Prevacid Moms/Dads - When Did You Stop Giving It?

Jacob has been on Prevacid for over 4 months. It was our miracle drug for controlling reflux and he doesn't spit up/ vomit at ALL anymore. However, I think it is causing insomnia for him... he used to be my great sleeper and honestly I don't think he's slept more than 4 hours at a time since we started the drug (and only one stretch that long each night).

So, if you had babies on it who have since gone off of it, how and when did you decide to stop? I talked to my doc today and she said I could either stay at the same dose or try tapering off.. it was up to me. So, now I'm coming to you!


Thanks, as always!!

 

At 6 months, one day we did not give it to them and we noticed quickly that they still needed it. At 9 months, we tried again to not give it to them and that is when we noticed they did not need it anymore! So that is when they outgrew their reflux.

eta- my dr. told me to not give it to them a few days before their 9 month appointment so when they came in for their appointment, we could talk about how their reflux and meds were going. So we were abe to say everything was fine without the prevacid.

 

We did what sort of what Nicole did, the doctor said we could try and not give it to him. He gave us two options on how we wanted to do it: wean off slowly or cold turkey. We chose cold turkey. I had a feeling that around ten months he was fine but we had an out of the country vacation and wanted to wait until that was over, and when we stopped we never looked back. If you feel that they don't need it anymore, give it a shot and hopefully your ds will start sleeping more. :hug99: Good luck!

 

Hmmm, it's interesting that he hasn't slept through and you think it's realted to taking the Prevacid. I never would have made that connection.

Ellie is on Prevacid, and she doesn't sleep through when her reflux is acting up. She was on 15mg Solutabs 1x/day, and she started waking again, and she is normally our champion sleeper. I did some research and came across the following reflux web site: www.marci-kids.com. It's a wealth of information! One of the things I found really interesting is how much faster infants metabolize PPIs (like Prevacid), so the dosage should be higher when they are younger. Anyways, they have dosage calculators for all of the reflux meds, and based on their calculations, Ellie should be getting the prevacid 3x/day up to 45 mgs vs the 15mg once a day to optimize its results. We decided to give it a try (couldn't get into the pedi til later and I was desperate to help her and get some sleep!), and voila, she started sleeping through the night again.

So, it might not be your case, but maybe he actually needs more meds, not less? Just a thought. Good luck! Suzi

 

We had clear signs of reflux until DD #1 was 12 or 13 months old. Even so, I wasn't able to wean her off until 18 months. At 13 months she still needed it. I tried again at 15 months and she still needed it. At 18 months, all reflux was gone and we were Prevacid free.

 

I have to agree, I don't think it's the Prevacid that's causing sleeplessness, but rather the reflux. Our DD has reflux and is a high needs/high energy baby, but she has done a lot better once we got her on the proper dosage of Prevacid. She still wakes at night, but so does DS... usually to eat and then they go back to sleep.

I also second the website quoted: marcikids, as I found that site and realized our dd needed a slightly higher dosage. And they say since babies metabolize a lot faster than adults, they suggest spreading out the dosage through the day. So if baby is getting 15mg total, give her 1/2 tab in the morning and 1/2 tab in the evening (1/2 hour before a meal). Our dd has been on 22.5 since she was 3 or 4 mos old and I break the tabs in half and give it to her 3x daily. It works really well.

The most common side effects from Prevacid are diarrhea, abdominal pain and nausea (at least in adults), so sleeplessness is not considered a side effect.

See if your doctor will agree to a ahigher dose, or you could even try an additional 1/2 pill daily for a few days and see if that helps her. If it does, you can report back to the doctor and he/she will probably agree to increase the dose.

Good luck!

 

My Jackie was on Zantac and Reglan. I quit giving him the Reglan very soon. I didn't like the side effects.

The Zantac I quit giving him at 5 months, because he was getting so much better.

 

My boys were on Zantac, but I actually found it was causing them to be MORE spitty while taking care of the actual reflux pain. Each time we tried them OFF of it, we quickly realized they needed it (but it was nice to not have pukey babies for a few days!). We actually weaned them down to once a day, but could never get off. At their 4 month appointment, I had them switched over to Prilosec. Shortly thereafter, the stomach flu ripped through our house & NO ONE was keeping ANY medicine down. At this point, Conner did fine & he hasn't had any meds since. We put Aiden back on it when he got fussy again, but we plan to try him off of it again around 6 months. We always went cold turkey & plan to do so again. It can lead to some unhappy days, but how else do you know? My doc said he could potentially need medication through 12 months, but said most babies outgrow the reflux between 4-6 months.

HTH!

 

9 months as per GI specialist advise. He was much better at 6 months but she said many people quit too early, and then it comes back full force. She suggested to stop between 9-12 months but since his case wasn't too bad, we got him off at 9 months without a problem.