Silent Reflux and formula

Hi hoping someone can help me! My little one is 6 weeks old and has silent reflux. She's currently on a lactose free formula "O lac" as recommeded by her doctor. But have found that the formula isn't satisfying her and she will not sleep or be settled! She's in having a total of about an hours sleep a day and not settling till 11 at night! She's so misrable that she just cries all day. I've tried offering her more milk but she's not interested as she's full of liquid but is wanting to feed every 2-3 hourse. I've offered her other normal formulas which she's more content on but they hurt her tummy and she's normally in a lot of pain after feeding.

Can anyone recommend any formula that I should try??!!

She's also taking losec but not sure if she's actually getting it all as these are in tablet form and have to be crushed and given to her. Does anyone know if this is available in Hong Kong in liquid form???

And lastly, if anyone has any advice or miracle cure to keep my sanity!!!

Hi Buz,

Firstly I feel for you as I know from personal experience how difficult this is.

You need to make sure that she is getting the correct dose of Losec because if she is not she will continue to be uncomfortable with "heartburn" sensations. The discomfort tends to make them want to suck more for comfort (appearing hungry all the time) and then finally they get a big tummy ache from too much! This in turn ups the reflux and it becomes a very viscious circle.

You need to get liquid losec or ranitidine and make sure that you request your doctor give you the liquid script for it. Give it to your baby as prescribed (and keep a note of any weight gains so that you can always make sure she is getting the correct dose). You can place the teat in her mouth and syringe the medicine in the end of the empty teat, babies will then drink the mixture easily and without a fuss and because they are swallowing they will not "gasp" or catch their breath with a gulp of medicine from a syringe. The medicine is a little bitter and so as you are giving her O lac you may want to add a few mls.

You can get infant gaviscon, which works a treat for a quick fix during any really bad episodes of discomfort but if you get the correct dose of losec this should not be required.

Keep her upright as much as possible, either wear her in an upright sling OR let her rest in a semi reclined baby chair (I call them frazer chairs, the ones that are available at mother care, you can pop a baby mobile overtop so she is upright but also able to look at something while she is wakeful) .

Try to avoid settling her flat in her crib or bed. If she is in a moses basket (or similar) put something under the head end (either mattress or under) so that it is slightly elevated say 45 degrees. REMEMBER that you need to always look at the safety of elevating (but I am not going to go into that because it is just common sense!).

I am also a great believer in pacifiers for reflux babies. They get so much comfort from sucking (and that is what gets them into these terrible states of "hunger like" behaviour) so this may be another option that you may like to try. Do get a decent size pacifier though! the normal pacifieres in HK seem so small that they "tease" the babies and do not really give them something to suck and hold on to. Make sure you get one with a nice big "cherry" type teat.

Also warm deep bathing can also help, if you just massage a baby in this state they can get very "over stimulated" and it does not really calm them well. A warm deep bath tends to relax a baby and she may settle a little better.

And lastly, to keep your sanity, try and try to get some sleep when she does (as hard as it sounds) it will make the world of difference to the both of you.

pm me if you would like to chat.

I have four children and they have ALL been refluxers and my first and fourth were silent! It can be debilitating and frightening at times.

Hi Buz,


I don't understand what silent reflux is, but I have two sons with reflux when they were young baby. They vomitted after feed, and hungry very often because their stomach can only take very little milk on every feeding. Let say the other baby drank 120ml in one go, my son only took 30-40 ml each feeding. Almost everyday they vomitted many2 times, can up to 5 - 7 times. I was so tired at that time (need to clean the vomit and handle the baby), feel frustrated and didn't know what to do.


Sometimes, one hour after feeding and my rldest son was sleeping, he can vomit on the babycot without me knowing. My paediatrician in singapore offered to do test (inserting tube into his stomach) to check what was wrong, but I refused to do that. And he also prescribed medications but I didnt't give to my son.


I tried other approach, give special thickened formula. In singapore, they are available from Friso, the name is: frisovorm / frisocomfort. Its special formula for reflux baby, and it did help. Because with thickened formula, the milk would stay and can not regurgitate back easily. And the milk contains lactose. And also try to elevate his head after feeding, like what midwife mentioned above.


My second baby also had reflux, I am more confidence how to handle coz I have experienced it with my eldest son. They choked quite easily and has lots of gasses in the stomach.


Now my eldest son is 3.5 y.o and my second son is 1.5 y.o. My eldest son has no more reflux, but my second one still have it sometime.


