This is George’s Story. George was born in May, four weeks premature. I understand that this made him more likely to get reflux, in addition one of his cousins had had unproblematic reflux as a baby.
George started to make very strange noises in the night at about 4 weeks, and suddenly stopped settling after a feed. I would put him down and he would start to cry, with what sounded like pain. There was no sick, but lots of choking noises and gurgling which we gradually worked out was a result of him being sick and then swallowing the sick straight away. It was pretty scary to listen to as first time parents. After about a week of very little sleep (he would sleep vertically but not in his moses basket) we diagnosed him with reflux using this website.
The GPs were very sympathetic, and prescribed us gaviscon. We tried this three times, and each time he screamed with pain afterwards for about an hour. Not surprisingly we decided this wasn’t working! We went back to the doctors who prescribed ranitadine. This is an antacid, so rather than suppressing the vomit, it works by making it less acidic. Ever since George has been able to get on with his life as an otherwise healthy baby.
The doctor raises the prescription each time he goes up a kilo in weight (we discovered this was necessary as the symptoms came back as he grew). I am now weaning George and he is still just as prone to vomit as he was, weaning doesn’t seem to be making a difference. The main reason I am writing this, though, is that because of the early intervention of our GP this is a positive reflux story.
George’s reflux has (mainly) become a laundry problem not a health problem as a result of the medicine he is taking.
Lucie
