8 month old silent reflux baby

[rapberrylatte]

@dayssola Ok fair enough!! My first would feed and go to sleep most nights and unlatch, but some nights would stay latched all night for comfort. So on those nights I would just sleep while she was latched and then switch maybe every 3/4 hours. Not that it’s exactly easy to sleep while they’re latched. Those weren’t the best nights, but there were only ever a few of them.

 

[bac]

@christfollower19 Any tips or advice our 8 month old baby has silent reflux that just flared up again out of nowhere I’m assuming from solids. He is ebf with a few purées. Any tips he is ok during day but so reflux’y at night and terrible sleep despite previously being sleep trained. He’s our 3rd and by far this reflux is the worst!

 

[christfollower19]

@bac The prevacid took a long time to kick in but helped so much. The purees in pouches often have citric acid so I took her off most of those. Eventually we had to do ferber bc I couldn't take the sleeplessness anymore. Took 2 days and was the best decision of my life. We have to re feberize her every once and a while. She's 14 months now and doing great! It gets better!

 

[debsie22]

@christfollower19 The dosage might need to be adjusted, this was very similar with our silent reflux baby - 2 weeks she did well on it then it seemed to get worse, we had to go back to the pediatrician a couple of times each time to increase the dose. Most recently again at 7.5 months because she’d gained considerable weight compared to three months ago.

Also 50% of reflux cases are due to CMPA/soy allergy, try cutting all forms of dairy and see if she improves at all. Usually after 4 days it should get considerably better, and very clearly better by 2 weeks.

What were her poops like before she started solids?

A lot of solidarity here, our baby is exactly like yours sleep wise. Independent naps are impossible, she wakes up after 10-20 minutes and most of the time wailing too.

we’re currently in the hospital and she’s had a massive flare up of her reflux symptoms, kept arching her back like crazy and I could not get her to sleep except on me/in my arms after she’d exhausted herself from crying again. It feels like we are back at square one.

 

[kickep]

@debsie22 Going through the same right now…we were at the ER yesterday and they did nothing to help but tell us to keep taking prevacid. I’m also on a very restrictive elimination diet and I’m not sure it’s helping… i’m losing hope

 

[christfollower19]

@debsie22 We are on the solutab so I don't know that dosage is an issue. She struggled to poop but when she did it was normal and she was hydrated but she would go 6+ days. Now they are too firm so we are giving her water (appropriate doses) and making sure she's getting milk.

Poor baby - we went to the er/urgent care in hopes to be seen because she would wake up screaming in the worst pain we'd heard from her but it was 6+ hours to be seen so we're winging it.

 

[christfollower19]

@debsie22 Okay so, with the CMPA I thought they had to have loose / bloody stool? I have suspected for a long time but did some research and saw that most things don't pass through breastmilk - like when people say don't eat garlic, etc. I think I'll try it for a few days and see.

 

[debsie22]

@christfollower19 So this is a bit of a controversy. All of the scientific articles out there say nothing passes through breast milk, except for cow milk’s protein and soy protein (because soy protein is similarly structured to cow’s milk protein).

However if you ask midwives about it, they will tell you that despite the science, moms report something else; their babies get noticeably upset after mom eating x or y.

There’s a breastfeeding with CMPA group on Facebook and the admins there advocate for a full allergen elimination diet, because apparently it’s every type of protein that babies can react to? Which isn’t completely nonsensical, cow’s milk isn’t just made of one protein, it’s whey and casein and maybe others. We stopped after milk and soy but baby kept having symptoms so clearly there was some other allergen still present.

 

[debsie22]

@christfollower19 As for the symptoms of CMPA, it’s not just loose/bloody stool, the blood can be microscopic so not visible with the naked eye, unless tested. Mucus in the poop is another one, green poop also points to an allergy.

Then non-poop related symptoms: cough, congestion, hiccups, belly aches, rumbling guts, rashes, asthma like symptoms, regurgitation and vomiting, constant fussiness, irritability, refusal to drink/eat, and silent reflux.

Our baby had almost all of those listed and as soon as I stopped eating milk products, the difference was clear as night and day.

Edit: she was also always clenching her fists and kicking her feet. Lots and lots of discomfort!

 

[debsie22]

@christfollower19 Yikes, that’s tough - I still have trauma from her first 16 weeks of life. She cried all the time. Behind on so many milestones…

There are two types of allergies, called IgE and non-IgE mediated response. Only the former shows up in bloodwork, but that doesn’t exclude that someone might have both.

The pediatrician told us she could test her, but the results wouldn’t necessarily mean anything. And it’s so hard getting blood from a baby (tiny veins) and she’d been poked so much already so we never bothered.

Instead we went with an elimination diet, I cut all dairy out - had a few false starts, milk. is. in. everything!! Sometimes it’s only labelled as “whey protein”. Have to be really diligent about label reading, and eating out is a no-go.

If you don’t see any improvements within two weeks it’s likely not that. Expect 4 weeks for the milk protein to be fully out of her system, and also a setback around 3-4 weeks where they suddenly get worse (this happened to us and is common apparently).

After 8 weeks you are encouraged to do a test to see if there is a reaction, so either overload yourself on dairy or give them formula, and see what happens in the next 4 days.

We waited much longer, almost 4 months, because things were finally better for her and she started smiling and enjoying life. Recently did the milk ladder and things have gotten progressively worse, it’s almost like at the beginning again. So we’re trying to get her used to the special amino acid formula because I’m exhausted from pumping around the clock and being so strict with what I can eat, food other people make and labels. I was primarily plant based and also had to cut soy which is in everything vegan so that left no options except beans essentially.

She still had mucus poops on the no milk no soy diet but that was her only complaint and going down the list of allergens would be too restrictive for what I could deal with.

Sorry this turned out to be such a novel! Hope it can help you, and that you are able to soothe your baby soon. It’s so tough on them. I worried for a long time how the prolonged crying is scarring her/impeding her development… she had awful sleep too, waking up gassy and in tears from pain, every stool was so painful too. I’m grateful she won’t remember this (but I know I will).

The TLDR is probably - best discuss with pediatrician since they can prescribe special formula which may be covered by insurance (unsure about the US, but here it’s 55€/400g (~14oz) without a prescription). But if you stop consuming milk, the results are pretty immediate. Night and day difference it was, I tell you!

Good luck