Silent reflux is not silent!
To look at Theo now it's hard to remember the day's where i would sit and cry absolutely shattered, drained with a screaming baby in my arms, feeling robbed of those precious happy first few months.
Everyone telling me it's colic, he's got wind, but i just knew it was something else.
I didn't leave hospital until Theo was 12 day's old due to my blood pressure being too high, but while i was there he was the perfect baby. He was content and feed every 3 hours, everyone commented how good he was, thinking back there was a few signs of silent reflux that i didn't realise at the time, like we had 2 or 3 episodes of projectile vomiting but i just thought he had too much milk too quick and he had hiccups quite alot more than i remember with my other two.
When we were in hospital he would sometimes have like a tremor which could sometimes be caused by low blood sugar, which they then tested him for but turned out he was fine.
When i came home he was doing in more & more, especially during the night when he was in his crib, when i asked the health visitor she told me it was the startle reflex but he started screaming after doing it so i thought it couldn't be that. Later i found out it was the acid coming up the oesophagus and burning.
By about 4/5 weeks he was horrendous, he'd scream most of the day & night, the child just didn't sleep!
If we put him in his crib he would just scream wailing his arms and leg's around, the only time he would get a bit of sleep was upright on my shoulder but i could of never slept with him like that, my anxiety was already through the roof!
He would seem to want a bottle but after a few sucks stop and scream and would do that for the whole bottle.
He was also a nightmare to wind, you could be there winding for 1/2 hour or more till he got some up.
Enough was enough, i had to go back and see the doctor who told me it was colic and to buy some colief to mix with his milk, i had already tried infacol & dentinox but they just made him really sickly but he said that colief was amazing and many babies had found relief with it. I went and bought some and mixed it with his milk the way it said to. Within 10 minutes of me winding him he had projectile vomited the whole bottle back up!
The next day after an especially difficult night i went back to the GP and told him what had happened, he then said it sounded like reflux as medicine to treat wind and colic has that affect on reflux babies, so he prescribed him infant gaviscon which you mix with his milk up to 6 bottles a day.
By this point he was only going 1 1/2 to 2 hours and only drinking half the amount of milk he used to so i was mixing a sachet with every other bottle. It didn't make any difference but i thought i would persevere and see if it would gradually get better. I was constantly googling looking for remedies and found on a forum another mum saying to keep baby upright for an hour after each feed which did help a bit.
By the time Theo was 12 weeks thing's had only improved slightly, i had also seen the formula for babies with reflux so tried that but it was so thick i wasn't able to mix the gaviscon with it and he got really constipated on it so had to stop using it. Then someone told me about the comfort milk which i was able to mix the gaviscon with, that helped with the constipation but not the screaming in pain.
Everytime i would take him out in the carrycot part of the pram i ended up taking him out and carrying him because he wouldn't stop crying when laying flat. I had an appointment with my GP about my blood pressure and she asked me how Theo was doing so i told her about all the problems we were having, she said it sounded like silent reflux and gave me a prescription for ranitidine, i had never heard of silent reflux so when i got home i googled it and all the signs and symptoms were exactly what we had with Theo!
I stopped using the gaviscon and started him on the ranitidine 3 times a day and we seen a big difference with him straight away! I also found a group on facebook called "silent reflux, reflux, CMPA & intolerances in babies" which was a big help, i had lot's of tip's from there, they said to get the clevamama reflux wedge for his cot which is a little foam wedge which has a velcro strap which he sleeps on but the strap stops him from rolling off, it's been brilliant! They also recommended using the gaviscon with the ranitidine which i didn't realise you could do but they both have constipation as side effects and we did come across that problem but i just switched his milk to the comfort and he was fine! With all these combined he has been a different baby, i know there are babies who suffer alot worse and this wouldn't work for them but it worked perfectly for us, we did have the odd flare up's with illness and bouts of teething but we have managed to control it.
Now he's on solid's he's completely off the medicines and the happiest baby i've ever seen, so if your going through the same thing there is light at the end and you will get through it! But definitely have a look at that facebook group because it was great for advice and my own sanity talking to other mums going through the exact same thing.
