Hi everyone,

My 3 year old had silent reflux as a baby, and was later diagnosed with a dairy allergy. Me going completely dairy free when she was 4 months of age gave us a completely different baby it was incredible.

So this time around I was dairy free from the start. The first 6 weeks Rosa was a dream baby, content and sleepy. She did do a couple of things that Mila used to (very squirmy, lots of gagging and wheezing) which worried me a little but she was happy. Great I thought, I have this sussed with the dairy free. Then at 6 weeks the colic kicked in. I went to a great naturopath (Motherwell in Auckland) and was advised to go wheat free and low sugar. The change was incredible and the colic disappeared. Then I also went soy free after noticing she seemed to be uncomfortable and particularly refluxy after I had soy lattes.

Then 2 days ago all hell broke loose. She's barely slept the last 2 days (been sleeping well at night due to sheer exhaustion I think) will sleep about 10 mins then wake up unhappy. She won't sleep in the sling, the pram, the car....just gets more and more overtired and screams. I'm beside myself and don't really know what to do. I checked out crying over spilt milk this morning and I'm confused...she is showing some of the reflux symptoms but not all.

Feeding - she gets on and off, on and off, fussing around. BUT she doesn't cry, and as soon as she's finished feeding she's happy. Is happy to lie on her back straight after a feed, doesn't seem to need to be upright.

She's definitely gaggy and wheezy, and sometimes squirms around as if she's in pain (like she used to when she had colic).

Doesn't seem to follow the 40 min sleep cycle, will often jolt awake in the middle of a sleep cycle and scream.

Spills only occasionally

Has already had 3 colds and what I assume was a sore throat (her voice was all croaky) in the short 11 weeks of her life.
But this is probably what life with an older sibling is like!

So.....maybe she's just a really overtired baby who still needs to learn how to sleep? Or maybe she has mild reflux? I just don't know. I'm not too keen on medicating her (although I will if that's what it comes to) has anyone here had success with seeing a naturopath for reflux? Aside from the dietary stuff as I am already dairy/wheat/soy free.

Thanks for reading this far through my mammoth post! any advice/personal experiences greatly appreciated!!!!!

No advice anyone? Oh well, off to Plunket family centre this arvo so hopefully they can shed some light! The more I think about it the more it seems she has bad reflux 'attacks' but the rest of the time it's quite mild. Not sure if that is possible for it to come and go? I have been eating a lot of tomato based dishes lately so maybe that has something to do with it.
Thanks anyway!

I have just found yuour thread and it sound VERY much like our situation. My son is now 7 but at 7weeks we went throught the same stuff and ended up beside myself with worry and going to the plunket day centre in Milford. OMG it was the best thing I could have ever done, they straight away confirmed it was reflux and thinga only improved from there. We had the fussing on the boob the screaming continuously,never sleeping and just so unsettled, me in tears the whole time as I dint know what was wrong with my baby.
Have you tryed baby gavison to see if the symtoms improved.Thats what they did for us at the day centre and at least I got to feed him OK then of course we moved to losec straight away and within 3 weeks I had that dream baby I new was hiding within!!!
Good luck today hun and please keep us posted, you must be exchausted I so remember those days, look after yourself and have a lovely REST at the day centre.

Sorry to say it Michelle but it does sound alot like reflux. My DD was also not very spilly and was always squirmy. Another thing that stood out to me was the croaky voice. My girl had that too until we got her reflux under some control and then her cute little voice appeared!

Best of luck at the family centre.

Hi Michelle,

Hope things have gone well with plunket. I took Maddie to th Dr today and we are going to try her on Gaviscon for a few days to see if that helps. I am glad that I took her as she has become very spilly over the last day or so.

Let us know how you get on.

Hi Michelle,

Sounds a bit refluxy to me too I am sorry to say. Gosh - you are on a very restrictive diet. It must be hard to get enough calories in for breastfeeding with the limitations. I definitely noticed my DD was refluxy on tomatoes so it might be another thing you will have to watch. Early on I cut these out and she was a lot better. My problems really started when we introduced solids.

DD has tested negative on her skin prick and RASTs for everything but she definitely has some intolerances. I went dairy free for a couple of months but didn't really notice any difference in her (I lost a huge amount of weight though - but as bfing was already well established it didn't affect my supply thank goodness). I have just taken her to Advanced Allergy Elimination (see the allergy thread) and they came up with a list of allergens. Surprisingly it was spot on in terms of what she was reacting to (salycilates being the main offender)too early to say whether the treatment has worked as there is a list of problem foods - she has seems a bit more settled the last few nights though.

I completely understand how you feel, DD1 was a refluxer and I thought we had escaped it second time around. As it turns out in our case DD2 is a lot worse than #1. I am hoping that as she grows up she will tolerate more foods. Oh to have a full nights sleep though...

Good luck.

I would continue the dairy and soy free diet, and extend the wheat free to gluten free. It may improve things. Tomatoes can be a problem. The other foods that can affect reflux are also here: http://www.cryingoverspiltmilk.co.nz/Food/FoodandReflux.htm

Visiting a Family Centre where someone can observe you both feeding and sleeping, is a good idea. It may be that you can control things naturally. If you are hesitant to go to medications, the options you can try are various colic remedies including Weleda Colic Powder, Slippery Elm, Probiotics (probably a must with family history of allergies). I can't think of any more just now. There are other natural remedies that a naturopath may prescribe. Have you looked under Alternative Therapies on Crying Over Spilt Milk?

