Reflux question

I know I have read people on here say they saw a huge difference when they switched meds. My babies were on Zantax and were still having problems. After getting a new Ped GI he switched them to prevacid. It does not seem like things are getting any better. They still are not eating well, but do get down about 20ozs a day. Is that enough?

Also, what is the best I can expect from these meds. DS is still having at least one bad episode a day where her clothes must be changed (DH and I call it a waterfall coming out of her mouth and nose as she struggles to keep breathing) and a few more a day where bubbles come up causing her to choke and stop her from breathing for what seems like forever to a worried mom. DS was always my eater and he now is a handful to feed needing lots of coaching. He spits up regularly and still has a few episodes a day where he wakes up choking and gaging. What is the best that I can expect?? I can never lay them down flat and just am wondering, have we not found the right meds, or is this as good as it gets.

One more question, those of you who have babies on prevacid, do you have a solutab and what is the dosage you give how many times a day?

 

Big Hugs! I am so sorry that things like this for you guys. I think it can take some time for a drug like prevacid to work. It is different from zantac. I have reflux myself and if I want instant relief I take zantac. If I want better relief that may take awhile to work, I take a drug like prevacid, prilosec, aciphex or protonix. I don't know how long they've been on the new drug, but I would give it some time before you really know if it is helping or if you are still in an in between phase.

Also, my DD eats between 20-24 oz/day and DS eats between 25-32. DS is on protonix and was on prilosec for a month. I think he has less lower GI probs on the protonix and I'm happy with it. It does have to be compounded though. Anyway DS doesn't have near the reflux that your babies have. He spits up and it can be a lot more than DD, but nothing like what you describe. I have a niece that was like that so I do know what you're talking about.

I really hope that things improve for you - soon. :hug99:

 

:hug99: I know what you are going thru. I am now 12 days on Prevacid. I just called my doctor the 9th day on it and she told me to give it at least two weeks (I spoke to secretary because of course docs are not there for the holiday weekend, Friday). I was crying because my DD just seems to be in horrible pain when she drinks her bottles. We don't have vomiting just spit-up which has considerably decreased...anyway, since that phone call, in the last few days, she does seem better. She has had one bottle that she does cry thru once a day still but it's better than all day everyday. I think it was Saturday that she only had 7 oz within 24 hours becase she was taking very little and once not even a drop. That same day we were in the car and she was choking. Thank god we were in a parking lot. I had to pull her up from the seat and get her sitting up. Clear bubbly fluid was coming out and I couldn't see well but it looked like it was coming out of her nose. Anyway, I shared this to let you know I understand what you are going thru.

The both are on the solutab. I give 1/2 a 15 mg pill a day.

Please feel free to PM me if you want to talk about it :hug99: .

Kelley

 

Jen,

I hate to be the one to say this, but none of the reflux medicines (except Reglan) help with spit up or the waterfall vomit you mentioned. Zantac, Prevacid, Prilosec and all the others help ease the pain of reflux, so what you should see is less refusal to eat, less back arching, less screaming, etc.

Do you put rice cereal in your babies bottles? I found that helped keep the milk/formula down a bit for my daughter who had frequent waterfall vomit. She would usually puke about once a day - everything that was in her stomach would come pouring out her mouth (not usually her nose). The rice cereal helped, as did putting her to sleep for naps and the night on a wedge. I bought the special reflux wedges from the Tucker Sling company and they really did help. It's the proper angle, and there's a velcro wrap that keeps the baby from slipping down. Also, we started using the exersaucers to keep our girls upright during the day when they were about three months old. They were never on their backs except for diaper changes.

Last but not least, cutting all dairy and soy out of my diet helped immensely with the pain and seemed to slow down the puking. Within about four days, both of my girls were obviously feeling a lot better. I think eliminating foods helped even more than the medicine did. When I stopped pumping, we tried milk and soy formula, but ended up on Nutramigen since the symptoms came back with milk and soy.

If you haven't switched to a hypoallergenic formula, you should give it a try for a week to see if it helps. Also, my daughter with reflux that sounds like yours didn't do well on either Zantac or Prevacid. Zantac was apparently too weak, and Prevacid solutabs contain milk protein so they made her pain worse. Prilosec was the medicine that helped for us, and she's still on it twice a day at eight months old. Up until last month when we stopped putting rice cereal in her bottles, she was only drinking between 14 and 17 ounces a day. My doctor said that as long as a baby is getting about 15 ounces of milk/formula a day and is growing at a decent rate, there's no need to worry. We didn't try Reglan for my daughter because of the potential side effects and because she was gaining weight.

Good luck to you. Reflux stinks, but it does get better. It feels like it never will, but it does. Feel free to PM me if you have reflux questions or just want to vent. I've been there and can commiserate.

 

Reglan was the only drug that I saw that dramatic improvement with in my babies. My babies were on a Reglan/Axid combo. Jake was on Prevacid towards the end of the FY. It was after they started the Reglan that they stopped arching/screaming/fighting me on bottles. We did not have any side effects from the Reglan.

Like Trish, I would suggest either Nutramigen or Alimentum, if you have not already tried it. And definitely add the cereal to their bottles. I added 2tsp per oz.

:love0028: Reflux was the toughest part of those first few months for us.

 

My two were also on prevacid after zantac didn't work for them. I think 20 oz. is fine, my two only got up to 22 oz. a day and that was at 10 months, they were never big formula drinkers, but that was enough for them.

They were on the solutab and they each got a 1/2 table twice a day. We used a syringe and dissolved it in water.

I noticed a big difference when we switched to prevacid. Mine never had the pain associated with reflux, but spit up all the time. For us prevacid helped the spit up a lot. I know some will say it didn't help them with spit up, but it did for us.

Good luck, I know reflux is not fun or easy, all 3 of my kids had it. :hug99:

 

I wanted to add that the Prevacid has helped us with spit-up also. It's not completely gone but is much more managable. Now, for the Reglan...I had to take my babies off because my DS was so irritable after a few days on it. I ended up in the ER because he is not an unhappy baby at all and it concerned me. The rx leaflet they give you says to call if they have this side effect. When I went to the babies 2 month check up I told my regular ped and she said take them off of it because of the side effects Reglan has.

I agree with the pp to add cereal. Add 1 tsp for every 2 ounces.

 

Here is what we did. We first started on Zantac and we waited about 5 days and there was no improvement at all. So we started Prevacid and were referred to a Ped GI. We saw some results on the Prevacid by about day 4 and then it just got better. The arching and the screaming was starting to go away some. But the spitting still continued. The Ped GI suggested to add 2 tsp per ounce of formula to the bottle (up from 1tsp from the Ped) and this made the most dramatic difference in the spitting. It was the best thing we ever did!!!

I did have one on Alimentum for a possible Milk Allergy and I had one on AR to help with the spit up. Our dose was 1/2 solutab in 5 mls of water for each baby. Also keep them upright for at least 30 mins after each meal and I found that elevating the crib also helped keep things down at night. Good luck. Reflux is hard on everyone!!!

 

Thanks for everyones input. We do add the cereal and it does helps. We tried allimentum. We saw no changes when we changed the formula so for almost thirty dollars a can we switched back to neosure. We do all the things you all recommend and keeping them upright really does help I just feel like the meds should be doing more. Most of you said that your dosage of prevacid was 1/2 of a tablet and mine only take 1/4. I am not sure if we can up the dosage but I am going to ask about that. We have not discussed any other meds such as reglan so I am going to ask about that and possibly prilosec. The not eating well is the hardest part for my DS and the "waterfall" that DD experiences is the worst for her. It definetly hurts her and she stops breathing till she works through it. I reallyu appreciate everyones input. It is such a hard thing to go through and I wish I could help them more.

 

Maybe increasing the dose will help some. Mine started at 1/2 tablet at 6 weeks so by 2 months hopefully you can get an increase in dosage??