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Infant feeding

Reflux or maybe not..... Going insane!

12 replies

Jood22 · 12/09/2013 20:09

Hi all, this is my first time going onto mums net, just really feel I need a big of help.
For a quick background, my daughter is almost 17 weeks old. When first born she wouldn't latch to boob so after a few hours (I tried for days with 1st daughter to no success) I changed to bottle, more for my own sanity as I was in a dark place when bf didn't work out with my first girl.
Anyway, she thrived on bottle for the first 4-5 weeks. Then sporadically she would vomit up whole bottles and scream her lungs out when she would see bottle coming. Went to doc, and he reckoned it was probably reflux so we started gaviscon infant, with varying degrees of success. I took her to a craniosacral therapist twice. She said that her whole skull, jaw and general face was very tight and worked on loosening the joints. I think it made a great difference, but in the last 4 days it had been a nightmare. She screams the second bottle touches her lips, if we lean her forward with our hands on her tummy she is very calm, the second we try to sit her back/lie her back she freaks out. She will rest on my shoulder no problem, very calm (I'm walking around lopsided now!)
The other thing that really makes me think it us not reflux is the fact that she will take a dream feed no problem. So I usually have to wait for her to exhaust herself to get a bottle into her.
She us gaining weight, but it's extremely stressful and can take up to 2 1/2 hours sometimes to get something into her. Very difficult on my almost 4 year old as she is virtually ignored.
Sorry for going on but I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced this???

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CrazyOldCatLady · 12/09/2013 21:09

It could very well be reflux. Gaviscon often isn't sufficient to treat it, she may need medication as well. You need an urgent referral to a paediatrician.

DS was like that with feeds, we basically had to force-feed him for the first 8 months. He would take a dream feed happily though, I'm not sure why!

One thing we were told in the hospital (he was in the SCBU for a month) was that you shouldn't let a feed last longer than 20 minutes, no matter how little they take, as it just stresses them out.

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minipie · 12/09/2013 21:13

I agree it does sound like reflux. Including the fact she will dream feed - it's common for refluxy babies to feed better when sleepy. Ask for ranitidine, much more effective than gaviscon. GPs can prescribe ranitidine so doesn't necessarily need paed referral.

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stargirl1701 · 12/09/2013 21:17

Sounds like reflux and silent reflux. You need meds. Ranitidine, Domperidone, Omeprazole, etc. Video a feed on your phone to show the GP.

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mawbroon · 12/09/2013 21:55

Another possibility is tongue tie.

Ties can also cause the tightness that your craniaosacral therapist has described. If ties remain, the tightness will not be resolved.

Where are you based?

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minipie · 12/09/2013 22:03

yes and a tie can also cause LO to bring up stomach contents (like with reflux) because if all the air they are swallowing. worth getting checked for TT too if you can find someone who is qualified.

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Jood22 · 12/09/2013 22:43

Thank you all for quick responses. Cranio did say she had tongue tie alright, maybe I need to look into getting that cut.
I live in Ireland,and not a lot of docs do tt, don't know why.

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Iwaswatchingthat · 12/09/2013 22:47

Sounds like reflux to me. Dd1 screamed her way and arched her back for nearly five months.

She woud always take a dream feed, but often threw it up. Her hunger outweighed her fear of the pain.

She lost weight too.

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Iwaswatchingthat · 12/09/2013 22:47

Whoops meant dd2 not dd1

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mawbroon · 12/09/2013 23:00

It is probably worth asking to join the tongue tie babies support thread on facebook. I am sure I read on there ages ago that there was a dentist in Ireland somewhere who was doing laser and had trained with Dr Kotlow, but I might be wrong.

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Poppet45 · 13/09/2013 08:48

I'd def say reflux. She appears to be getting an oral aversion possibly she has an intolerance to cows milk protein which is thought to cause at least half of reflux cases. Theres a variant of the MTHFR gene which causes midline defects like tts and lts and chemical sensitivities to food in the form of eczema and intolerances. So Tt is linked to reflux rather than causing it.

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mawbroon · 13/09/2013 15:00

No, reflux can also be caused by aerophagia as a result of ties. This is different to there being a weak sphincter, and can be greatly reduced or stopped by revising ties.

Article here by Dr Kotlow who is a leading expert

I know one case does not prove anything, but as an anecdote, ds1's reflux completely disappeared after his tongue tie was revised. It was purely mechanical in his case.

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minipie · 13/09/2013 15:07

likewise mawbroon

it was all the air that dd was swallowing due to her TT which was causing her to bring up milk and acid.

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