anyone's baby taking Ranitidine (Zantac) for reflux?

My daughter has been showing the beginning signs of constipation lately and I'm wondering if that's related to the Ranitidine (generic for Zantac). I looked online and it says that can be a side effect. Also, she's recently started to spit up A LOT more frequently and we are seeing the doctor about this on Friday. It's constanly, all day long. I'm wondering if the dosage is too high for her and making her belly sick. She actually has been more fussy too. Anyone experience this?

I'm not sure what the right thing to do is -- although I do have an appt with the Pedi on Friday. For those of you who have Reflux baby can you share some ideas of what has helped your little one??????

thanks.

 

the only thing that's helped us is prevacid. zantac wasn't strong enough. of course that just helps the reflux not hurt so badly, it doesn't stop the refluxing itself. nothing stops that, not keeping them propped up, not thickening their formula, nothing.

but easing the pain is enough for me. i don't mind doing extra loads of laundry as long as the spit-ups don't hurt anymore.

 

How old is she? I'd call the pedi and see what s/he says. Both of mine were on Zantac and it didn't stop the spitting for one (but at least she wasn't screaming and spitting), and the other did need to take maalox along with the zantac (but this was recommended by our pedi). I'd call and see what they think and if they can see her sooner. We did two doses a day if that helps any, and we kept them upright for about 45 minutes after each feeding. :hug: reflux is so difficult for babies and parents.

 

One of my daughters has reflux, and is on Zantac. The first day or two she seemed worse, but slowly got better. She also seemed slightly constipated at first. When she gets breast milk I put a little rice cereal in there. When she gets formula, we give her Enfamil AR. We treied o put her bacl on regular formula - which was a bad idea. The AR really mkes a difference. She spits up more breastmilk than formula unfortunately, but she has gotten so much better. She is not as fussy now as she used to be. I do a lot of laundry, but at least her pain seems to be better. Also, some days she just spits up a lot more than others....Good Luck!

 

One of my boys has been on Zantac since he was about 1 month old and we haven't noticed any side effects. He definitely isn't constipated but that doesn't mean it couldn't be happening to you. We have found the Zantac to be a lifesaver, he still spits up occasionally but isn't in any pain. We still keep him elevated after meals. I hope your doc is able to help you in the quest for the right meds, I have read that some other people haven't found Zantac to be successful but we have We've just had to stay on top of the dosage and adjust accordingly for weight gain otherwise we noticed it definitely didn't work as well!

 

Zantac's dosage is very dependent on weight. It may be that your babies need more! I never had any constipation issues here.

 

QUOTE(dezmitch @ Dec 16 2008, 11:43 PM) [snapback]1113129[/snapback]
I'm not sure what the right thing to do is -- although I do have an appt with the Pedi on Friday. For those of you who have Reflux baby can you share some ideas of what has helped your little one??????


Zantac did not work for mine, but Prevacid did. After about 5 days on Zantac we saw no improvement so we switched to Prevacid and within about 24 hours we noticed a difference and then about 2 days later it was so much better I couldnt believe it. We did have to change the boys off of Neosure to Alimentum because Derek had a milk protein allergy and I didnt want to fee different formulas at the time. So that helped as well. We also added 2tsp of cereal/per ounce of formula to Derek bottle per the Ped GI (he was a big spitter) and this greatly reduced the amount of spit up. Also we kept them upright for 30 minutes after each bottle during the day and 45 minutes at night before we laid them on an incline in their cribs. Hang in there. Reflux is so hard on everyone. :hug:

 

Our boys are on Zantac. We gave one of our boys the dosage recommended and he vomited that feed, PLUS the following feed. But like others said he didn't scream anymore. (He wasn't 'spitting' up, he was vomitting.)

So we cut his dose in half and that seemed much better for about a week, since then we've had to slowly insrease his dose back up, because the pain is back...fortunatly this has helped, no vomitting, and no screaming. I'm not sure why it's working now, like others have said, doesn't stop the reflux, just the pain...I'm ok with that!!

 

Mine take prevacid and zantac. For the constipation the specialist recommend milk of magnesia (a teaspoon or so in a bottle if I notice constipation). I gave
it to my son once the other day and it worked 6 hours later is was a nice poop
They are also in Enamil AR which also causes constipation (also the spacialist said Similiac causes less...but that have my daughter the runs and also my son sometimes too)... TOmmy massages help too

 

Zantac never worked for us. Prevacid, combined with adding 1/2 tsp of Mylanta and 3 Tbsp. rice cereal to their formula is the only thing that helped. And before they were spitting up constantly, all day long like yours are.