Reflux case study
In mid-September a mother living in South Africa, Johannesburg, contacted me about purchasing my book. After a few emails backwards and forwards, learning of her seven week old's journey from birth, she decided to book in for a Zoom consultation to nurture her baby back to health. This is an overview of her daughter’s situation, and what I suggested and was implemented to nurse Amy back to health. For the purpose of this blog names have been changed.
Baby Amy’s history
When I ‘meet’ Amy she was 7 weeks old, gaining 300 grams a week (well above healthy weight gain measures for her age) had been on six different formulas since birth, so almost a new one every week since birth, and was now on soy formula, which is not healthy for our young. To me, this it was completely unfathomable that the health professionals within this Mums journey could suggest such a roller coaster ride of formula change for one so young. But that was just the tip of the iceberg.
Amy had been prescribed several medications by her paediatrician - gaviscon, probiotics, telament, panado, bennetts colic mixture and had been prescribed Nexium, which is a strong acid inhibitor that turns off the acid in the stomach - something that is HIGHLY necessary for full digestive health. Thankfully Amy’s Mum had the prescription for this but had not started using it.
Instead she googled frantically on the internet for other answers and found me. On writing to me and outlining all that had be prescribed and given to Amy thus far, her words summed up what I commonly see and hear in my clinic, “all of this but no improvement! This is breaking my heart. She is in constant pain. All curled up in a ball when she sleeps (the little that she does) back arched when awake, fists clenched, constipated and consistent crying.” It broke my heart to.
Amy's mum listed her symptoms as:
- Extreme fussiness during feeds
- Starts crying as soon as put in feeding position
- Lots of discomfort after feed, liquid like loud gurgling sounds after feeds
- straining legs after feed, legs to chest if lying down
- cries a lot most of the day as if in pain
- sucking hands vigorously
- wakes up happy but problem starts after first feed
- does not nap enough during the day
- Chalky, sometimes explosive poos 2/3 times a day..sometimes very foul/sour smelling
- sometimes strains to poo
Advised changes
My main aim for Amy, as it is for all the newborns and infants I work with, was to nurture her digestive system back to functioning as nature intended, taking out as much of the extra medications and concoctions that we could. So after having a in-depth discussion via a Zoom consultation with Amy’s Mum, getting a clear history and researching the ingredients in all of the ‘remedies’ that Amy was having and that I was not familiar with – bennets, panado and telament – I advised that all of these be stopped and replaced with a homeopathic remedy that I often use to help newborns and infants feel calm and relaxed through their transition to health. I advised Mum that Amy might get slightly worse before she gets better as she would initially feel more of her discomfort from the overloading that was occurring with her feeds. But slowly, she would begin to see improvements.
I also recommended goats formula for Amy, since she had no signs of cow’s milk protein allergy (CMPA). Goats formula, in my opinion is the healthiest choice of formula available in these kinds of cases. Especially because now goats formula is iron fortified. But one must still be aware of ingredients to avoid in each brand available as some are healthier than others. You can read more about those ingredients here. Living in South Africa however, meant it would take 6 weeks for the Goats formula to arrive, so in the meantime we placed Amy on dairy formula.
I sent Amy’s Mum a Bio-logical Daily Pattern, which outlined the appropriate feeding, burping and sleep patterns for Amy’s developmental stage, in relation to her mental and physical health. I also sent information on particular aspects that would have Amy releasing more burps, thus feeling better in the digestive tract.
A few days after this advice Mum wrote to say, “We stopped everything immediately after our consultation. She is actually doing much better. We moved her over to regular formula to. I’m amazed at how much she has improved already.” Music to my ears! A few days later Mum wrote to say this…
The results for Amy and her Mum are what I achieve on a daily basis in my clinic. Digestive Overload, the cause of what is widely labelled as silent reflux, reflux, colic and Sandifer’s syndrome can be healed naturally. There is no need for all the pain and anguish for newborns. No need for parents to be embroiled in a cycle of extreme worry, frustration and sometimes utter despair. No need. No need. No need. Please help more newborns and infants by sharing my work far and wide, just as Amy's Mum did, helping one more baby in the process.
