To all other suffering Mum’s. I am from the UK, having just emigrated here and have a 10 month old son – Henry, who was diagnosed with reflux at 7 months. It was a long battle to get any professionals to admit there was anything wrong as Henry was a big baby and gained weight fast. He is so happy too, you’d never know anything was wrong, however, he didn’t settle easily.
In the early days I breastfed him, we had a couple of very bad screaming episodes (lasting 2/3 hours) but put it down to something I had eaten that passed to him. When I changed to bottle-feeding at 4 months, his crying steadily got worse. It wasn’t every day though, so we assumed it was ‘normal’ baby behaviour – something I was told on many occasion by my GP. We changed the formulas and teats, but I eventually went back to the GP when Henry was 4 ½ months as he had cried one day non-stop for 12 hours. She prescribed Infant Gaviscon and sent me away telling me not to worry.
Again we had good days and bad for a couple of months and I was continually told that it was normal baby behaviour by the Health Visitor and GP (I have since learnt that if there is no significant improvement in a week using Gaviscon, you should go back to your GP). I even remember specifically asking if there was an underlying problem we should be treating and how long Henry would need to be on Gaviscon. ‘He’ll grow out of it’ was all I was told. Eventually when Henry wouldn’t go to sleep without being in a pusher or in the car, and was in pain for 3 hours after every feed, we got a referral to a specialist.
Henry had a barium swallow and reflux was diagnosed. Henry was put on Zantac, but I was concerned that the underlying problem was that he couldn’t get rid of wind easily. Zantac stopped him screaming from the burning in his throat but he was still crying in pain for hours at a time from the wind. We re-visited the specialist who said that Henry had nothing wrong with him, was way ahead developmentally for his age and we should go away and try changing teats, formulas and try charcoal tablets for the wind. I could barely control my anger, I knew there was something wrong and we’d tried everything he suggested (apart from charcoal, which had no effect). He even suggested I should seek psychiatric help if I couldn’t cope with my baby. Well you can imagine being told that as a first time Mum, not what you want to hear especially as I was totally sleep deprived, didn’t look forward to ‘tomorrow’ because Henry was such hard work and was nearing a stage where I thought I’d do something I might regret.
That night I decided to do some of my own research. In the UK it is unheard of to go to a chiropractor, but after looking up colic and reflux on the internet I thought cranial osteopathy may help Henry, it was also basically my last resort. Having lost faith completely in the medical profession, I did not hold out much hope for a chiro being able to help either, but how wrong could I be. You would not have believed the change. After one session where the chiro made three adjustments, Henry was completely pain free. I cried many times over with relief. He was finally a totally happy and healthy baby. We’ve cut the Zantac down to half dose and are currently seeing a chiro in Sydney so we’re just waiting another week to see if we can stop the Zantac altogether. I’m sharing this story because I wish I had known sooner what could’ve been done. There is not a day that goes by when I think that I have lost so much enjoyment from the 1st year because it was so hard. I also feel guilty because of all the pain he’s been in and I didn’t know what to do. You do not have to put up with the sleepless nights and hours spent pushing your baby in the pusher or heaving them into the car at 1am because they can’t get back to sleep. My husband and I spent many weeks doing that and it took our relationship to the limit. You have my utmost sympathy if you’re going through this now, please at least try a chiropractor and see whether they can help. Good luck. Note: a chiro who diagnoses by touch has worked better for us than one who diagnoses by restriction of movement. Best wishes, Fiona xx
Fiona, QLD, Mum to Henry 14 months