Sam The Reflux Baby

‘He’s gorgeous’

‘He’s so cute’

‘He looks like a proper little boy’

‘He’s the happiest baby ever’

‘He’s so smiley’

These are some of the things people have said to me when they have met Sam – they are right, he is gorgeous, smiley and such a happy little boy.

‘Sorry, excuse the smell of sick’

‘Sorry, he’s got sick all over him’

‘Sorry, you’ll need a muslin when you hold him’

‘Sorry, he’s been sick all over you’

‘Sorry, he’s been sick all over your expensive rug’

These are some of the things I have said to people when they have met Sam and have asked to hold him – Sam is a reflux baby!

Sam started with reflux at about 2 weeks old, he screamed in pain and was only OK when we walked around holding him under his armpits, so he could hang down!!  He would be sick most of his milk and then scream in pain.  Luckily, we have an amazing health visitor and he saved the day by prescribing carobel – a powder to thicken his milk and to help it stay down and less painful.  This worked a treat (unless you run out – we thought we had a full box in the cupboard…we didn’t – that was a very sicky and smelly weekend waiting for the chemist to open at 9am on Monday morning – bad parents!)

Carobel worked and still does in Sam’s milk and he can’t have a bottle without it, however food is a different matter – we can’t dose his food in carobel unfortunately! Since we started weaning, Sam permanently has a trail of sick following him wherever he may go!  He feeds a bottle, sick, breakfast,  sick, bottle sick, lunch…you get the idea!  He isn’t just sick straight after, so you can contain it there and then, he can be sick anytime, anywhere, any amount! Now he is crawling and constantly on the move, it’s even harder to keep track of. Like this morning, he was crawling along the floor and was obviously sick on his travels and then he decided to use the sick as a fun game and see how far he can spread it and how much of his body he can smear in it too – it is a delightful stage he is going through right now! Like the many times he is sat nicely on the rug, laughing and playing then as he’s doing all of these he’ll be sick and just carry on! We have to be on full sickness alert the whole time otherwise disaster strikes!

My heart does go out to the poor little dude, he can’t help it and I know it can’t be nice (despite the fact he doesn’t seem to realise he is doing it as he carries on like nothing has happened and continues his laugh whilst being sick!!) I feel sorry for him with the fact that people now expect him to be sick.  At a friend’s wedding, everyone was so worried about their posh outfits and couldn’t risk the sick/smell ruining them – which I don’t blame them, we too had the same concerns! Finn obviously finds it hysterical, I have lost count how often Finn is laughing his head off saying, ‘Mum Sam’s been sick and is rubbing his face in it’ or ‘Mum Sam has been sick on me and it stinks’ or a favourite of his ‘Mum Sam has been sick but he’s laughing so its sprayed everywhere and I don’t know where it went’. Thankfully, Finn has got use to sicky Sam and is always on-hand with a wet wipe to clean his chin, the floor…anywhere and everywhere!

We have been to the health visitor many times thinking it can’t be right, it can’t be normal and something else must be wrong but we have been told ‘he’ll grow out of it’ every time…we were told this could be when he started weaning but hey ho he hasn’t yet and doesn’t look like he will be anytime soon so we will keep the washing pile sky high, the 1001 muslins in every room in the house, the 9758 bibs and the 101 packs of wet wipes we have on or around us 24/7 until he, one day (hopefully!!) stops and keeps at least one milk/food down him.  Until then he will continue to be our happily, smiley, sicky baby boy.

Reflux baby checklist:

• Muslins, muslins, muslins (hence my love for them on our site!)
• Bibs
• 2-3 changes of clothes – depending how long you are planning to be out and how many feeds that involves
• Wet wipes – if nothing else they make you feel a bit better, like you have tried to get rid of the smell – you won’t have and unfortunately, they will still smell unless you bath them – but hey you have tried!
• A sense of humour – they can’t help it!