Actually one thing that did help and we only just stopped doing was sleeping Cameron on his side in a wedge. Particularly when he was little this helped a lot. I know the risk of SIDS goes up doing this but when we considered all the risk factors we still made the decision and it did make a significant difference. Make sure you do your research before you decide to do this but it worked for us.
Used Weleda Colic powder on baby 3 and had great success although I find having to mix it up a hassle. Baby number 2 was very spilly and the colic powder just made him power chuck.I think it's all very dependant on the child.
Omg, I could not have lived without Brauer's Colic relief. 2 or 3 times I'd forgotten to give it to my son for a day and boy did I know about it!
We tried all the natural routes and had a screaming baby, tried eliminating things from mum's diet etc. still had a very unhappy awake baby and consequently an anxious stressed out unhappy mum. Losec eventually helped (after all the things we tried). Then when we gave our daughter the granules from a split capsule rather than the mixture from the pharmacy (which tastes revolting) she finally she started to put on weight and become the smiling happy child she has grown into today. Reflux should not be left untreated but it should be established that it is reflux and not another problem :)
Zantac for one of our kids worked well until 15mths with Goats milk formula, the other child had losec & thickened formula. The medication needs to be increased as their weight gains. Reduce it slowly to get off it at about age two. Bed end needs to be up 30 degrees with a reflux safety sleep to hold them in. Fed as soon as up then upright for 60 mins before sleep. Even our playmat was inside a portacot with the end elevated. Exersaucers are a must have for over 4 mths. Distraction while feeding is also a must have! B Free bottles worked well too. Reflux babies tend to be late crawlers due to less floor time.
for colic, naturopharm coli-med worked the best out of all the wind stuff (and I'm sure we tried them all), as well as a few visits to the osteopath, also for wind, parsley juice worked for a little while (a whole lot of parsley with boiling water tipped over it and about a tablespoon in each meal during the day for the babies), we side slept both babies in a sleep wedge which helped with both the colic and reflux as did raising the head of the bed, but unfortunately both babies were on medication for well over a year
A chiropractor!!! Worked wonders
We used Iberogast, helps more with the tummy. Has to be prescribed from a naturopath. Also used it with our third he didn't have reflux but worked great when he had an upset tummy, and windy days early on.
it was interesting to know that reflux babies are as smiley and happy as other babies. this was a relief to find out cos i was hearing how other bubs were giggling and smiling at everything and everyone and here was my Mr Serious. He is making up for it now but def not as early to smile as others. also later with physical milestones due to not much floor time, which is fine as he will grow and progress in his own way but good to know if you are feeling pressured by others making comparisons.
I found that a nuk dummy made my little girl concentrate on sucking which limited the amount of food that she would bring up and it also helped her get wind out. Very cheap and very effective!
Colic relief ( Aussi homeopathic remedy)
i used baby acidophilus in my daughter's milk. worked like magic, two weeks and she was over her colic
My wee boy had really really bad colic. We tried everything, cranial osteo, gaviscon, homeopathy, chamomilla, dairy free (my diet), raising the bed, infacol, gripe water, dill seed tea...the list goes on. We didn't want to trial merbentyn... (recommended by our GP) after reading up on it.
In the end it was only TIME that helped. We used Harvey Karp's suggestions, and just had to ride it out. Oh man those days were bad, but for everyone going through it, count down the days til they turn 100 days old and it WILL go away.
AWESOME book "When your baby won't stop crying" really helped me feel like I wasn't alone in that hellish experience.
I tried some stuff called Colief but I don't know if you can get it here. I brought it from the UK with my little one and it was amazing. I think you may be able to google it and see if there is something similar here :) Good luck mums...it does fade at about 5-6 mths once they move on to solid food.
I always thought colic magically disappeared at 3 months but it didn't for us, it was actually getting worse. I tried lots of natural remedies in that time and nothing helped hence using merbentyl. What I did find was that it was important to keep bubs as calm as possible - I held her next to running water LOTS, heaps of walking off the pain in the front pack. Post merbentyl I kept doing heaps of warm baths followed by massage and used the Weleda Cham Rad 20x and we never got any colicky stuff again.
regarding the allergy testing...my first little man had severe reflux - saw Dr Allen Liang in Auckland and he allergy tested him at 6months but it came back negative. Regardless he told us to keep him strictly dairy-free and me too as i was still feeding him, based on his reaction to formula. At 13 months after a severe reaction touching yoghurt we had him tested again and he came back with a very high positive blood test to milk protein. So although you can get your children tested early it is true as someone has already posted that they often get false negatives as their immune system is not complex enough to show up in the blood test. When he was about 10 months we forked out loads of money for the hair test and that didn't show up any reaction at all to milk - considering it turned out to be a potentially anaphylactic allergy I wouldn't put any faith in that form of testing
Used colimed without much help for reflux, but saw a registered homeopath practitioner and got our own little concoction made up and that worked a charm (along with mummy's diet etc)
So in summary...... basically Losec and dairy free seem to be the most effective ways to lessen the effects of reflux! Not easy to go dairy free-everything seems to have milk solids or milk protein hidden in it!
My little man had classic reflux - never exhibited signs of pain, just projectile vomited regularly, but always gained weight. We didn't need to use prescription medicines but I have every sympathy for the babies and parents dealing with silent reflux. We went to a cranial osteopath, made a homemade 'tea' to his recipe to add to bottles (dill seeds to help ease wind pain). LOTS of upright time after feeds, and it took forever to get wind out of him. We found that long after the vomiting had ceased to be an issue we are still grappling with terrible teething cycles (refluxers are notorious for bad teething) and constant chest infections (possibly related to the reflux, or a compromised immune system from the prolonged teething & its impact on sleep). M slept through the night early, so was officially a 'good sleeper', but very easily disturbed and unsettled eg if away from home overnight or teething. That has taken nearly 2 years to resolve. I've found that it's those 'hidden' bits of reflux that have been hard to handle. Reflux runs in our family - I had it, so did all 4 of my husband's half-sisters - so I expect we will face it with any subsequent babies. Having supportive friends who understand is the only thing that keeps you sane I think.
Limited success with Infacola and Gaviscon led to Losec for both my boys :0( Hoping number 3 didn't get the reflex gene
Losec Losec Losec. My little boy started screaming inconsolably from about 4 weeks, told the midwife he wouldn't sleep, and she said it was normal. One week later with baby still screaming went to the doctor, and got Gaviscon and Losec in suspension. Used the Gaviscon for 3 weeks with the Losec, till the losec had fully taken effect and now hes just on the Losec. The moment that I gave him gaviscon he was screaming, and as every spoonful went in the screaming got quieter and quieter. By the time it was all gone, He'd gone to sleep in my arms and slept for two hours straight.
We tried all the drops and potions for Luka's colic. Cranial-osteopath worked a little bit but our saviour was novalac colic formula. U can get it from the pharmacy. It's the best ever and would recommend to all...