Everyone telling me it's colic, he's got wind, but i just knew it was something else.
I didn't leave hospital until Theo was 12 day's old due to my blood pressure being too high, but while i was there he was the perfect baby. He was content and feed every 3 hours, everyone commented how good he was, thinking back there was a few signs of silent reflux that i didn't realise at the time, like we had 2 or 3 episodes of projectile vomiting but i just thought he had too much milk too quick and he had hiccups quite alot more than i remember with my other two.
When we were in hospital he would sometimes have like a tremor which could sometimes be caused by low blood sugar, which they then tested him for but turned out he was fine.
When i came home he was doing in more & more, especially during the night when he was in his crib, when i asked the health visitor she told me it was the startle reflex but he started screaming after doing it so i thought it couldn't be that. Later i found out it was the acid coming up the oesophagus and burning.
By about 4/5 weeks he was horrendous, he'd scream most of the day & night, the child just didn't sleep!
If we put him in his crib he would just scream wailing his arms and leg's around, the only time he would get a bit of sleep was upright on my shoulder but i could of never slept with him like that, my anxiety was already through the roof!
He would seem to want a bottle but after a few sucks stop and scream and would do that for the whole bottle.
He was also a nightmare to wind, you could be there winding for 1/2 hour or more till he got some up.
Enough was enough, i had to go back and see the doctor who told me it was colic and to buy some colief to mix with his milk, i had already tried infacol & dentinox but they just made him really sickly but he said that colief was amazing and many babies had found relief with it. I went and bought some and mixed it with his milk the way it said to. Within 10 minutes of me winding him he had projectile vomited the whole bottle back up!
The next day after an especially difficult night i went back to the GP and told him what had happened, he then said it sounded like reflux as medicine to treat wind and colic has that affect on reflux babies, so he prescribed him infant gaviscon which you mix with his milk up to 6 bottles a day.
By this point he was only going 1 1/2 to 2 hours and only drinking half the amount of milk he used to so i was mixing a sachet with every other bottle. It didn't make any difference but i thought i would persevere and see if it would gradually get better. I was constantly googling looking for remedies and found on a forum another mum saying to keep baby upright for an hour after each feed which did help a bit.
By the time Theo was 12 weeks thing's had only improved slightly, i had also seen the formula for babies with reflux so tried that but it was so thick i wasn't able to mix the gaviscon with it and he got really constipated on it so had to stop using it. Then someone told me about the comfort milk which i was able to mix the gaviscon with, that helped with the constipation but not the screaming in pain.
Everytime i would take him out in the carrycot part of the pram i ended up taking him out and carrying him because he wouldn't stop crying when laying flat. I had an appointment with my GP about my blood pressure and she asked me how Theo was doing so i told her about all the problems we were having, she said it sounded like silent reflux and gave me a prescription for ranitidine, i had never heard of silent reflux so when i got home i googled it and all the signs and symptoms were exactly what we had with Theo!
I stopped using the gaviscon and started him on the ranitidine 3 times a day and we seen a big difference with him straight away! I also found a group on facebook called "silent reflux, reflux, CMPA & intolerances in babies" which was a big help, i had lot's of tip's from there, they said to get the clevamama reflux wedge for his cot which is a little foam wedge which has a velcro strap which he sleeps on but the strap stops him from rolling off, it's been brilliant! They also recommended using the gaviscon with the ranitidine which i didn't realise you could do but they both have constipation as side effects and we did come across that problem but i just switched his milk to the comfort and he was fine! With all these combined he has been a different baby, i know there are babies who suffer alot worse and this wouldn't work for them but it worked perfectly for us, we did have the odd flare up's with illness and bouts of teething but we have managed to control it.
Now he's on solid's he's completely off the medicines and the happiest baby i've ever seen, so if your going through the same thing there is light at the end and you will get through it! But definitely have a look at that facebook group because it was great for advice and my own sanity talking to other mums going through the exact same thing.
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