My baby is struggling to drink milk - recommendations for dr Post Reply

[SW4Lancslass]

My 9 week old baby is having trouble taking milk either from the breast or expressed breast milk by bottle and is becoming really distressed when I try to feed her. She also has really explosive poos and is waking each night writhing in pain and is unsettled for the rest of the nighttime and In between Feeds during the day. We try to wind her thoroughly before putting her to sleep but this doesn't seem to help. I've seen the gp twice who's said I need to persevere with Infacol and water down my breast milk as it could be too rich(?) I'm worried she may have silent reflux or an intolerance . Has anyone got a recommendation for a dr who specialises in these things in young babies ? This has been going on now for 3 weeks and is only getting worse so would like to see someone who regularly sees babies with similar issues.
Thanks

[Boutiquemum]

Hi,

My two had the same. It can be especially distressing when they are your first borns- assuming your baby is your first. Infacol is great, but you need to ensure that you give it prior to every feed. It takes a few days/week for it to get working really well as it builds up in their system.

Good luck!

[family1]

Hi There

I am not a Dr but it sounds to me like you baby has got reflux. Our little baby had reflux. He would drink about 2/3oz of milk and then arch his back and cry on the bottle. He also had explosive nappies but when we opened them up, there was nothing in there. He projectile vomited whole feeds up, never settled and was basically very unhappy - sound familiar?

at 9 weeks we went to see Dr Fysh at the Portland
http://www.theportlandhospital.com/medi ... john-fysh/
He was fantastic. Once we got our little baby on the right medication things started to improve pretty quickly and after a week it was like having a new happy baby and we didnt look back. Once on formula, I used Aptamil anti reflux which was brilliant

Good luck

[Mummymummymummy]

I'd agree with a previous poster, sounds like reflux, most commonly caused by an milk protein allergy. The pain and explosive poo are classic symptoms. It's very common, my 3 babies have all had it. It's really tough, but you will get it sorted. If you want to continue breast feeding you'll have to go completely dairy free, check all your foods for hidden dairy. Alternatively have your gp prescribe a formula for milk protein allergy.

Oh and I'd go to a different GP, water down breast milk, seriously the ignorance of some doctors is just shocking. Your GP should be able to help and refer you to a dieticians clinic.

Good luck

[lalectrice]

Try contacting La Leche League - they're really supportive and knowledgeable about all sorts of breastfeeding challenges, and will help you persevere with breastfeeding. Regular groups (including a Clapham one) allow you to meet other mothers who may have faced similar challenges, or who can just offer support. Message me if you want the email of one of the local group leaders. There's also a national helpline.

https://www.laleche.org.uk/content/telephone-helpline

http://lllclapham.blogspot.co.uk

[lalectrice]

P.S. Agree with the previous poster - the suggestion of watering down breastmilk is not only ludicrous, it's actively inadvisable for such a young baby, who should not be given water.

[AJ2012]

I don't know anything about reflux but our little boy had similar symptoms + eczema + constant runny nose and it was cows milk protein allergy. Took quite some time to get diagnosed. I completely gave up dairy plus we gave him some drops for lactose intolerance. Can't recall the name! They come in a tiny bottle but are about £13, so seem quite a lot. Good luck. xx

[earlsfieldmummy]

Hi, I think that the post above is probably referring to Colief - we used it on my son who had similar symptoms (plus very smelly wind, which is apprently anohter symptom of a slight lactose intolerance). Apparently a bit of lactose intolerance is quite common pre 12 weeks as babies' guts are still immature. The colief made a massive difference to us (although it is a bit of a pain when breastfeeding - I expressed a bit of milk each morning, put it into little bottles in the fridge then heated in up and added the colief, gave him this pre feed (literally about 20 mls) and then breastfed after.)

[earlsfieldmummy]

Hi, I think that the post above is probably referring to Colief - we used it on my son who had similar symptoms (plus very smelly wind, which is apprently anohter symptom of a slight lactose intolerance). Apparently a bit of lactose intolerance is quite common pre 12 weeks as babies' guts are still immature. The colief made a massive difference to us (although it is a bit of a pain when breastfeeding - I expressed a bit of milk each morning, put it into little bottles in the fridge then heated in up and added the colief, gave him this pre feed (literally about 20 mls) and then breastfed after.)

