Hi everyone, I know this is prob impossible to diagnose over the internet and we are going to see the pediatrician later this week but am interested in your opinions in the meantime...

Spent the day at the Plunket fmaily centre last week and one of the nurses thought our 7 wk old daughter might have silent reflux.

She's always done this kind of gagging then swallowing thing - not all the time just sometimes. She also does this crazy wheezy breathing - again only sometimes. She often has times where she looks like she's in pain, pulling her knees up and arching her back and it seems to come in waves. Nothing will console her, we just hold her and carry her round changing positions till it passes. We thought it might be colic but it can be at diff times during the day, not always at the same time.

Consequently she's never been a good sleeper during the day, often wakes up after 20 mins or so in pain and crying. But she sleeps really well at night. Can reflux just be a day thing?

Out of desperation on Saturday we got some infant Gaviscon and tried it. Voila! She had daytime naps for the first time in ages. The next day I still wasn't convinced she had reflux so didn't use the Gaviscon...she still slept really well.

So can reflux come and go? Would the one days worth of Gaviscon still be working and she'll get bad again when it wears off? Maybe she just has colic, or maybe she's just a normal unsettled newborn as lots of them seem to be?

Boy this parenting thing sure is hard when they can't talk to tell you what's wrong eh?

Hi Michelle
It sounds like reflux to me but as you said there is no way we can diagnose over the internet. It is weird that she still slept well the next day but I guess there may have been some lasting effect from the gaviscon.
Our first suggestion would be to consider a dairy free diet trial and ofcourse all the lifestyle changes such as no tight clothes around her middle, bed head raised etc. Look in the tips section of our website.
Good luck.

Yeo sounds like reflux to me - sounds like my son!
William never had a problem at night - only during the day as well, and we got told it was "colic" many times until he was so bad we had to see a paed and Voila - reflux and meds, until we found the right dose.

Good luck and let us know how you get on. Feel free to PM me

Niki

Hi Michelle

sounds reflux as Roz suggests. The sleep patterns etc are fairly typical for a reflux baby. You are lucky with the night sleeps as many of us reflux mums don't get good day or night sleeps. As has been discussed on this site before, Gaviscon tends to only work well for a short time - 3 days is quite common. You may then find yourself looking at Zantac or Losec. Also Gaviscon can make baby constipated. It's very much trial and error. Not all meds work the same way for all bubs. Also do try the dairy free thing then that if that doesn't work do the gluten free thing especially in bubs solids.

your website is great roz...thanks for that.

mila sleeps in a hammock at night so could explain why she's better at night - yes we're very very thankful she sleeps well at night, I really don't know how you guys do it round the clock, you must be amazing people.

she went down for her 10.30 nap this morning and woke up about 3 times in pain, i now have her asleep on me in the frontpack the poor little thing. i might return to the gaviscon after the next feed, although it takes me about 40 mins to get it all in her with the syringe! that should tide us over till we see the pediatrician anyway.

yeah someone told me bout the dairy free thing so i've been doing that for about 3 days now, but i've heard it can take a good couple of weeks to have any effect.

will be interesting to see what the pediatrician says anyway, thanks guys for your advice!

by the way i have a dairy intolerance myself but can still eat cheese and yoghurt so thats what i've now cut out...

I found while bf that cheese was the worst thing for Catherine, so hopefully now you've cut this out, you will see an improvement. It takes some getting used to but if it works, then it's really worth it! Good luck.
Yes, it can take 2 weeks for the dairy to be out of your system, so do persist for a couple of weeks at least...

well saw the pediatrician yesterday and he said its pretty common (like colic) and she'll grow out of it - hopefully around 12 weeks or so. luckily it's not really bad, we get good sleeps at night and she has good days and bad days.
the thing that bothers me is hearing her wheezing at night, like it's hard to breathe...does anyone know what causes this? is it dangerous for her? thanks!

Hi Michelle
Keep up the dairy free thing for at least two weeks and see if that helps. Did the Paediatrician recommend any treatment?
As for the breathing it could just be her small airways combined with a bit of reflux. A lot of babies sound snuffly. If you are concerned about it you need to tell the doctor.

Thanks Roz, will def keep up the dairy free. Paed recommended to keep up with Gaviscon if it was helping which it does seem to be periodically....and just ride it out till she grows out of it.
Will check the wheezing with the doc.
Thanks everyone, you're very helpful