Silent reflux

Knottie91089844 · September 2015

So I'm pretty convinced my 7 week old has silent reflux. I have an appointment with his pediatrician next week. My question is.... any other moms dealing with this as well? How is it treated? If medication is involved in treatment how long do they stay on it? Is this something they grow out of eventually? I'm always very hesitant when it comes to medication for my LOs but I also hate to see him going through this.... TIA

kettlekitten · September 2015

I'm sure someone else will have more answers but yes they do grow out of it, I believe symptoms improve once the baby starts sitting up (so gravity works in their favour). I haven't got personal experience but by all accounts from friends whose babies have had it, it's absolutely worthwhile using the medication to relieve baby's pain (and yours!)

Sonadora · September 2015

Yes. This is my second baby with silent reflux. Woohoo...

It's treated with medicine. Most babies grow out of it by 6 months. With my last, before each well child the pedi would ask us to taper the meds to see how she did without them. Sadly, my first was in the like .5% of babies who didn't outgrow it until after a year!

We did Zantac with my first, we just tried prevacid with my 2nd and it actually made him worse. So now we are on compounded Zantac for DS and hoping it works.

missliz53 · September 2015

We are dealing with this with dd and it's horrible. It's been a struggle to get her to eat and she looks so miserable when she's having reflux. She is on Zantac once a day, Prevacid once a day, and we just started erythromycin to help her stomach empty faster since the pediatrician thinks that her food and acid are just sitting in her stomach and causing problems. They did upper gi x-rays with barium to rule out any narrowing and thankfully everything looks normal.

The medications have made a huge difference. She still isn't eating what her Dr would like, but she's gaining weight and has chubby baby thighs and a big double chin and seems much more comfortable, so I'm hopeful the eating will start to get better.

I'm pumping and bottle feeding and then supplementing with Nutramegin, which her Dr, bless her heart, keeps giving us free cans since that stuff is the Filet Mignon of formulas. I've also had to cut dairy out of my diet, and we've noticed her Vit D drops make everything worse, so we've eliminated that as well.

Kwest1007 · September 2015

My LO has this and she has had 3 episodes where she wakes up, unable to breathe and turns bright red! It's soo sad and scary! She usually ends up freaking out after. Doc just said she'd grow out of it and that she's responding just as she should. You apparently want them to hold their breath because it's their way of protecting their air ways.. It's horrible tho! Doc said to also put her upright for 15-20 after eating so usually after she eats, I prop her up while I pump then I'll lay her down. It hasn't happened since (this severe anyway) since I started doing that! I hope to never see those episodes again! She does still spit up and kinda chokes but sitting her upright, she can typically cough and swallow repeatedly to manage it.

gulimz · September 2015

Kwest1007 said:
My LO has this and she has had 3 episodes where she wakes up, unable to breathe and turns bright red! It's soo sad and scary! She usually ends up freaking out after. Doc just said she'd grow out of it and that she's responding just as she should. You apparently want them to hold their breath because it's their way of protecting their air ways.. It's horrible tho! Doc said to also put her upright for 15-20 after eating so usually after she eats, I prop her up while I pump then I'll lay her down. It hasn't happened since (this severe anyway) since I started doing that! I hope to never see those episodes again! She does still spit up and kinda chokes but sitting her upright, she can typically cough and swallow repeatedly to manage it.

This. Holding them upright after feedings is everything!

Knottie91089844 · October 2015

Thanks everyone for your feedback. I opted for no meds since he is gaining weight fine. We have been holding him upright for 30 minutes after feedings and it's made a huge difference. He is also sleeping inclined and that seems to be helping. We had one bad night this week. I'm staying positive.

klnorman · October 2015

My LO has silent reflux as well and would wake up and hour after feeding just blood curling screaming, or coughing and holding her breath for the first two weeks at home - after I stopped BF. I felt so terrible for her. Are you breast or formula feeding?
We opted to try a different type of formula- no meds. We went through three different ones before sticking with Gerber Good Start soothe. It has prebroken down proteins and probiotics for digestion. I keep her up right after feeding, she sleeps in a swing during the day, to keep her inclined, and we propped up her mattress in her bassinet for night. In the two weeks since the switch, she is so, so, so much better. We've only had one really bad day, but I think the baby brezza was mixing her formula incorrectly. We switched back to hand making bottles and she hasn't had issues.

amorgan71313 · October 2015

What are signs/symptoms of silent reflux? My LO will make a sour gagging face sometimes when I'm rocking him to sleep after eating but doesn't spit up. It looks uncomfortable but other than that he doesn't seem too bothered. He will also act like his going to spit up but then swallow, especially when lying on his back.

mgarrett921 · October 2015

gulimz said:

Kwest1007 said:
My LO has this and she has had 3 episodes where she wakes up, unable to breathe and turns bright red! It's soo sad and scary! She usually ends up freaking out after. Doc just said she'd grow out of it and that she's responding just as she should. You apparently want them to hold their breath because it's their way of protecting their air ways.. It's horrible tho! Doc said to also put her upright for 15-20 after eating so usually after she eats, I prop her up while I pump then I'll lay her down. It hasn't happened since (this severe anyway) since I started doing that! I hope to never see those episodes again! She does still spit up and kinda chokes but sitting her upright, she can typically cough and swallow repeatedly to manage it.

This. Holding them upright after feedings is everything!

Agreed. I pump and bottle feed using dr Browns. Our Dr. Suggested paced bottle feeding - which is fabulous. You sit them up to eat - makes sense, I don't think I could swallow milk laying down. Made a big difference for our LO. But she still is very gassy and wakes herself up with breathing issues too.

Knottie91089844 · October 2015

We our on Enfamil gentle ease. He does ok with it. He just started eating 4oz's at time this week. :-) yay. I may have to try out the gerber soothe. We had tried gerber gentle and he didnt seem to like it. he is now sleeping longer on his own. He still sounds very congested and is very gassy. But the inclined sleeping and holding him upright during and after feedings is work. He is no longer cranky and his breathing is getting better. He does spit up now but not very often or very much, mainly after a really good burp. Lol

hlb8179 · October 2015

We were also told to do saline drops for the congestion with reflux and that has really helped. Taking her in a steamy bathroom for fifteen minutes also helps with the congestion. These in addition to elevated sleeping, cutting out dairy, and holding upright after feeding have all improved the reflux for my LO.

missliz53 · October 2015

We were referred to a speech therapist and she told us to bottle feed DD on her side; think football hold for breast feeding. We had never heard of this, but it made a huge difference. The idea is that the milk pools in her cheek rather than her throat and we went down to a Dr Brown's Preemie nipple. The other thing they did was a swallow study to evaluate her sick swallow and when she swallows, the milk sits right above her airway so she almost aspirates it. We are thickening her cereal with 5 tsp of baby oat cereal to every 2 ounces of formula. I think these 2 small changes have made all the difference in the world.

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