Reflux

Ahhhh, the dreaded reflux. Combine it with colic and you've got a miserable and difficult few weeks ahead of you. Tom developed both from about three weeks old and neither cleared up until four months and I can tell you it was not an easy period to be in our house. The colic meant that every afternoon from about five o'clock we had sustained crying for about three hours. It was back-arching, red-faced crying and I felt absolutely helpless. Reflux meant that every time he tried to drink his milk, the acid in his tummy would come back up into his throat and cause pain. Feeding was traumatic and exhausting, for both Tommy and for his parents. My husband was at work until 7ish and so by the time he got home I'd be at the end of my tether; he'd take over from me and I'd collapse in a corner for thirty seconds before preparing his dinner. We took it in turns to walk him back and forth across our dark bedroom until finally, after about an hour, he'd fall asleep. We then had an hour together to talk before I went to bed, knowing that I'd be up again in two hours, then five hours, the seven hours before it all started again the next day.

I think I must have asked every mother I know about suggestions for curing colic. We tried gripe water, infacol, dentinox, mylicon, you name it, we tried it. I think we were on our seventh or eighth remedy when it just sort of cleared up on its own. I'm sure these cures work for other babies but I'm not sure they helped with Tom. It was just time that was needed which is, unfortunately, not what anyone wants to hear but is sometimes the only thing that works. In terms of the reflux, our fabulous Italian paediatrician sorted us out with some super-dooper pills which kicked in immediately and the reflux was no more but again, it was around the four month mark that we started these pills and it may just have been the fact that the reflux had run its natural course. Who knows?