Reflux or Not?

[Ray]

Greetings.

Great board you have here!

My question is concerning reflux. Im convinced my 3 week old baby girl has some sort of reflux. We brought her to 3 peds, all 3 diagnosed her with colic without actually doing any tests. They manually check her and always end up with blaming colic.

Here is the problem. From birth she has been extremely fussy after feeding. She sometimes ends her feedings with tears :(. At times (after feeding) she cries so much that she stiffins up and arches.

There are feeding that she takes the food with ease, and she also burps well. However, not a day goes buy that she does not have her 3 hour cry fest. Poor baby, 3 hours of crying must be tough on her :(

Also, acording to this tread,

http://www.colichelp.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=797

I've added comments to the Symptoms.

Spitting up frequently: Never

Vomiting: Never

Unexplained crying: 3 hours daily

Poor sleep; frequent waking: Daily only, she wakes once during the night

Fighting during feeding: Every so ofthen

Arching neck or back during feeding: Every so ofthen

Frequent hiccups: Always

Congestion: Not so frequent

Wheezing: Not so frequent(mostly heavy breathing)

Coughing: Not so frequent

Hoarseness: Never

Strange odor on breath: Smells of formula

Poor weight gain: Excellent weight gain

Frequent choking episodes: Not so frequent

Thank you for taking the time to read my post.

Ray

[Ray]

I forgot to mention. The last ped we saw asked us to switch her from Silmlac Adv. to Simlac LF. The lactose free seemed to have helped a little....very little.

thx,
Ray

[honeybunny78]

With Lactose Free formula its is still milk based...Look on the can!

She maybe having trouble burbing. Hope was a horriable burber...it would take her hours to get all her burbs out after eating.

It does not sound to me that shes got reflux...????

Lets she what the other ladies say....

[Ray]

Originally posted by honeybunny78
With Lactose Free formula its is still milk based...Look on the can!

She maybe having trouble burbing. Hope was a horriable burber...it would take her hours to get all her burbs out after eating.

It does not sound to me that shes got reflux...????

Lets she what the other ladies say....

Hi honeybunny78,

The formula she is on now is Simlack LF, it IS milk based..but is lactose free. Our ped put her on Isomil before the LF, she realyyyyy did not take well to the Soy base.

She is VERY hard to burp.

Also the past 2 days he daily intake of food has almost doubled! Is this normal, she is 20 days old.

regards,
Ray

[chele]

IS she burping and swallowing? Just because she doesn't spit up doesn't mean she doesn't have reflux. It could be what is called silent reflux.

And the formula you changed to I am not familliar with but when my dd was changed to the hypo-allergenic, she did the same thing. There just wasn't enough substance to the formula to keep her satisfied. And I will tell you that got really expensive very fast.

Depending on your insurance, if you need a referral demand one from your doctor to take her to a GI specialist. I was lucky I have a PPo so I just went a head and called one on our list and was able to get it diagnosised. (That though was after 4 1/2 months - no mother of the year or anything.) But your daughter sounds similar to what we went through except for the only one waking at night.

good luck!

[honeybunny78]

Hiya Ray,
I have not heard of that formula either.....

Also remember that your baby's digestive system is not used too anything.....
So, anything you give your baby is new....you need to give it a few weeks.
And that maybe hard....
Try some gas relief drops...those may help.

[leydensmom]

hi. Your daughter sounds like my son. He is on lactose free right now and still fights his feedings and gets real stiff and screams uncontrollably. I am taking him to a GI dr for more tests. My ped doesn't seem helpful - tells me all babies cry.

[chele]

makes you want to video tape it and make him sit and watch it and see how long he would last with it huh? Keep on your doctors. YOu are doing the right thing. Good luck

[supermum?]

if you are still unsure you could try a few things to work it out yourself. sometimes thats easier than waiting for the doctors who dont really seem to care that your baby is unsettled. with reflux, the formula will burn at their throat and cause them to be uncomfortable. you can thicken it with rice cereal and you should notice a slight improvement depending of course on how bad your baby is. if your baby cries for hours but still sleeps well thats a good start. in terms of the colic, i meet so many people now whose babies find it hard to digest milk and it gives them stomach pains - but the doctors dont really talk to you about that. try the Levsin drops which do seem to help and i gave my baby warm camomile or peppermint tea. dip a tea bag in the bottle. you can make it up and keep it in the fridge for a few hours. it really helped with the spasms in my little guy's stomach. either way, hopefully it will all disappear by about the 20 week mark. if it doesnt despite everything you do, keep asking the doctors. i have also read an article recently that talked about colic being the result of overstimulation. whether you believe that or not the things they suggest seem to help. stick to a routine particularly at bed time. keep the room dark before bed and last feed and wrap the baby - compfort. and white noise is fantastic - my 16 months old still has it on every night. you might want to give these a try also.

[leydensmom]

Hey. I just switched my son to the Nutramigen formula from Lactose free. he eats it good, but so far no improvement of his symptoms. They say that formula is supposed to be great for colic/reflux babies. Hope your daughter is doing better.