I have been reading the stories on your website and thought ours may be of some reassurance to people struggling through this.

G was perfectly healthy and happy until he reached 10 weeks old, when he began to pull off the bottle, arching his back and screaming. Within a couple of weeks, it affected every feed and he stopped gaining weight. He was often taking only half of his daily requirement and was obviously in discomfort. I sought advice from my health visitor, who was and continued to be utterly useless and not supportive at all. if I had a pound for every time she said “have you tried baby massage….?”. Fortunately, my GP was extremely supportive, monitoring him for a couple of weeks, watching him during a feed and referring us to paediatrics swiftly. They, again, were very helpful and diagnosed silent reflux. He was put on Infant Gaviscon, and advised about positioning but 2 weeks later we were still no further forward. He started on ranitidine and I began weaning him, and over the next week his symptoms gradually started to resolve. Unfortunately, the ranitidine made him very susceptible to viral gastroenteritis, and he was ill almost constantly, making weaning extremely difficult. Once he began sitting up well & standing at about 7 months old, we decided to stop the ranitidine in the hope that his reflux was sufficiently resolved.

He is nearly 8 months old now and has been really well for about 3 weeks, with no more episodes of gastroenteritis. He eats pretty well and is extremely active. It was terrible to watch him suffer so much and feel so helpless. It took quite some perserverance to convince people that something was wrong, but doing so meant he got good and timely management. I also benefited from having him in a routine, which meant I could feed him little and often over about an hour and a half, and then give him a good rest till the next time. I feel it also meant we recognised the problem earlier.
I can’t deny its been an extremely difficult time for all of us, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel.