Acid reflux (lengthy)

schmidters10

Hailee was born Oct 31st. Everynight between 11 and 2 she would get so cranky and just scream. It progressively got worse and the week of Thanksgiving she started projectile puking. We seen the doctor that following Monday. He sent her for a sonogram to make sure that it was not the thicking of the stomach mucsle(pilostynosis sp?), the tests came back negative so on to an upper GI. It showed that she had a moderate case of acid reflux. So we switched formula from Good Start Soy to Similac Alimentum, was put on a .8 ml of Zantac, twice a day. We also started weighing down her nighttime bottle with cereal since the worst part of the reflux was occuring at night. Everything was going great. She was such a happy baby.

Now around the beginning of the new year she started spitting up pure stomach acid. It usually occured sometime in the afternoon or evening. It could have been a 30 min length of time of screaming or one day it was up to 3 hrs.  We went back to the doctors and they added Prevacid. By the time we got it pre authorized by the insurance and the pharmacy got it ordered we started taking it last Thursday. Grom Thursday to Monday every day she took it except Saturday, she would throw everything up about a half an hour after she took the meds and ate.

Called the doctor on Monday and they said to try giving it to her 30 minutes before she eats and to try and weigh down all her bottles with cereal, since that worked in the past.  So far so good, the puking is gone, but still fussy  because she is gassy from the cereal. So I have been giving her Gripe water when this occurs.

Does anyone have an suggestions. Or is dealing with the same thing. She hates the Prevacid. I have to fight her to take it. I feel so bad. She takes the Zantac with no problem at all and it is peppermint flavored and the prevacid is Strawberry.  Someone said that their kiddo went through this same thing and it was the doseage of the Zantac because they gained weight and the doseage needed to be bigger. When I mention it to the nurse practitioner she acted as if that was a stupid reason to raise a doseage.

Any help, info is appreciated. Thanks for reading this too cookies to all because it was long.

thetwinkies&Vivi

Zantac is crap in my opinion. I find Prevacid works best,given in am pm. We use a compounded liquid form,it tends to be more effective. We aim for giving it 15 mins prior to a feed.

Make sure she gets good burps and keep her upright at least 30 mins after a feed. I would also suggest never lying completely flat,as it enables reflux.

I stay away from cereal thickened feeds due to the lack of nutritional value and the fact babies don't digest it well at this point. You may want to look into products specifically meant for thickening formula.

Reflux peaks around 3 months and tends to improve around 6 months when babies are sitting upright and begin solids.

Did her GI rule out hernias?

thetwinkies&Vivi

Also,any MSPI or weight gain issues?

dvladybug

katieleaisamommytobe:

Zantac is crap in my opinion. I find Prevacid works best,given in am pm. We use a compounded liquid form,it tends to be more effective. We aim for giving it 15 mins prior to a feed. Make sure she gets good burps and keep her upright at least 30 mins after a feed. I would also suggest never lying completely flat,as it enables reflux. I stay away from cereal thickened feeds due to the lack of nutritional value and the fact babies don't digest it well at this point. You may want to look into products specifically meant for thickening formula. Reflux peaks around 3 months and tends to improve around 6 months when babies are sitting upright and begin solids. Did her GI rule out hernias?

Great info here - just wanted to add a few things.  Agree that Zantac is crap.  Prevacid has worked wonders.  My twins get 1/2 tsp 2x/day 30 mins before a bottle. 

I'm an advocate for rice cereal in the bottles (relux issues only) because it has helped my son tremendously.  With that being said, it was very rough in the beginning because I think he was too young and his system couldn't handle it - he was 2 mos.  We only give him 1 tsp in a 4 oz bottle but only every other bottle.  This has helped with his spit up, a lot!

Good luck and don't quit until you find what's right for your LO.  It took some trial and error on our part but we finally found something that worked for us and our LOs.

PTAbride

We use the prevacid solutabs dissolved in 5ml of water and given with a medicine dropped. This seems to work better for LO than the compounded version. She's much less gassy too. Also, are you giving it on an empty stomach? That's what I've read. Hang in there :

hs10

N is on zantac and is doing well. She is EBF. She weighs 12 lbs 2 oz and the proper dose for that weight acc to my pedi is 1 ml 2x per day...so you aren't far off. N has been on that much since she was 10lbs.

ukcats27

Um that is not a dumb reason.  My LO is on Prevacid and we just recently had to up her dose because she had doubled her weight since she started it.  Sounds like the nurse is an idiot because it makes sense. 

I give LO the prevacid 30 minutes before her second bottle of the day.  After I administer the dose, I give her the paci to make sure she is sucking and keeping it down.  Then 30 minutes later I will give her the bottle.  I have noticed when we don't wait the 30 minutes or if she spits up a little bit of her medicine that we have a bad day.  But today she took the whole dose and even waited 40 minutes and she hasn't spit up at all.

FWIW, Zantac did nothing for us.

schmidters10

No weigh gain issues. She was born at  9 lbs 4 ozs and at our last appt on the 8th she was up to 12 lbs 13oz. When we started the Zantac she was 10 lbs. I would think a 3 lb growth would be a big jump as a baby and require a doseage increase. Like a poster said she is just going back to the symptoms she had before the Zantac

hs10

schmidters10:

No weigh gain issues. She was born atnbsp; 9 lbs 4 ozs and at our last appt on the 8th she was up to 12 lbs 13oz. When we started the Zantac she was 10 lbs. I would think a 3 lb growth would be a big jump as a baby and require a doseage increase. Like a poster said she is just going back to the symptoms she had before the Zantac[/quote

Surprisingly enough the dosage for 10lbs and 12lb 2 oz is the same. Its 1ml 2x/day. I only know bc N got an increase at 10 and then pedi checked dosage on monday and it said the same amount. I wrote earlier she went on it at 10 but it was before that bc she had an increase around 10.