Reason to wean early?

[bubbaloo]

My daughter has silent reflux and the dr told me to give her baby rice which i'm not ready to do yet as she was only 3 months old when he said it.

But i am wondering if there is any benefit to weaning earlier than the 6 month guideline? I don't want to make things worse or cause other problems. She is now on meds for the reflux which seem to be helping and i love breastfeeding so i'm happy to carry on with this. She also suffers very bd gas pains 24/7 and is causing screaming fits and lack of sleep.

I'm in 2 minds as to what to do ?

[Lana]

Well I know I that a lot of people find that rice cereal actually increases the gas instead of helping it.  Does she seem hungry?

[bubbaloo]

No she doesn't seem hungry and i'm relucant to give her food but other parents i spoke to with refluxers said it really helped them.

It's awful for her as if its not the reflux bothering her it's gas and vice versa

[Lana]

Do gas drops help at all? 

How about if you tried the cereal once and if it didn't help then you could just stop?  Would you be comfortable with that?

[bubbaloo]

I've tried all the gas drops to no avail   mmmm i might try the cereal once but i will wait until she is 4 months i think!!

[Lana]

Good luck. It is hard to watch your little one with gas isn't it?  I have been pretty lucky that both my boys outgrew the bad gas by 1 month.

[swiper]

My dd is 17 weeks and I was giving her soilds for a bout 3 weeks but this week I stopped them because it made her reflux really bad ie screaming allday and not feeding, took her to the drs and got some more gavsicon and dropped the soilds.
I would really wait, dont make the same mistake i did.

[linfran]

I'm on the other side of this fence - my son was a really bad refluxer but also weighed just under 18lbs at 15 weeks and was waking up during the night for feeds.

Because of his reflux and size I was advised by hv and gp to start solids early, although I was told that six months was the ideal there was little chance my son would manage on milk alone until then, and I have to say, I agreed.

I started on baby rice at 15 weeks and have introduced several fruit and veg (and this week an organic rice cereal for breakfast).  Before the solids he was needing infant paracetamol drops four times a day, plus Infacol drops and four scoops of thickener in his bottles (the max dose).  I had been advised to introduce the bottles as it would be easier to get the meds into him.

I don't know if its coincidence or simply things have got better as he's matured (or a bit of both) but his reflux is nearly gone and he now only needs one scoop of thickener per bottle.

But hey, each baby is different, and you know your own better than anyone.

Reflux sucks!!!!!!!

[babytn]

Hi

My wee one is only twelve weeks but formula fed and showing signs of needing something more than formula. He too is very gassy and the same as yourself i don't want to make him worse so i'm gonna hang off until at least 16 weeks and pray that the gassiness gets better! Good luck