Refux, Colic, food intollerance???

I am not sure what is happening with my baby. DS1 had really bad reflux, and dairy and gluten intolerances until he was over a year old.
DS2 is a very grizzly baby. I just don't know what is causing it, and I am starting to get a bit depressed and stressed out.
Originally I thought it was reflux, like with DS1, so I first of all cut dairy out of my diet (which helped quite a bit), then tried gaviscon, and then we went on to ranitidine. But it hasn't made much difference at all.
I realised that it seemed to be trapped wind in his stomach that was making him so upset, so I stopped ranitidine, and tried infacol to help with his wind. This helped for a bit but doesn't seem to have much effect anymore.
Then I thought maybe it was hyperlactation - I do have heaps and heaps of breastmilk, and he gulps lots of air when he drinks as the let down is so foreceful, and he is probably getting way too much foremilk which is making him even gassier. So I have been drinking sage tea to decrease the amount of milk I have.
But nothing is really making that much of a difference. He crys a lot, and wants to be carried, so I put him in the Moby. When he wakes for a feed about 3am in the morning, that is when he is at his worst and will scream and scream and nothing I do seems to help, he just has a really sore tummy. This goes on til about 5.30am before he falls asleep again.
Is it colic? Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Sorry for the long post!

Haven't tried colimed. Might give that a go. I have tried gaviscon a few times when I was desperate but it didn't seem to do much but cause constipation!

I am a bit wary of losec as I used it with DS1 and found the side effects to be worse than the cure. But I may give it a go if I need to.

I am currently dairy free, but thinking I might cut out gluten and do the full elimination diet if things don't improve in the next few days....will just wait til after xmas!

Hila I could have written your post almost word for word! DD1 had reflux and food intolerances, and we are experiencing similar problems with DD2, except more severe this time.

DD2 has all the classic reflux symptoms, plus diarrhoea, bloating, rashes etc - so while we have seen some improvement with Losec I think allergies might be behind her problems. I took dairy (and caffiene, acidic foods etc) out of my diet as soon as we started seeing symptoms (at one week old) and I think that helped but something in my milk is still obviously bothering her as I have just tried her for a couple of days on Neocate and after just one day her refluxing, diarrhoea etc has stopped.

Anyway, enough about me!

With DD1 we had some success with getting her hair tested for intolerances, have you thought of that? It could help identify foods to try cutting out of your diet. We got it done through a naturopath for DD1 but I have just sent off a sample of DD2's hair to Allergenics to be tested.

I have considered that our problem may be lactose intolerance, perhaps he could be tested for that, or you could try giving him some lactase?

Have you thought about seeing a paediatrician? I have been told Dr Rodney Ford is really good in Christchurch.

It is stressful though huh? ... and so disappointing, we had one week of placcid baby and I really hoped we were in for an easy ride this time

How are you getting on with your son now Hila? Have you tried eliminating any other foods?

I eliminated gluten for 4-5 days last week, I didn't think there was that much of a difference until I started eating 'normally' again and realised that it had made a significant difference. So am back off the gluten again. But she is still so unhappy. I have just gone off soy to see if that makes a difference.

For me chocolate is the hardest thing to give up - you think, wahoo, whittakers dark chocolate is dairy free, and then you hear that chocolate is one of the worst foods to affect reflux ... just when you need a few treats to get you through the day!

I am seeing a paediatrician on Wednesday to see if he can offer any advice ...

YAY that is so good to hear!!

We use probiotics as well, I discovered them with DD1 - back when she was on meds they countered the effect of the ranitidine (if I forgot for a couple of days she got so unsettled) and then later when she was 18 months old (after several months on goats milk) she got bad candida in her tummy (diarrhoea, sick all the time) and good doses of probiotics cleared that up. Slippery elm powder - as recommended by the naturopath - also helped a lot, I'm not sure what age they can have it., but it helps with digestive problems.

Thanks for the link, no I haven't been to that site yet, will have a read

We've just started with Slippery Elm as well. Healthpost.co.nz has it at a good price.

I've just been to see our naturopath over the holidays & he said for us to try stone ground wholemeal flour & what do you know...we have normal pooh, so we tried normal wholemeal flour & back to a mess.

What it seems to be is the process of the white flour & the chemicals used, so for us it's not gluten that is the problem but the processing of the flour.

Just thought I'd put that idea out there for people to maybe do a trial on.