Aviana became a different baby the day of her 4th week birthday – overnight she went from Jekyll to Hyde. I have already written about how tough that week was until we learned that she might have silent reflux. Poor girl couldn’t help it and we felt helpless until we went to our pediatrician. She confirmed that the symptoms we had seen in Aviana were indeed silent reflux and that it sounded like the medication she was going to prescribe would work a treat. Aviana was prescribed Zantac (an antacid), she was weighed (a staggering 7lbs 8oz – remember she was 5lbs 1oz at birth! I apparently have super calorific -ex-pi-ali-docious milk!) and her dosage calculated because it is determined by weight, not age – which worked out at 0.6ml twice daily. We picked up the prescription and earnestly waited for the right time to administer it.
That evening Aviana slept very well, and we slept a little better. It wasn’t until two days later I noticed a new baby. Our happy baby was back. I got several smiles during the day, she slept well and ate well. She can now lie happily on her back.
She still has gas and struggles to get the poo out, waking herself up after a few hours and trying hard to let it all out (which is apparently very normal in newborns as they learn to use their bowels) – considering she is an IUGR baby, this isn’t overly surprising that she finds it particularly tough to get the poo out (she’s not constipated though). Hoping this changes soon!
Unfortunately, we have noticed the past few days when it comes close to giving her next dose you can hear the reflux gurgling away in the back of her throat and she starts to get wheezy breathing again. So back to the pediatrician again on Thursday to discuss change in dosage and frequency.
It’s all certainly manageable, but it is so tough to see Aviana cry when she is clearly in pain and there is very little I can do to help her. I discussed this with my doula yesterday – what do parents do with babies who live in countries where they don’t have access to medications like we do? Do they go insane from the psychological torture? I always wonder what our diets are doing to breast milk and the impact it has on our babies guts…
The Inconceivable Adventures of Parenthood 
Hi Dani.. the other thing that greatly helped our baby was thicker milk. You might want to ask the paedi about that too?
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I am going to ask this! Thank you!!!
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I’m glad to hear that you’ve had an improvement!! But hopefully they can figure out the correct dosage and timing for her. Reflux is difficult to manage in general and can take some trial and error. Good luck!
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Thanks! The trial and error part is also being mixed in with growth spurts and development leaps making it hard to determine cause and effect!! Parenting is one whole big experiment right???!!
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I’m glad the ped was able to give you something to help, and hopefully you guys can get the dose right soon! I know it’ll be tough as she grows so fast, but like you said, at least it’s manageable! I’m happy to hear that she’s comfortable and happy again!
It’s interesting what you said about how the food we eat can impact our littles. I was shocked to hear that babies can have a milk protein intolerance! I knew that if you eat spicy food or things like that it can give them an upset belly, but I had never heard about other foods bothering them like this. Wouldn’t it just be so much easier if they could tell us what’s going on with them!?
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Ha you are right! Inventing a Mind reader device would make someone a billionaire! So many people have told me about the cows milk protein being associated with reflux. As well as soy. I know I’d give it all up if it made her feel better ☺️
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Have you reached out to Sondra at A Calm Persistence? Her little girl immensely struggled with reflux. She will definitely have lots of really good advice from their experience.
Also, I’m glad your doctor is working with you and Aviana! I hope you figure out the right dosage asap. 🙂
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No – thank you so much for pointing me her way, wow she wrote a blog post recently that felt like it was practically written to me. I love finding new awesome bloggers ☺️
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She truly is amazing! 😊
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I don’t have any experience as B is only a couple of weeks old, but I wanted to say I hope Aviana feels better soon. I can definitely relate to the feeling of helplessness when they’re crying! I feel terrible whenever he cries and I can’t comfort him! Fortunately so far he’s generally comforted by being fed or held, but I still hate seeing him cry – he had to give blood yesterday and he was crying his little heart out! I wondered how the doctor could tolerate doing this to babies all the time! (He was fine!)
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I hope she feels better soon. My baby has reflux too and it really is torturous. She’s on omeprazole and most likely has a cow milk allergy. I’m not sure if the two are connected (waiting to see a doctor) but would an allergy possibly be part of the problem for Aviana?
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How’s your baby’s reflux going? I’ve noticed an improvement since cutting dairy
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Yeah I had to cut soy also so looking like she has both allergies and that made some improvement plus the dr doubled her medication. Sorry to hear your baby has it too
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We’re dealing with reflux too. I’ve cut dairy and soy out of my diet and have noticed an improvement
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Hi Dani, I can totally relate to your post and it’s great that you have already noticed a great difference to her symptoms! I noticed you said that at every growth spurt the reflux tends to flare straight back up which is true, I wrote a detailed, brutally honest account of my sons journey dealing with reflux and I also wrote down the medicines and types of milk that helped him ease his pain. If you ever get a chance to read it might be helpful to relate to. Best wishes for you and baby this is an extremely changing time in her life to get through 🤞🏼
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