Reflux- Coughs and Cries
When you are pregnant and you get reflux and drink Gaviscon like its going out of fashion you never imagine that when your baby is born they will have it too. I have never heard of reflux in babies as it’s not something that’s heard of for people that aren’t in parenting circles.
8th May and a beautiful sunny day and my gorgeous baby was here a chunky ball of fat! I fed her and she seemed like any normal baby- happy and healthy. It wasn’t until 48 hours after she was born that I started to notice something wasn’t quite right but I couldn’t put my finger on it. Every bottle Erin had she threw 50% back up all over me or the floor and I was getting through bibs like they were going out of fashion!!
This ended up in her being put onto Cow and Gate Comfort milk as on the night she cried solidly for 4 hours and was pulling her legs up to her tummy- this seemed to help but wasn’t curing the never ending mass of sick!!
A few weeks went by and I ended up taking her to the doctors to see why my baby constantly threw up bottles and sometimes the whole thing would come back out minutes after I had given it her. They diagnosed her with silent reflux and were sent away with baby Gaviscon which quite frankly is the biggest ball ache ever- a powder that you have to mix with water in a bottle prior to including the milk! But we tried and it and nothing changed.
On our next trip to the doctors I was offered baby milk to lactose intolerant babies as they seemed to now be unsure of the original diagnosis- needless to say what a fail! She was sicker than she was on the comfort milk- we quickly gave this idea up! I was given other medicines that would supposedly help but nothing seemed to work!
I was sad for my baby girl who didn’t seem to get any let up but wasn’t constantly crying so I let it go whilst I searched for an answer.
After several hours googling I found ‘Cranial Osteopath’s’ were a positive answer for a lot of mums so I went for it and booked an appointment. Erin was also suffering with Colic at this point so I didn’t have anything to lose!!
£40 later and coming out of what as I can explain as someone’s house turned into an osteopath’s. All they seemed to do was hold her head… I didn’t believe this would do anything!!! My god I was wrong!!! Her colic has subsided to a 5 minute cry rather than 3 hours and she was not being sick half as much as before! What they did is a mystery but after two sessions her reflux had gone!!
At the age of one and a half Erin appeared to have a very odd little grunt that occurred after dinner and she would arch her back and not look too happy- this went on for weeks and sometimes she would get so agitated she would cry. At this point I had forgotten all about her earlier reflux problems and it never crossed my mind it would be back- Neither did the doctors!!! For weeks we tried to fathom what the matter with her was as she wouldn’t only do the noise and movements occasionally and I ended up videoing it on my phone for the doctors! We were sent to a child’s clinic in the hospital and they diagnosed her again with silent reflux and gave her Domperidone and Omeprazole in child doses. This worked excellently.
Again when she was about 3 I had stopped giving her the medicines and forgot all about it. Erin started being sick all the time convinced she had picked up masses of bugs she seemed forever poorly and with a never ending cough! Several doctor appointments and ‘she has a virus’ was beginning to wear. In the end I called the doctors and diagnosed her myself with reflux they agreed and I should start her medicines again. Since then Erin has had to have her medicine on and off, her tongue gets burn marks from the acid and she makes the horrid noise that sounds like she’s constantly clearing her throat coupled with a persistent cough at night. I’m not so sure she will ever grow out of this vile illness and I think she is destined to have to control it forever but when you are pushed away with symptoms that persist and you have an instinct that it’s not just a virus- Remember a persistent cough at night lay down, sore throat, vomiting, grunting and clearing of the throat and pulling legs up the chest with marks on the tongue are all symptoms of reflux. Don’t let it be overlooked.
