Forum home Babies Breast & bottle feeding

Reflux/Colic

hi everyone, new here but desperate for advice! My son is 1 month old on Tuesday and has been bottle feeding for the past 2 weeks. He has had problems since. He is extremely irritable, I’m sure my Son doesn’t have anytime while awake not crying, he cries ALL the time and I try EVERYTHING with no success. I have been to the hospital and doctors and they are so very unhelpful, they just tell me he has colic and basically I have to deal with it. I am almost certain, and the hospital also said, he has reflux (silent) as he rarely spits up but it is getting far worse and he is becoming more and more irritable, coughing after feeds and in between and starting to refuse feeds, scream, want them, take them and scream again. He has had Carobel from the hospital as they didn’t want to give Gaviscon due to chance of constipation, but it did absolutely nothing for him. He is now simply on infacol but has trouble pooing, which causes him distress, but is very runny. 

I guess i am I am desperately looking for advice on what to do, as it is increasingly hard with a baby that cries all day and won’t sleep or settle due to milk coming back up. I feel like I’m missing something and not giving him what he needs? HE IS SUCH A HUNGRY BABY! I feed him, change his nappy, cuddle him, sing to him, wind him, put him in swinger, walk round house, car - I am lost! 

Health visitor has done a referral to dietician however who knows how long this will take! Dad is lactose intolerant. 

Also, how much does your baby eat, or did eat at 1 month? Mine wants food every 1.5/2 hours! 
 
Please help!

Replies

  • Omg im so glad im not alone! My little girl is 3.5months now but since day 1 of being born her milk wasnt staying down and they just said it was spitting up and normal then got 1 week and she kept having milk come out through her nose and she couldnt breath so had to keep trying to get her to take a breath which was horrible especially at night i could never sleep knowing the milk was gonna come up through her nose! So at 2 weeks i put my foot down and said this isnt normal she cant breath when it happens what am i ment to do if i cant get her to breath again, they still kept saying its normal but will put her on gaviscon which has worked amazing! It did make her constipated but not for long take it her body just got use to it, but id so rather constipation than reflux, we also did alot of massaging the belly everyday got videos off youtube and that really helped her yo poo. At about 3 weeks old she would get so gassy and seem in so much pain everyday thats when we reliesed she also is colicky and got told theres nothing they can do and even got questioned how do i know shes in pain wasnt happy! So we started using infacol in with her feeds and tbh not sure if it makes a difference so just keep doing massages to help get all the gas out. Then at about 1.5months she started to seem in pain while feeding and screamed every time she would have a sip doctors wouldnt do anything but i then saw a health vistor and she said that’s definitely silent reflux so went back to the doctors and they put her on ranitidine which kind of helps but not 100%. Im quite lucky and even though all shes been through shes a happy baby and just has her moments and off days. But still to this day now 3.5months old we have still got all the issues! Luckily the reflux through the nose is hardly ever can just sometimes happen if she has a poo while feeding but the pain when shes feeding is still bad! And theyve told me theres nothing else they can do i just gotta wait it out for her to grow! 

    We have a reflux tilt cot for her thsts been so helpful and keeps her milk down at nights. We keep her sat up for 30mins after feeds to let the milk go down but other than that theres not much that satisfies them its so hard!

    at 1month i think my little one was feeding every 4 hours but thats cause she was on gaviscon she was limit to how many feeds a day she could have and im pretty sure she was on about 3/4 ounces per feed. 

    Honestly it does get easier it feels like it takes forever! And its so horrible seeing ur baby like it and doctors just seem to palm u off! Hang on in there!! 

    Xxx
  • Wow we were exactly where you are when our son was that age. Tried everything but nothing seemed to work. The only thing we found made a difference was lactose free formula. 
    Our son would not lie down to sleep for any more than 30 minutes before he would start squirming and clearing his throat. Gaviscon constipated him and they wouldn't give us ranitidine either. The anti reflux milk constipated him as well and we found the constipation bothered him more than the reflux. 
    My son is now 19 weeks and thankfully seems to be so much better, I would say round about the 12 week mark things settled down. He was a very hungry baby and it shows as he is measuring 91st centile for growth! Now he feeds usually 3-4 hourly but doesn't really cry for feeds.
    Hang in there, it will get better! X
  • Jdoo said:
    Wow we were exactly where you are when our son was that age. Tried everything but nothing seemed to work. The only thing we found made a difference was lactose free formula. 
    Our son would not lie down to sleep for any more than 30 minutes before he would start squirming and clearing his throat. Gaviscon constipated him and they wouldn't give us ranitidine either. The anti reflux milk constipated him as well and we found the constipation bothered him more than the reflux. 
    My son is now 19 weeks and thankfully seems to be so much better, I would say round about the 12 week mark things settled down. He was a very hungry baby and it shows as he is measuring 91st centile for growth! Now he feeds usually 3-4 hourly but doesn't really cry for feeds.
    Hang in there, it will get better! X
    What Lactose Free Formula did you use? The dietician has prescribed me some but I’m wary of it as I’m not sure if my son will like the taste!
  • Oh hun, this is the worst when baby has reflux and colic. Our 2 year old also had this when he was born, I just knew something was not right, just like the symptoms you described. I went to GP who made me feel like a neurotic first time mum but taking pictures in of his bright green poop helped I think! Sorry if photo is a bit graphic but that’s how green it was, like neon fluorescent colour! 



    They gave us gaviscon to begin with, which is a right faff when your breastfeeding. It worked for a while but then got worse and worse so I asked for ranitidine. Which helped sooooo much. I felt bad such a young baby being on such strong medication but he was poorly and needed help bless his heart. You have to weigh them regularly with ranitidine as the dosage is based on their weight.

    Tilting the cot helped- we used to wedge towels under his mattress at the head but wouldn’t recommend that. Best to get a proper tilting cot. And make sure it’s no more than 5cm raised from his feet as that can be dangerous too.

    We also made sure he stayed upright 20 mins after a feed and burped him REALLY well, hard work but best to help relieve the pain. 

    Our boy boy was also feeding every 2 hours and each feed was taking like 45 mins to an hour so I felt like he was constantly attached to me. But feeding on demand is like that, and breast milk digests quickly I guess. 

    I tried cutting out our dairy from my diet, in case it was going through the breast milk but it didn’t seem to help so I don’t think it was allergies. 

    To to be honest, the only thing that truly helped was weaning. As soon as they’re on solids it’s a different story. We tried giving him a little at 4 months, but he wasn’t ready for it, so tried again at 5 months and that was it- No crying, no spitting up, he settled really well to nap and sleep. I know the government guideline is 6 months to introduce solids but for reflux babies I would say start as soon as you can. I promise you, it does get better, it’s just a hellish few months to deal with. 
  • It was aptamil lactose free we were prescribed. He was on cow and gate formula before it but after a few days he was used to it. Started on solids a few days ago, and he has actually slept through the night for the first time tonight!!!! 
  • My baby is 5 weeks old now and same symptoms it’s soul destroying I don’t know what to do 😭
  • edited Jan 12, 2022 10:39AM

    If you don't trust your doctor, try to switch, listen to different opinion, it's possible that your doctor may be right now. Also, I didn't quite understand why your baby is hungry if you feed him every 1.5-2 hours? You are just overfeeding him. When my baby had colic, I bought him some drugs from www.mcdaidpharmacy.ie, they gave relief. But if your baby has reflux - then you only need a doctor, cause it`s not a simple problem and just follow all the advice that you are given here can be erroneous. Anyway, doctors know a lot more than people without a medical background on the forum.


Sign In or Register to comment.

Featured Discussions