Advice on Gaviscon etc

Not sure where to start, I'm looking for some advice. Sorry about the novel but think it needs a bit of back story. . . . .

DS's sleep behaviour was getting worse and worse. We've had issues with BF for a while, to spite feeding as much as 9-10 times a day (sometimes for only 2min) he always seemed hungry but didn't want to eat (breast) except bottle and has been getting 2 x 120ml topups a day for about 6 weeks. Now he's just over 4 months and chewing and drooling when he sees us eat which reinforced my thought that he's hungry and could do with solids even though it's a bit early.

His sleep behavior was getting worse than I could handle and yesterday we went to the Drs and I talked about transferring him to fulltime FF, and starting solids - as I thought the issue was he didn't like BF and preferred the bottle. Dr also gave me some infant gaviscon because maybe it's reflux, no harm in trying. Because I was focused on the problem being my breast milk, we didn't really talk about reflux much.

He'd been up since 8am, BF had failed 3 times, we got home at 2.30pm. 200ml FF and into bed. He slept till 6pm - my DS sleeping 3hrs in the day? Unheard of! Up, short play, bath, BF and 2 sachets of gaviscon by spoon. (Little guy could not have been more enthusiastic about the spoon.) Dreamfeed 10pm. Wake for feeding 2.45am BF + 120ml FF with 1 dose gaviscon. He slept till 6.45am!
OMG that's the best nights sleep he's had like ever! Can you say happy baby? Even his breakfast BF went better than usual.

Here the bit I need advice on. I don't want to change everything all at once. BF to FF, adding solids, using Gaviscon because then I won't know what's actually making the difference.
The packet says max 6 doses gaviscon per day. Is that 6 sachets, or 6 doses? (DS is 7kg so 1 dose for him is 2 sachets).
And do I start with max dosage, or just one a day building up?
If it's one a day to start, what's the best time of day?
Do you give gaviscon after milk & before solids? Or wait till after solids?
Should I put solids off for another week or so, just trying BF & gaviscon?

And here I was thinking that drooling was just a sign of being a baby. We call him Mr Dribbles
In the Dr's office he did this thing like a hicup then a swallow. She said that could be a sign of reflux, I thought, really? He does it all the time, now I feel really guilty for not picking up on it earlier. I read the reflux signs ages ago, and he just didn't match up to their symptoms.


Edited by IsaacsMum

my wee man was on gavisvon to start with, then we switched to Ranitidine which was much more convieniant to give.
I was told to give the gavison beofre a feed, but breastfeeding it isnt as easy as putting it in the formula. I think by memory i gave it half way through a feed.
The only thing I would say about gavison is that it does constipate bubs, so watch out for that....I only gave 1 sachet at a time and no more than 4 a day, and this still helped..but still tends to bind up no. 2's, then they end up with another problem!
Good luck

Least you picked it up at 4 months not 10 months like we did! I feel so bad. He is always a happy baby so didn't pick it up, plus it presented like asthma.

We are very lucky here that we have not had the constipation!

Hope you have a good night tonight

Yesterday I was a bit slack on the gav & we were up constantly from 2.30 am......pays to certainly give it as much as possible!