Rob & Suzanne’s Story
I have two gorgeous sons and I wouldn’t change them for the world but life has been fairly traumatic since they arrived. Our eldest son had stomach surgery at 3weeks old – his reflux was so bad the paediatricians thought he had a more serious medical condition and sent us to London for emergency surgery. Despite being diagnosed with reflux – it was not controlled and we were given no advice or information. We spent a year with our son screaming day and night (yes it really was pretty much all night!) and projectile vomiting every feed.

At our wits end, we finally demanded help at about a year old and he was given an array of medication which helped a little but not much. He is now 3 and still has reflux and still needs omeprazole. He was still waking 10 times or more every night until a few months ago when his dosage was changed.

We – bravely! – decided to have another child – our youngest is now 1. From the day he came home he screamed relentlessly and struggled to feed. I guessed pretty quickly what was wrong – he had reflux. In addition we were told he had a dairy allergy and had developed colitis. He was in such pain and distress – it felt like torture watching another baby suffer and we longed for sleep! Where are we at now? Well, our eldest son still wakes most nights (although not as frequently) and still needs medication. He may never grow out of it. From 1 year old he developed a ‘food aversion’ and regularly refused and drink for fear of the pain – we are only just beginning to see progress with this. Our youngest still wakes on and off all night and isn’t a good eater. He is taking medication too.

We are pretty exhausted after 3 years of barely sleeping but are determined not to lose hope that things will settle soon. Glad to see we aren’t the only parents who have found reflux traumatic. What a shame so many of us have battled with medical professionals being dismissive and ignorant about reflux and how it affects the lives of children and their parents.