No more vomit!

Please, no more vomit. I've had enough of it. Angus is a chucker; I am pretty sure he has reflux. But, unlike Charlotte, I don't think he has GORD. The first few weeks of his life I lived in fear every time he vomited. Which he did a bit. He did a few projectile pukes and I promptly burst into tears.

We suffered with Charlotte with reflux. Now when I would say to people that Charlotte had reflux I would get one of two responses. One was a dismissive "oh every baby vomits" and the other was "oooh, I had a reflux baby. If they had been my first I would never had had more!". The first comment would make me so angry, the second would nearly make me cry with relief that I wasn't alone. Yes alot of babies vomit. It is called posseting. Charlotte would posset, then cover the walls, floor, myself and herself in a spray of vomit that seemed to last forever. There were a few times I swore her head was spinning around at the same time as she committed her exorcist child routine.

But the actual vomit wasn't the worst of it. Because she vomited - constantly - she was also a bad sleeper. If I put her down she would vomit in her sleep and wake up. I would then have to try and settle her again. I found that it would take over an hour of rocking and patting for her to fall asleep for less than 40 mins. She very quickly got into a pattern of short sleeps. And she would scream. And scream. And scream. The reflux brings up a small amount of stomach acid as well and that burns and hurts. This is why reflux babies are so unsettled. I simply couldn't calm her down. She hated the pram and the car seat as the position made it worse. She wanted to be held and rocked all the time.

And I was afraid all the time. When she was 2 weeks old she choked on her own vomit, and went into a laryngeal spasm where she then went all floppy and unresponsive. My Mum was still here then and immediately called an ambulance. Being a retired nurse she recognised what was happening and later said that had she been at work she would have hit the emergency button. So after that I was terrified of hearing that choking noise and was always checking on her.

My GP was very dismissive of my concerns (I've since changed GP's) and said I was being overanxious but thankfully my paediatrician agreed it was reflux - GORD (gastro-esophageal reflux disease) and prescribed losec which is an antacid. It took a few months to get the dosage right and she ended up on the highest dose for a while. By about 7 months she had mostly grown out of it although we spent a long time trying to fix the sleeping issues and had to go to sleep school when she was 5 months old.

Having another reflux baby was one of my greatest fears about having more children. So when Angus did his first big chuck I did lose it a bit. We have been on constant alert for more signs of reflux (like back arching) but haven't seen them. He has had a few screaming fits after a feed but a small dose of mylanta has settled him down. That's why I'm sure he has reflux, but it isn't bad enough to bother him. But he does like to chuck. I've been limiting his feeds to make sure he's not overfed. He still brings alot up even doing this but we have only had a few major vomiting episodes. Otherwise it is just a constant stream of vomit that comes out of his mouth, even 2-3 hours after a feed.

One of the big things with reflux babies is how unsettled they are. So I can't begin to tell you ecstatic I am that Angus has just put himself to sleep! It has happened a few times now and really makes me happy. It is so different having a baby that is generally happy. He has started to smile now, and I remember that Charlotte didn't' do that until she was about 7 weeks old which I think was due to her being in pain alot. He does have unsettled times but he seems to have more wind pain than anything.

So to any mums out there who find this post and have a reflux baby - you are not alone. You will get through it, and even though I had one first, I still went back for more!