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Funnily enough Callum vomited a lot in the first week (when he was taking formula milk as well as breast), but there's not much now. We do think it might be something to do with reflux though. My wife is feeding him exclusively on breast at the moment, and we don't want to disrupt that, so the Gaviscon idea will have to go on hold - thanks for the suggestion.

It is possible of course to take breast milk through a bottle.

Neither of ours were ever breast fed so it wasn't an issue for us but I'd have thought if it was reflux then using bottles and gaviscon would be easily the lesser of two evils having seen what Steven went through.

That sounds like reflux to me, Gnash - I didn't realise they could get it so early on though.

Steven had it from the day and hour he was born.

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Twins, GB?!? How exciting and also terrifying (I bet!). No advice, but I suspect you'll manage because you'll just have to. It'll be hard for a start, I'm sure, but as they get older it'll be brilliant. There's a charity called TAMBA (twins and multiple birth association) - click here and I'm sure they'd be a good place to start. Good luck! :)

Cheers Reina. Yeah pretty scary, but incredibly exciting at the same time. We had a wee look at the TAMB site before and are going to a "twins seminar" in London at the start of January!

Just need to try and find a double pram now that looks good and can fit through a doorway.......

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That sounds like reflux to me, Gnash - I didn't realise they could get it so early on though. The fact he's doing that suggests it's pain rather than wind - Cal would bring his knees up to his chest with the wind, which is the opposite of what your boy seems to be doing. Is he in a moses basket? If so, you could try tipping it (put some books under one end) so that his head is higher than his feet. There are lots of tips like that which can help - have a google search for it.

He does both - ie arches his back and brings his knees up. He's clearly in a lot of pain - you can tell by the grimacing, sudden movements and twitching and the 100% efffort he puts into screaming. My wife is getting upset about it and I feel guilty that I'm more bothered about the impact on us than the pain he's in.

BTW, Gnash, I'd really recommend reading the Baby Whisperer - I'm not one for routines as such, but her ideas were really interesting.

Will have a look at it.

It is possible of course to take breast milk through a bottle.

Neither of ours were ever breast fed so it wasn't an issue for us but I'd have thought if it was reflux then using bottles and gaviscon would be easily the lesser of two evils having seen what Steven went through.

Steven had it from the day and hour he was born.

Yeah, but we've been told the best thing is to take breast milk from the breast. The health visitor suggested it might be a lactose intolerance and gave us a prescription. If that doesn't work we'll give the Gaviscon in a bottle a try.

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I'd wait for a few weeks before trying to give a bottle as it can interfere with getting breastfeeding established properly if that's how you want to continue feeding. FWIW, Cal refused to take bottles of expressed milk. He was a nightmare with it - we used to give him a bottle every night from when he was 3 weeks old and it was great as I could have a wee sleep, but at about 8 weeks, he started to refuse it... he also never took a dummy, despite trying different types (we spent a fortune in dummies as he was such a sucky baby and I needed a break from it!) and we tried different types of bottles, with different teats and he wouldn't take any of them. So no, it's not always easy to give breastmilk in a bottle, unfortunately...

Hopefully the medicine you've got will work. You don't have to give the Gaviscon mixed in with milk, you can syringe it in after a feed. Be warned though, it's fucking horrible stuff if you're breastfeeding as you have to mix it up - it's like wallpaper paste - and give it to them after a feed, which does NOT go down well when they're all sleepy and drunk on milk. Cal was actually more sick after having it and it made him ridiculously constipated. There are other medicines that the HV can try if Gaviscon doesn't work - one beginning with R springs to mind (Ranitidine or something?) - which may work.

Something that might be worth a try is Infacol - you can buy it in Tesco and it's about £3 - you give it before a feed and it's to help with bringing wind up, I think. Certainly wouldn't do any harm.

In the end - and I know this is extreme and people thought I was mental when I tried it (but I was SO desperate for something to work that I'd have tried anything at that point as I was probably slipping into a PND) - we took him to a cranial osteopath. His birth was a bit, erm, interesting, and when we took him to the osteopath, she did an examination and could tell me exactly how his birth went and she also asked me if he was sick a lot and said his diaphragm was high. We had three sessions with her and he went from being grumpy, in pain, crying all day to a happy, smiley, laughing baby. I would never have believed it would work, but if we have another baby, I wouldn't hesitate to go again. It wasn't cheap, but so so so worth it.

I really feel for your wife (and you!) because it feels like it'll never end and - particularly for her with the post-birth hormones flying about - it can really affect you. If it's any consolation, after a really difficult first 4 months, we've got a really happy wee boy who sleeps really well (I've just cursed tonight by saying that), eats really well and is an absolute joy - even if he is a bit mental! ;) And despite wanting to give up breastfeeding early on because it was so difficult in the first 6 weeks, I only stopped feeding him a couple of weeks ago when he was just over 15 months old - let your wife know that it WILL get easier, and if she's determined to breastfeed, to ride it out because it gets so much easier and it's so worth it. :)

Edited by Reina
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Reflux? Piss easy. Lactose intolerance? Not so good.

