! I just wasn’t sure if it could be reflux as she’s putting on plenty of weight and I don’t think she’s very vomity, she spits up maybe a teaspoon worth at some feeds but otherwise it’s just possetting. She also tends to settle down a little after a bowel movement.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

– Lauren.Vyctryx2008-04-08 00:42:34

[Anonymous]

Up until you said she sleeps all night and doens’t spit up much, I thought you could have been my wife, same exact feeding habits, hiccups, lots of normal poo, gas, OAL, etc, etc..

I won’t be able to help much yet, as I am new to this too. But we got a GERD diagnosis from our dr. recently. I think a few of the main indicators for her was that our baby would not sleep on her back at all, spit up tons even 2 hours after feeding, and the fact that the Mylanta seemed to almost instantly console her most times. I think the Mylanta was soothing her throat of the acid that was refluxing, but it doesn’t work very long. Also, she would have terrible screaming fits of pain every night & almost nothing consoles her.

I have found that she loves to be held on her tummy across my arm w/ my hand sort of pressing up on her tummy, and her head resting on my other arm. She absolutely loves it, especially when there are plenty of bright things to look at. I think the tummy position is most comfortable for her. But I usually have to be walking around and I can’t do that for hours at a time, although I try sometimes.

Definitely try the Mylanta, it is very safe for babies as I learned here first, and then from my dr. If it consoles her quickly that is a good indicator that she has acid refluxing. We’ve tried everything else before trying the drugs but nothing worked & we still have lots of questions of our own.

Almost forgot, our baby is also gaining a lot of weight, about 4 lbs in 4 weeks. this was also an indicator to our Dr. becasue it could be she is “comfort feeding” to try to sooth her tummy.

area1232008-04-08 16:01:23

[hellbennt]

hi & welcome!

I have a LOT to say & (most of) it’s here:

J

Groupie Intro: my intro: https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=853&PN=1&TPN=1

so glad you found us!

~laura

[Anonymous]

My little girl was diagnosed with silent reflux at 8 weeks.

That sounds like my first 8 weeks of breastfeeding – I thought i wasn’t producing enough milk because she never seemed satisfied (i now think she was trying to comfort feed from the pain). She was gaining weight just fine. But she seemed like she was getting frustrated because she violently pulled away from my breast, arched her back, her skin got really clammy and she cried – worse during night feedings (now i think it was because she was sooo worn out and cranky from pain by the end of the day). I thought she was hungry and very gassy (gurgly tummy), but her gas problems never seemed to resolve…? Strong hiccups all the time, but no spitting up, no vomiting. I tried eliminating everything possible from my diet, but it didnt fix anything.

The ped told me about silent reflux. He started us on Prevacid solutabs – dissolved in a tiny bit of water twice daily. She became a new baby in a week or two. By this time, unfortunately, i had given up on breastfeeding because i thought i was doing something wrong and causing her pain 🙁

She is now 15 weeks. She doesnt have problems with poops – so we dont think she has a digestion issue (allergy/sensitivity to dairy), but she definitely has acid reflux problems. I think it is getting worse, and the prevacid isn’t working as well as it was in the beginning. From what i read, reflux normally starts to peak at 4 months or so (about now) – anyways, she recently started coughing alot, spitting up alot and gagging and vomiting from coughing. She is a happy baby right after spitting/gagging/vomiting. We thicken her feeds with oatmeal cereal, and it helps alot. We have to feed her a little bit every 2 hours. She has good days and bad days. She cannot take naps longer than about 30 – 45 minutes – she wakes up startled. BUT she sleeps alllll night long – 10-12 hours. I think she is exhausted from the stress of feeding all day. She sleeps in a fisher-price glider (and i keep a stock of batteries so that it never dies).

She started out like what you described, but then she began the typical reflux symptoms (spitting/vomiting) at about 12 weeks. The Prevacid and thickened feeds make it much more manageable. i hope it doesnt get any worse – i am ready for it to start going away 🙁

I am still learning about reflux. If she continues to get worse we will probably go to a gastro doc. If i were you, i would look more into silent reflux – she sounds like my baby at 8 weeks!

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your advice everyone.

Not long after my original post, my LO suddenly reduced her feeding times to about 1/2 an hour and went about 3 hours between feeds, still fussy sometimes but generally happy to feed. We got into a nice feed-play-sleep routine and everything was going along beautifully, so I decided I must have been doing something wrong before or that it was just a phase.

However, over the last few weeks her feeds have deteriorated again. She takes about 5 mins on one breast and then screams, arches her back and acts as though she is scared of my breast, but she is still obviously hungry and can’t go down for a sleep if she has not had a proper feed. I’m resorting more and more to feeding her when she is sleepy, it’s still not a great feed but I get more into her. She hiccups heaps and gags a lot during feeds, but I think that I have a fairly normal flow and let down.

I took her to the doctor last week but he said there was nothing wrong with her and that it was probably just a phase like a growth spurt (even though this has been going on for a couple of weeks now). He was not my normal doctor as I couldn’t get in at my usual one. I think she’s gaining weight ok, we haven’t been to our health centre for a weigh-in in a while but we go back this week.

I’m not sure what to do, does this sound like silent reflux? It’s all that I can think of to explain her behaviour!

[Anonymous]

For us, the way we found silent reflux was sleeping next to DD at night. She would gulp (it almost sounded like a big drink), then gasp like she couldn’t get air (and sometimes choke). Nothing ever came out. Every baby is different, so it’s probably not always like that, however…

At the time I was nursing, and DD would nurse constantly. She would eat every hour at the max, and for a long time each session. The ped. explained that babies tend to go either way- avoiding eating because they figure out that eating causes reflux, or eating constantly because it calms their sore throat down and is the only time they get relief.

[Author]

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