After a particularly successful home birth, maternity care stayed a little longer with us on the night of the birth of our daughter to make sure that I would not lose any more blood, because that could mean that I still had to go to the hospital. I was glad she stayed, because Luna coughed up rusty brown clumps and sometimes made strange noises. The caregiver reassured us that this was quite normal. Barely one hour after emerging from my womb, our daughter started to drink lustily from my breast, and what sucking power this little one had!
A tearful maternity week
Despite the fact that she had been in my belly all this time, we spent the days after birth getting used to each other and getting to know each other (again). Which made sense, because Luna was now outside my belly for the first time and busy exploring this new world. Hot/cold, light/dark, hungry and tired. She was up quite a bit, but that’s normal for such a little one. She also cried a lot, but that’s part of it, people told us. When we carried her with us, she was usually quiet and fell asleep, but when we put her down, she immediately started crying. Day after day, I was running circles with her through our living room and (due to our lack of space) rather lopsided ones through our bedroom. My partner sat and studied with her in a baby carrier when it got too much for me. A never-ending cycle of feeding and comforting her and back to feeding her. It seemed to me that she wanted to drink a lot more than I could offer her although she was already getting so much milk from me. It was almost as if she wanted to swallow something down – her pain. We talked to a lactation consultant, but all to no avail. Much to my painful regret, I had to stop breastfeeding, which felt like a failure.
Your baby cries a lot: is there more going on?
We asked for help at the childcare clinic and discussed the matter with friends and family, whenever we could. We told them that our daughter appeared to be in constant pain, hiccupped a lot and that it seemed as if she would bring up her food time and again, but without ever spitting it out. Several health care providers told us that it wasn’t reflux, because babies with reflux would spit a lot. We never even considered silent reflux, and nobody mentioned it to us. However, we did get an incredible number of helpful tips to remedy the problem: a different brand of vitamins, a new milk formula, thickened milk, putting her down with her upper body slightly raised, a different teat on the bottle, a new bottle, interrupting her feeding to let her burp. We tried them all!
When you've tried everything with your crybaby
Four bottles, a new thickened milk formula and a three-position teat later – with minimal results only. We no longer dared to lay her flat down, only in a slightly raised position. With all these adjustments, we felt as if we had to treat her with kid gloves, but nothing seemed to help. She was still in pain, and it only seemed to be getting worse. Several people told us that an osteopath could work miracles. “I had an entirely new child afterwards,” someone told us. After a visit to the osteopath, we did notice some improvement, she was a little less cramped, but still she cried with pain. My parents were shocked by how exhausted we were, and our family came to our rescue more than once to help us out and to give us time to recover.
Finally the answer: hidden reflux
Until that day, when my partner talked to our neighbor about our desperate search for answers for our little one. She recognized the symptoms and told us she might be suffering from hidden reflux. Her daughter had been given medication for that and it had worked right away. So we went to see our family doctor. Tired of all the tips, we didn’t want to go home without medication. In the back of our minds we heard the voices of all the people giving us tips, saying “you really don’t want to put your child on medication already at such an early age!” But watching our child being in so much pain did not feel good either, and we, too, were not doing well at all either. The doctor went over all the tips we had already tried and hesitantly took the decision to prescribe the medication for us. First for one week to try them out, then come back to see how it was going.
"Two days after taking the medication, a little girl with a radiant smile appeared at our home, a fighter, who didn't cry easily or suffer a lot of pain."
Medication for hidden reflux: a world of difference
Two days after taking the medication, a little girl with a radiant smile appeared at our home, a fighter, who didn’t cry easily or suffer a lot of pain. This little girl had been in so much pain all this time that she couldn’t show her lovely, sweet character. Tears of joy! After searching for a solution for two and a half months, determined to never give up, we are now overjoyed that from now on, Luna can go through life pain-free.
Weaning her off the medication
We regularly tried to stop giving her the medication, but every time the pain came back, and it felt like a throwback to those unhappy early days. After eight months, our family doctor was a bit concerned and sent us to the pediatrician, who reassured us that GPs tend to be very careful (and rightly so). She examined our daughter thoroughly from head to toe and concluded that she was a very happy, satisfied and healthy baby: a proper little Dutch tough cookie!
A bright future without reflux
Just after her first birthday, she managed to get off the meds. Sometimes she still burps a lot, but otherwise she is a very cheerful, playful, sweet and naughty girl who constantly laughs (at herself) and who is quite resilient!
If what you’re trying doesn’t work, don’t give up! Think of it as an opportunity to make new conscious choices with those insights, you’re on the right track!
