Reflux returning after a successful 2 weeks of treatment?

Our 7 week old daughter has reflux. She started soy forumla and zantac 2 weeks ago. The treatmetn worked really well, she was like a new baby and showing very little signs of reflux. Then, as if a switch turned on, all of the symptoms returned and have been present again for about 36 hours. We took her to the dr, he isn't convienced its reflux and thought she could be getting sick, however its been 24 hours and no sign of illness. She is very fussy, cyring a lot, tensing her entire body. She is sucking aggressively at the nipple of the bottle and wanting to over eat. Have tried Mylicon, which helps slightly. She is also gagging at times, but not having any liquid come up. Thinking this could be silent reflux? Is it possible this is colic that just appeared out of the blue at 7 weeks?

Has anyone else had zantac just stop working all of a sudden? Her weight has not changed significantly, so we know the dose is okay..

 

I have heard of zantac becoming ineffective, but usually it is gradually, not suddenly. However, that's not to say it couldn't happen. Both of my refluxers ended up on stonger medicines (Prevacid and Nexium). Has anything else changed in her routine? Is the fussiness just at one time of day, all day or just around feedings? If it is concentrated to one time of day, it could be colic, but with the reflux history, I would lean more towards reflux. I assume that you are using the soy formula due to a dairy intolerance. Some kids that are dairy intolerant/allergic also have issues with soy. Even though it is expensive, you might want to try a hypoallerginic formula and see if that helps. Good luck!

 

Hi Kathy. THanks for the reply. She has been fussy pretty much nonstop and wanting to be held really closely. She did have a dairy intolerance, so the soy is what our dr. recommended. The two changes to the routine over the past 4/5 days is that we went to a fixed 4 hour feeding schedule. Previously she was feeding every 3 hrs 40 mins. So, we increased her amount by 1/2 once at each feed. The first 48 hours went so well. I figured if it was that, we would have seen some sort of reaction from her sooner. The other thing we did was started to use filtered water rather than distilled nursery water. We started to use the nursery water again this morning.

Its just so strange because she was such an easy chilled out baby. She hardly ever wanted/needed the pacifier and would happily sit in her bouncy chair and easily fall asleep for naps. THe only time she was every fussy before was when the reflux peaked before we put her on the zantac.

 

My first instinct would be to say that the zantac stopped working, but I see you also changed water recently. I would wait and see if switching the water back helps her. If it doesn't, I'd be inclined to think the zantac is no longer working, and I would ask for prevacid. Zantac is extremely weight sensitive, it worked for my dd twin for about 5-6 days and then stopped working all of a sudden, so just the few ounces she put on in that weeks time affected it's ability to help her reflux. :hug:

It could be colic, around 6 wks is when it starts to show up, but that's not usually all day fussiness, just generally in the late afternoon/early evening hours.

 

I would give it a few days, see if the change back to nursery water makes a difference (doesn't seem to me like the water should cause any problems, but who knows? ) & if not I would talk to your doctor about the Zantac. I do know that it doesn't always do the trick for all babies, so a change or an adjustment in dosage could be necessary.

 

This sounds exactly like what happened to our daughter, at about 5 or 6 weeks we had switched her to soy formula and to the reflux medication because of eating issues - tensing up, arching back, screaming etc (she also had some slight blood in her dirty diaper)... She did good for a little while but then it all started again. We noticed in her dirty diaper that the blood was there again and that's when we had to switch to a hypoallergenic formula cause she's got allergies to milk and soy. I know it sounds horrible to do but check the diapers for any red. I wouldn't of noticed it except I happened to drop the diaper open and there it way... Anyway, we got her medication figured out for the reflux and got the formula right (Enfamil Nutramigen) and it was a life saver!! Finally last week we weaned her off the Nutramigen and we got her weaned off the reflux meds a couple weeks ago. It doesn't last forever!! Good luck to you!!

I forgot to mention we went through many reflux meds before we got the right one. Finally it was Axid that worked. If she just went through a growth spurt the dosage might need to be upped. We had to do that often too.

 

Tina I never thought water would make a difference either, but when we visited my parents when kaelyn was 3 months old, I bought nursery water there to use (they have well water, we have city water), and it bothered kaelyn's tummy almost immediately. Who knew?! I also tried distilled water and then regular bottled water, which bothered her tummy the least.

 

Hi,

My son had some reflux but I wasnt sure if you ever heard of a Nap Nanny? Its truly the best thing I have gotten for my babies, it might help, you can check it out on www.napnanny.com. I hope you find some answers!

 

After 24 hours of being back on the distilled water, our daughter is doing much better. Still not 100% as good as it was before this little blip, but definatley an improvement. She is not so agro and is calming down quite a bit. Maybe this was a coincidence, but I really think the distilled water has made a difference. We also gave her 4.5 ounces rather than 5 ounces at each fed and perhaps that has also helped with improving her reflux.

Thanks for all the feed back!

 

I am glad she is doing better. The reduced amount may have made a difference for her. If the extra 1/2 oz was causing her to be too full, it could definitely make the reflux worse.