Otherwise, if you want to confirm the reflux, I would give Gaviscon a go for the three recommended days. If it helps even a little it confirms reflux.

You are doing a great job with your diet but remember this is hard work - breastfeeding, allergy/reflux/colic baby, sleep deprivation and your restrictive diet so be kind to yourself.

Hugs.

Thanks so much for your replies everyone.

So far I've been to the Plunket family centre and the dr and they both think it sounds like reflux. The dr told me to do the Gaviscon for 3 days and see if it makes a difference. I'm seeing the naturopath this week.

BUT I have to say since I've cut out tomatoes she's been heaps better. Except for a bad 'attack' the other day and the only thing I could think that I had eaten differently was poached eggs on toast. Will re-test that one again in a few days.
I don't really want to have to cut those out as well though cause as you say Sky my diet is already so restricted! I've also lost lots of weight, but my milk supply is pretty good and I think the weight loss is mostly due to the fact that I can't eat muffins and cakes and scones in cafes anymore!! I am eating heaps though, and I am cooking a variety of different dishes so it hasn't been too bad. Lucky I love cooking, so I can see this as a challenge and not just eat the same meal every night!

Hmm advanced allergy elimination sounds interesting will go check that out. My oldest girl has outgrown her dairy/nut allergies but def still has intolerances...she gets puffy eyes, runny poos and excema with too much dairy/egg/salicylates.

Roz I actually am gluten free after noticing she was bad after eating Barley and oats Thanks for the link on foods to avoid, most of those I am avoiding already.

Some days I dream of putting her on Neocate so I can go back to eating normally again but I know the best chance of preventing further probs and allergies is to exclusively breastfeed till she's 1 and not introduce solids till 6 months so I'll just suck it up and keep enjoying the weight loss as my silver lining!

Thanks everyone, this reflux is damn hard work isn't it? You're all doing such a great job with it by the sounds of things. A very kind friend said to me the other day that these refluxy babies have come my way cause I'm such a good mum and will do a great job of handling it. That's really nice to hear isn't it, and can apply to all of us I'd say!!!!

I've come across some great recipes in my search so will post them on cryingoverspiltmilk

you do sound very switched on I must say! You are doing a great job.

Sorry you had to hang out for a fews days with no reply... I'm in the same situation as you at the moment with my 13 week old... you're right it's tough!

What are you eating?!?! I hope you have something you're allowed to have as a treat at the end of a bad day!

Hope things continue to get better. Keep us posted =)

Aww thanks Cath The fact that we're all here trying to get as much info as possible to help our little ones shows how onto it we all are. Our kids are indeed lucky.

jkm it was my bday on Sunday, and I was feeling very sorry for myself cause I couldn't eat anything but my mum turned up with a dairy/gluten/soy free cranberry and chocolate brownie!!! I actually cried cause I was so excited She's great my mum

I've been through all my recipe books and compiled a list of dinner ideas that don't have dairy/gluten/soy/tomatoes and once you start gathering them all together there are more then you think. My current fav is a shepherds pie thickened with rice flour, beef stock and wostershire sauce, and mashed kumara on top! I'm also discovering lots of recipes that I can replace milk/cream with coconut milk/cream.

So we still seem to keeping the reflux pretty mild through my limited diet...and going to the naturopath tomorrow so hopefully will get some stuff to help there (I have a list of things to ask her about that I read on cryingoverspiltmilk like slippery elm and licorice tea). And I live in hope that she grows out of it sooner rather then later.

Have many of you found that your reflux kids have gone on to have allergies when they start eating? That was true for my older daughter, and the way my little one reacts to any tiny amount of gluten I suspect she may have a gluten intolerance. Or is there not neccesarily any correlation between reflux and allergies?

There is a correlation between reflux and allergies. About 40% of infants with reflux have a cow's milk allergy when in the general population it is only about 3%. All of my three children have food allergies but only the youngest was treated medically for gastric reflux. The first one had no reflux issues although the second one didn't sleep during the day and FTT for a while, so probably should have been treated - or maybe if I hadn't introduced gluten to her diet...
I suspect because our children are 10 times more likely to have a cow's milk allergy, this puts them into the allergy category so they are more likely to have other allergies. Despite this it is important to introduce low allergen foods at the appropriate age, and stick with offering some solids.

A couple of tips for replacing tomato. Either tamarind paste you can buy in the asian food section of supermarkets or a tin of mangos pureed are good tomato replacements depending on the dish. It won't quite work in Bolognaise. I'm allergic to tomato myself (skin allergen test confirmed) so don't use it at all in cooking. Greggs have some pastes also - eg Butter Chicken. I just replaced the tomato in the recipe with something else - probably mango. They are gluten and dairy free. Most of our children with reflux aren't allergic to tomato - it is just one of those foods that cause reflux like chocolate.

Coconut cream is great - sometimes I use half that and half rice milk to replace milk in a recipe eg mushroom soup.