I understand it's very difficult to take care a reflux baby. Don't worry, your baby definetely will outgrow the reflux. As long as her body weight is normal for her age, don't worry to much...

hi buz,


i do feel for you - i hae been through the same with my first, and although he is now 2yrs old, he still has quite bad reflux. he started out with silent reflux and then it developed into fulll blown reflux...so i feel for both you and the little one!


my boy is currently on losec but had been on zantac from 10 wks until 18 months. zantac is liquid ranitidine and can be syringed into the mouth and dosage is weight related. he responded well to that unti labout 18 months, and then we switched him to losec. losec isn't available in liquid form here in hong kong so the only way we can get him to drink it is to mix it with his vitamin syrup.


bizarrely though, hte only milk he would drink was olac.....we tried so many others. another brand you could try is a thickened milk. think it's called enfamil AR - the AR means that it's thickened. that may help to keep the liquid rather than have it come back up his oesophagus again. my son spat it out!


please try to not get too depressed about it - i know i took it really badly those first few months, moreso because for 10 wks we didn't know what it was and some doctor actually told me it was a beahivoural problem!!! so i ended up changing milk half a dozen times, bottles and teats were bought to no avail and every time i used to feed him i would be in tears!! now i look back on those months and i know that if my helper hadn't been so patient with him and given me a break many a time, i would have had serious post natal depression! so please please don't blame yourself or get too frustrated with your little one - it's no one's fault....to this day my son hardly eats a thing and it's all i can do sometimes to not get too worried or frustrated with him, especially when other kids are eating everything under the sun!


the other thing is that when he would cry i would use a dummy (cherry teat) on him and it really did calm him down which was great. he used to drink 1-2ozs, start crying and so we would put the teat in for 10 mins or so to keep him calm and then try to feed him again after that. sometimes it would be 40 mins before we could feed him the next few ozs, but the dummy was a significant help. i also used to put kiddy music on for him or feed him while i put a baby dvd on.....all to keep him distracted and calm.


i now have no2, and this one doesn't have reflux (so far) and what a world of difference it is - it makes me realise how tough it was with no1, and i really do believe that people with non-reflux babies cannot comprehend how tough it is, and how depressing and worrying this condition is. my no2 drinks more now that i could ever feed my no1, and she is only 5wks old...


hopefully your baby will be one of the lucky ones whose reflux clears up sooner rather than later! i really so feel for you and please dont' feel you are alone in this - there are lots of reflux babies and worried mums out there - some probably not even diagnosed as i think some doctors don't believe it exists so at least your little one is getting help!

Thanks for your replies and support. It's a trying time especially when I kept hearing how other babies the same age sleep for 11 hours a night!!!! It does make you feel like crap to be honest!

Unfortunately she will not take a dummy BUT I will buy some cherry teat ones and see if they take her fancy!!!

I called the doctors office and unfortunately the losec is not available in liquid form in Hong Kong, typical! For the time being I will just continue with the O Lac formula as this is good for her tummy but unfortunately not my sanity! Meanwhile I have some other lactose free formula being sent from the UK to see if another brand is any better! Thanks again.

hi buz,

not entirely sure why the O-Lac isn't satisfying your little one. Olac is pretty much normal formula milk with the lactose taken out but another sugar is put in instead. Maybe your little one just isn't getting enough or is crying because of her reflux rather than being hungry all the time? the problem with getting lactose free milk from the uk is that you won't get the same over here and it will get really expensive getting it sent out all the time. perhaps you should try to persevere with the dummy - you can get the cherry teats in mothercare but i couldn't find them in b2b.


and maybe try the thickened formula which you can get here.


i also wouldn't worry to much about other babies 'sleeping' through the night. most babies don't sleep through until they are about 3 months old, so those who are sleeping through at 6 weeks are either very unusual or not telling you the truth!!

my little one is in her 6th week and she sleeps at 7pm, wakes up at 11pm for a feed, then at 3am for a feed and then at 7am again but that is a good night. some nights she'll wake up at 1am and not get back to sleep until 3am - and she doesn't have reflux!!!


my son who had reflux, slept through from week 12. we could never 'dream feed' him as he would end up being wide awake and screaming, so we just let him wake up at night when he needed feeding.

Hi buz,


My little boy had reflux as well, and it was (and is) a harrowing experience. I breastfed him - need a lot of patience ad breastfeeding support - mum/ hub or a v. patient helper to go through a single feeding session - multiple burps, crying, passing gas, doubling up with pain and so on. I totally understand teh crappy feeling!


I gave him enfamil AR from 4 months on (he is 8 months old now). He totally started rejecting the bottle (used to give expressed milk before). His doc also started him on Zantac - seemed to help a bit.


Anyhow, I finally resorted to feeding by medicine dropper, till he could sit up and drink from a sippy cup.


Enfamil AR did help - available at some mannings stores - not all. I bought mine from prince's building.


I waited for him to get old enough to have solids - and that helped, although the feeding process is real slow.


You need tonnes of patience. Good luck.