Wee man's now 7 weeks and has hit the stage where he's cheesy puking up feeds. Similar to his older brother at the same stage.

Infacol, gripe water, baby massage for wind, knee surfing to get the wind out, anti colic bottles all tried.

3rd time around, I shouldn't be surprised..

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He does both - ie arches his back and brings his knees up. He's clearly in a lot of pain - you can tell by the grimacing, sudden movements and twitching and the 100% efffort he puts into screaming. My wife is getting upset about it and I feel guilty that I'm more bothered about the impact on us than the pain

Yeah, but we've been told the best thing is to take breast milk from the breast. The health visitor suggested it might be a lactose intolerance and gave us a prescription. If that doesn't work we'll give the Gaviscon in a bottle a try.

Gnash. Tell us what they gave you as a script. Chances are we've been there.

It's tough when they're so unsettled, the back arching is horrid.

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BTW (I always remember stuff after I've posted) - I cut dairy out of my own diet for a wee while and it did seem to help.

I had to do that after my daughter was confirmed lactose intolerant.

b*****d if you want a latte fix from Starbucks, as the buggers change you a premium for a soya latte but plenty of dairy free, soya and other stuff easy to get in supermarkets.

Cheese and Yoghurts can be tolerated, we do that with our 22 month old. My daughter prefers soya milk and she has it in nesquik shakes as well as straight, so it's easy to work around.

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I really feel for your wife (and you!) because it feels like it'll never end and - particularly for her with the post-birth hormones flying about - it can really affect you. If it's any consolation, after a really difficult first 4 months, we've got a really happy wee boy who sleeps really well (I've just cursed tonight by saying that), eats really well and is an absolute joy - even if he is a bit mental! ;) And despite wanting to give up breastfeeding early on because it was so difficult in the first 6 weeks, I only stopped feeding him a couple of weeks ago when he was just over 15 months old - let your wife know that it WILL get easier, and if she's determined to breastfeed, to ride it out because it gets so much easier and it's so worth it. :)

We also had a really stressful first 6 weeks. My wee one lost 11% of his body weight and was under 5lb. By 6 weeks I had to top up with fornula as he was still not at birth weight. What we didn't know then but new research was published in March 09 and the medication I was on, it turns out, inhibited the fat supply of my milk so Ruairidh was getting semi skimmed :lol::( I still managed to breastfeed as well until 15 months. However my friends wee one was introduced to expressed milk and within a couple of weeks was refusing the nipple. My friend broke herself trying to maintain supply through express only but sadly wasn't able to. So really the intro of bottle can go either way.

I agree with Reina, it is so worth it, I can't wait to start breastfeeding again when I have this one and I'm no longer on the offending anti depressants so I'm hopeful we'll not have same issues. :)

On another note, I think we've decided on a girls name but nothing on boys names at all!

Edited by Rowan
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I had to do that after my daughter was confirmed lactose intolerant.

b*****d if you want a latte fix from Starbucks, as the buggers change you a premium for a soya latte but plenty of dairy free, soya and other stuff easy to get in supermarkets.

Cheese and Yoghurts can be tolerated, we do that with our 22 month old. My daughter prefers soya milk and she has it in nesquik shakes as well as straight, so it's easy to work around.

We were told Molly was lactose intolerant when she was little, similar symptoms to what you describe. Shes 5 now and still drinks lactose free milk - but only because she can tell the difference if we try and give her cows milk and she complains its not "her" milk - but she happily has yoghurts, cheese and so on without any reaction. If she ever was lactose intolerant, Im 99% convinced she isnt anymore.

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We were told Molly was lactose intolerant when she was little, similar symptoms to what you describe. Shes 5 now and still drinks lactose free milk - but only because she can tell the difference if we try and give her cows milk and she complains its not "her" milk - but she happily has yoghurts, cheese and so on without any reaction. If she ever was lactose intolerant, Im 99% convinced she isnt anymore.

It can go away in childhood. Obviously you're never going to given them pints of blue lid milk at a time, but milk can be reintroduced after a period and we're hoping to do that with my son again, he's fine on yoghurt and other dairy, so hopefully will be okay with little bit of milk now and again.

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Thanks folks for the advice in the past few days. The lactose intolerance medication seems to be having some effect (chico - it's called Colief, and is basically a supplement of the enzyme lactase), as he has generally improved, but was terrible last night when he'd had a feed without the medication in the afternoon. Unfortunately preparing and taking it adds 20 mins on to every feed, but so far it's worth it.

Anyway, here's a nice picture of wee Callum getting ready to play in the snow with daddy earlier today.

post-2770-12909675131413_thumb.jpg

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