Reflux graduates

...how did it happen? I guess I'm looking for encouraging stories or actually hoping for a MIRACLE. I just can't seem to get myself out of this reflux funk.

My boys are outgrowing their doses of prevacid but the ped GI can't give us any relief aside from just managing it: in other works SUCK IT UP. She said the boys will continue taking prevacid until 18 months (now 6 months) and we will try to wean them off meds then. Does it really take such a long time? I've read some here that are being weaned off at 9 months! I'm in the process of looking for another ped GI. Somehow my gut tells me there's a better ped GI out there somewhere.

Also, did the reflux get better as you kids started taking in more solids? I'm tired of feeding screaming, arching, crying babies all the time!

Thanks for listening and hoping to hear some success stories.

 

QUOTE
the ped GI can't give us any relief aside from just managing it: in other works SUCK IT UP.


Are you kidding me??? Yes, you do need a new doc Marie. Good grief. Obviously they are screaming, crying, arching, for a reason! It hurts! And the meds are working!! Let me at her.. :aggressive:

You are probably sick of hearing from me, but here goes...
0-3 months...pure ****, on a variety of different meds that didn't work! Arching/screaming/crying/and would not eat!
4-8 months...on Reglan/Axid, then Reglan/Prevacid, and did great! No more arching/screaming/crying/refusing bottles! Still spitting up though.
9-13 months....off Reglan, still on Prevacid. Jake was still spitting up.
14 months...off all meds. No more spitting up!!

:hug99:

 

I think Becky and I post back to back on all of the reflux posts. Mine have outgrown it and they are 9 months old--maybe not the norm but they did. They really outgrew it at about 6 months and we weaned off Prevacid and the cereal in the bottles. Per our Ped GI we added 2 tsp of cereal per each ounce of formula (we were only doing one/oz per our ped until we had our consult) and this made the most dramatic change in the spitting up. It was less and less and the Prevacid reallly managed their pain pretty well. 18 months seems a bit long. I had mostly heard by a year when we were in the throws of it. I agree...you need a new GI because there are alot of things out there to help manage pain.

Rachel

 

QUOTE
I think Becky and I post back to back on all of the reflux posts.


I think you are right Rachel!

Marie, I forgot to add we also did cereal in the bottles, and it was at least 2tsp per oz. It was thick!

 

My DDs have reflux. The first couple of months were miserable for us...one DD was really in pain...she would cry a lot, arch, refuse bottles. I told the pedi and they put us on Zantac...it did nothing. So, at our next pedi visit I asked for a GI recommendation. We went and the girls were put on Prevacid in the AM and Zantac (higher dosage than pedi had originally prescribed) in the PM and rice cereal in their bottles. After about a week things improved dramatically!! I'd say that we finally got a combo that worked around 3 months. We had one bad week to week and a half around 5 months (where I got so much support from Becky5...still grateful!). The GI increased their meds a bit and that seemed to help. Anyhow, other than that week, the girls have been doing very well over the past several months. At 8 months the GI took them off the Zantac and had us start reducing the rice in the bottles. In October (at 10 months) the GI will see them and decide whether or not to start wheening off of the Prevacid. They still have some minor spit-ups, but I think the solids have definitely helped. I would like to think that we are on our way to being a reflux success story

Reflux is SO, SO difficult. I sympathize with you. I think you're doing the right thing by switching GI docs. I hope you and your boys get the help you deserve from a new doc!

 

My son was on Prevacid since 2-3 months of age (tried Zantac for a few weeks), and we recently weaned him at 9 months. He basically stopped spitting up at 8 months (when he started sitting up well). Now he still spits up sometimes, but it's rare and usually only a little bit.

All my kids were spitters, however my ds was in pain, screaming, comfort feeding, etc., big spitters, especially my oldest and my son, however there were no major medical issues. My oldest never had meds ... she was in no pain ... just spit up 20 times a day ... but she was/is in the 95% since birth ...

 

At 9 months, we stopped the prevacid. We did not wean. I stopped it all at once to see if they still needed it and at that time, they showed no relux signs when off the meds.

When my boys began solids, they did not show reflux symptoms. The meds continued to work when they had solids.

 

Our ped told us that *most* babies outgrow their reflux around 9 months. My oldest DD had silent reflux, so no spitting up, but we stopped her zantac at 9 months and she was fine.

The twins were on prevacid (zantac didn't work and they did spit up), so we waited until 12 months to try and wean them from the prevacid. We gradually gave less of a dose and then just stopped and waited to see what happened. They were fine. Every now and then though Trevor will have a burp that sounds like he is going to spit up, but he doesn't.

I don't like what that dr. is telling you, I agree with Becky, you need a new one.

 

Jilly outgrew the reflux at 9 months. She was on Zantac and Reglan. It just sort of happened with no warning.

 

My ped gave the okay to wean off of Prevacid at 5 months and see if she was okay without meds. She wasn't. We tried again at 7 months and it was all systems go! No more reflux!

I certainly wouldn't continue giving it to my babies till 18 months without attempting a few times to see if they even still need it. It's a PITB to have to give that med every day (split the pill, mix with water, etc), plus, who wants their child on a med longer than necessary?

Good luck!

 

My guys are basically out of it.
they started with cereal in the bottles, browns bottles, soy formula, zantac and prilosec and then we stopped the cereal and then the zantac, then the prilosec.
We kept the browns bottles for one of them just to distiguish between bottles b/c we kept one on soy.
They stopped all of this around 6 months or so...I believe the baby food helped a lot.
Now Noah occasionally spits up. It does get better..I hated hearing my babies screaming during bottles and felt helpless...I know it's a horrible time. Hang in there

 

The prevacid is the drug of choice for reflux, I am not sure why.... It was terrible for us. My dd had
"multi-episodic" reflux. It was awful, backarching, failure to thrive, constant screaming, refusing to eat, etc... I thought I would never make it out of that state. I felt lost and my drs made it worse. My pedi was the only one who was sympathetic, but that was only after I did tons of research and came armed with knowledge and advocated for my kids. I would not accept "there is nothing more we can do."
There are several meds that are used to treat reflux and some kids react better to one or another. The prevacid made my dds symptoms flair, they because 100x worse. They had us try it 3 different times...I am not sure why. I don't understand why drs like it better. We also tried the Zantac, it would work for about 20 minutes, but if the regurgitation started again the good effect was gone and then we had to wait for the next dose. The med that finally worked for my dd was prilosec. The bad part was that it isn't covered by ins. because one form of the med is available otc. We did end up finding that we could break the otc tablets in 1/2 and then grind them between two spoons. My aunt is a nurse, and her drs office gave us a bunch of samples. It saved us so much. We also kept the zantac on hand for the occasional flair, but I bet we only used it a handful of times and it was usually following an illness.
At about 9 months our GI drs told us they were going to wean her at a year. I was SOOO afraid because if I was late with her med I could see her having trouble, so I thought there was no WAY she would outgrow it by a year. BUT she did! It was like someone flipped a switch. We slowly weaned the meds (about 2 weeks) and she has been fine...in fact she is looking chubby (she is still small for her age, but she has never looked chubby ).
She does have a recurrence of the backarching, etc... whenever she gets the flu. I think her body naturally reacts to that feeling with arching. I wonder if it will ever go away. Poor baby!
The best advice I can say is-The drs are not your friends. Your priority is to your children. Educate yourself and demand more. Become a ***** if you need to...I felt awful about it, but in the end we found something that worked.
I know it is hard. Good Luck