[AJ2012]

yes - colief - that's it! Thanks Earlsfieldmummy.

It really helped our little one as well. It can be confusing though - we only had to give him colief when he was very small (up until about 3 months) as it deals with lactose issues, but cow's milk protein allergy (CMPA) can last much longer - we are still dairy free.

[pie81]

Please, please get your baby checked for tongue tie.

This sounds SO much like my DD. Uncomfortable esp at night, windy, found it difficult to feed. Like you we worried about allergies and reflux - we tried dairy free, Colief, none of it worked.

In the end it turned out she had posterior tongue tie. Tongue tie can also cause reflux episodes because they swallow more air and then the air comes up bringing acid with it.

Tongue tie is (I believe) a lot more common than allergy, and it's also a lot easier to fix, so it makes sense to get checked for that before you start thinking about allergies.

I highly recommend Geraldine Miskin who is a really good breasfeeding consultant who will come to your home and check for tongue tie. She can also give advice about reflux and position and winding etc. Doctors tend to be a bit rubbish in this area, BF consultants are much better but you have to pay.

Do be careful if other people (such as GP or HV) tell you "its not tongue tie" because they are usually not properly trained to spot and assess tongue ties. You need to see a proper BF consultant.

If it is tongue tie, I recommend seeing Graham I Smith at Kingston Hospital, he is a facial surgeon who charges £80 to privately check for and cut tongue ties. (In fact you can go straight to him without going via a BF counsellor - but if it isn't TT it might be a waste of time so poss best to see a BF counsellor first).

I am SHOCKED that a GP told you your breastmilk was too rich and should be watered down! That is appalling and totally wrong.

Good luck, keep us posted.

[Franklens]

We had exactly the same situation 2 months ago. We knew he was tongue tied so got that sorted at 3 days but from 2 weeks onwards poor little man screamed in pain constantly and had explosive poos. Tried everything I could, colief, reflux milk etc but eventually gave in and saw Dr Eltumi privately at the Portland Hospital and he diagnosed cows milk protein allergy causing silent reflux. I tried to cut out all diary and soya from my diet but baby was no better so in the end I moved to special hypoallergenic formula (nutramigen) and anti-reflux meds (ranitidine) and had a completely different baby within 10 days. Sadly he then developed an intoleratnce to nutramigen and is now on neocate which is very expensive but the GP do reluctantly prescribe it and omeprazole was added to ranitidine. Little boy is a dream baby now, sleeps from 6.30-6 each night, is super relaxed during day and just very happy and content so so different to how is was for the first 7 weeks of his life where he screamed 20hrs a day. Definitely worth seeing a paediatrician privately. Dr Eltumi is great but very expensive as he is one of the top gastro paediatrician in the country so our insurance only pays part of the consultation. (I didn't know this at the time just booked him after a google search). Any general paediatrician would be fine. I personally wouldn't go to the portland again as I feel they inflate their prices due to reputation, I think Parkside private hospital in wimbledon is meant to be very good. Good luck

[NYE31]

Another thumbs up for Geraldine Miskin & Graham Smith, do try the NCT breast feeding coaches as well.

Most of my NCT group used infacol & another friend's son had reflux.

It sounds miserable for you all, so I really hope that you get some help & if your GP isn't helping, see someone else.

Our DS's tongue tie was missed by GPs, midwives & health visitors! It was the BF coaches that confirmed it & sent us to Graham Smith.

Good luck & let us know how you get on

[AJ2012]

Yes best of luck as it's difficult when you don't know what's going on and dr's unable or unwilling to help.

It's also interesting to hear about the cross diagnosis going on as well. Midwives misdiagnosed my son as having tongue tie. Went to the tie clinic and no tie! Just mild cows milk protein allergy. Don't know if you are on Facebook or not but there's a cmpa support group. Lots of people on there with experience of reflux as well.

Best wishes

[SW4Lancslass]

Thank you all so much for your advice and recommendations. Am going to see another gp next week who has more experience of babies so hopefully will get some better advice. Hv thought it was reflux. I've seen Geraldine Miskin and she thought my baby had a posterior tongue tie so think will go and get this checked out to confirm one way or another. Will also try colief and have cut out dairy from today ( no choc = so hard when sleep deprived !). Hopefully will manage to get to the root of the problem . Will keep you posted.