Prevacid side effects

selina1113 · January 2015

If your baby has taken Prevacid in capsule form (beads) for reflux, did he/she experience any side effects like twitching, spasms, jerking, tremors, shudders? If so, how long after stopping it did things go back to normal?

abs05 · January 2015

DD took Prevacid for over a year. She did not have any of those side effects. I would ask your pedi because that doesn't sound like a normal reaction to me.

selina1113 · January 2015

Thanks for the responses. The FDA site lists those as possible side effects for the medication, but I have always seen such good feedback about the medication. It really did seem to work for a few days but then he started this weird twitching yesterday after a nap. I would not have noticed it if he weren't in my arms. Then when I was rocking him before bed and he was drifting to sleep, he did several jerks of the head coupled with what felt like muscle spasms in different body parts. He let out a little whine like it really disturbed him. It has happened each time he has gone to sleep since. He is 8 months old now.

I have a call in to the pedi GI.

.

EmAre · January 2015

My daughter never experienced those side effects while on Prevacid, though that particular PPI did not work for her (she did much better on Nexium).

Have you looked into Sandifer's syndrome? That is caused by reflux and can look like spasms/twitching.

ToastieSimons · January 2015

My oldest is 4.5 and my youngest is 2.5 They've both been on prevacid since 2 months and are still on it.

My oldest had sandifer's syndrome and it's very similar to what you are experiencing, when awake. Definitely google it. For us it always included a grimace and then this s-shaped spasm. It was like when someone runs their finger down your spine and you do that weird wiggle twitch. Once we got his reflux very well managed it quieted down and disappeared by about 15 months.

He also does lots of twitching and moaning and jerking upon falling asleep.

selina1113 · January 2015

Can Sandifer's episodes only happen when they are awake? Or if they are woken by refluxing in their sleep as well?

ToastieSimons · January 2015

selina1113 said:

Can Sandifer's episodes only happen when they are awake? Or if they are woken by refluxing in their sleep as well?

I'm not sure. My oldest didn't sleep at all for other reasons so I wouldn't know if he was woken up.

Have you recently introduced solids or a new food? Sometimes that jerking, spasming, etc while sleeping can't be a food intolerance. Not an allergy, but something that is upsetting their gut and making them uncomfortable.

are you dissolving the beads in anything that could be upsetting his stomach?

I'm just curious...has your LO always had reflux and you're just trying a new medication? Or does he have an underlying condition? With typical children reflux usually peaks around 6 months and then starts getting better and is outgrown by a year-15 months. So it just seems odd that you would start medicating at 8 months.

Also, is he teething? Developing new skills? My kids fight sleep like you wouldn't believe. And that twitching/jerking/spasm is common while falling asleep. Kind of like when you have a dream about falling and you go to brace yourself and wake up from it. It's when your brain is in that sleep state where it hasn't completely disconnected from actual body movement.

selina1113 · January 2015

We thought he had outgrown it.

DS was diagnosed with silent reflux at 3 weeks old. He was on Zantac and when that stopped working, the ped prescribed Prevacid. His reflux seemed to go away around 4 months old so we slowly stopped the meds and he has been fine for months. Then recently, he started waking 6 to 8 times a night. At first I figured teething, but baby Tylenol didn't seem to help. After a couple of weeks of awful sleep, my husband and I decided to try giving him the Prevacid again to see if it was his reflux returning. And it seemed to work very well for a few days (he was sleeping 6 hour stretches), up until I noticed the twitching & spasms and stopped it immediately.

Last night when putting him down for the night, there was no twitching at all, but he had episodes at 3am where I can feel him tense up, twist a bit, jerk as he straightens his legs, then he arches his back, lets out a cry, and pushes away from my chest. That happened about 5-8 times until he finally dozes off again. It seems worse in the early morning hours between 3-5am. I have yet to see any strange behavior or episodes while he is awake and he does not refuse feedings.

Thank you for the support. We will see what his doctor thinks this afternoon. We got hit with 2 feet of snow so could not get an appointment until this afternoon.

Lois172000 · January 2015

My daughter takes Prevacid but she takes the solutab. No issues for us.

Prevacid side effects

Re: Prevacid side effects

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