Infantreflux.org | Dr Isn’t Helping!

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October 31, 2006 at 10:59 am #16909

Anonymous
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My 8 week old dd was diagnosed with silent reflux when she was 4 weeks and put on 1ml of Zantac twice daily (she weighs 11 lbs). The Zantac was working great until last Friday evening. She started having reflux episodes again (pulling up her legs, screaming, not eating, etc). The worst one was yesterday morning, she went 12 hours without eating and finally wore herself out screaming and fell asleep. She went in for her 2 month checkup yesterday and the Dr said that she is too young to start on medicines like Prevacid and that they will not increase her dossage of Zantac yet (my dh took her to teh Dr, so I couldn’t challenge him on this). What can we do to help her? Can she take other medications at her age or can they up her dose of zantac?

October 31, 2006 at 11:17 am #16910

hellbennt
Keymaster

Hi amanda & welcome!

I have a lot to say & I’ve said a lot of it here: https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=853&am p;am p;PN=1&TPN=1

please please find the time to read/skim/bookmark this, as many many issues are addressed! Especially my advice on getting to a ped GI ASAP and also links to show you how to calculate proper zantac dosing, all about PPIs (prilosec, prevacid, etc) & more!

glad you found us!

~laura

October 31, 2006 at 11:32 am #16912

Anonymous
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Amanda,

I’d find a new pediatrician. Not only can Lizzie be on Prevacid but she can probably be on a dose higher than what your doctor is aware of and therefore willing to prescribe.

Most of us find that Zantac works well in the beginning but stops working as they gain weight and the reflux just gets worse. With Lizzie being 11 lbs I’m sure she has already past the effectiveness of the Zantac. My dd is 3 months old and we had to fight our pediatrician to get a higher dose of Prevacid – 7.5 mg’s 3 times a day (or 1.5 Solutabs a day). They said she was maxed out at 15 mg’s a day (1 pill).

This is what I did. I went over to the Marci-kids website http://www.marci-kids.com/ and read as much as I could. Then I printed up the home page, the team, the biographies of Dr. Bothwell & Dr. Phillips, the dosing memo, and the dosing chart. I even e-mailed Dr. Phillips and he e-mailed me back what would be the proper dose for Anika. After reading all of the info and then knowing of all the kids on here on higher doses of Prevacid I was set to go to battle. I faxed 14 pages and a coversheet to the pediatrician and requested they let us TRY a higher dose. If you are interested in what I wrote in the coversheet I posted it on this thread:

https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=6504&a mp;PN=3&TPN=2

Feel free to copy anything.

Don’t believe you have to accept your daughter being in pain. You do not. Also, do not accept that just because she is a healthy weight that the reflux is not a problem. They gave me that line with my ds but feeding was traumatic. The only reason why he gained weight was because I worked with him.

October 31, 2006 at 11:44 am #16914

Anonymous
Inactive

Hello and welcome,

I agree with everything Leanne has said, and I did exactly what she described (minus the cover letter…I hadn’t thougth of that). The marci-kids information is what finally swayed Myles’ doctor to put him on an effective dose of Prevacid, and thankfully things turned around quickly for him once his meds were right. If you can’t get this doctor to work with you, definitely find another one. There’s no reason for your baby to be in pain when there are effective treatments out there, and not treating reflux properly can lead to serious and long term complications such as damage to the esophagus, and feeding aversions.

Hang in there and keep fighting. It will be well worth it!

October 31, 2006 at 11:53 am #16916

Anonymous
Inactive

Another option that has been working for a lot of mom’s is going to your family doctor. That is how we get the right dose for our son and I have never had to fight for an increase in meds or for changing meds. Family doctors are a good option because they treat reflux daily in teens and adults so they are more open to treating infants.

October 31, 2006 at 1:47 pm #16927

Anonymous
Inactive

FIND A NEW PEDI….. that is absolutly ridiculos(sp). my dd is the same age and from week one she was on zantac .5ml 4xday and the prevacid 30mg 2xday… gracegirl2006-10-31 13:47:51

October 31, 2006 at 2:28 pm #16934

Anonymous
Inactive

I’m not sure if you have the information on the marci-kids site, but some people have had luck in bringing in some of that information. If you go to the site, and click on the link that says “PPI memo” there’s a letter for people to bring to their docs about dosing in infants. Also, others have printed off the names of doctors involved with the group and have brought that and other supporting documentation in. Some people have had Dr. Phillips (a PharmD, not an MD) call their doctors about PPIs.

If you can not convince your pediatrician to give a PPI and you still feel that your daughter is in pain, can you look for another doctor or get a referral to a ped GI?

In the meantime, will he up the zantac dose? Others have given mylanta cherry supreme (it’s OTC so you don’t need a script, but I don’t know how old they need to be to take it).

If you are interested in finding a ped GI or a new doc, there is a link from Laura’s intro which is stickied in the introduce yourself forum(called looking for a ped GI, or something like that), and quite a few people have put in their recommendations for doctors they have had good experiences with.

Good luck. Feeding problems are awful, I know. Also, make sure that you are burping her well so that you’re not dealing with gas on top of reflux. Are you nursing or bottle feeding? Hope that you can get things under control quickly.

October 31, 2006 at 3:28 pm #16940

Anonymous
Inactive

Thank you all for your posts! The Dr has decided she needs to be “re-evaluated”, so we are going in on Friday. This happened after they told me it sounded like she was just having bad gas! ARGH! I have printed out info from the Marci Kids web-site to take, it is a great site! Hopefully they will listen to me, if not I am going to find another Dr. I will make sure to keep everyone posted.

Thanks again for all the advise!

October 31, 2006 at 4:31 pm #16948

Anonymous
Inactive

Good luck, and let us know how the “re-evaluation” goes.

November 1, 2006 at 1:21 am #16968

Anonymous
Inactive

My daughter was 2 months old when we started her on the Prevacid, and I had to get our family doctor to give it to her. Infact, I don’t even take Aidan to a pediatrician anymore. She just sees our family doctor because he has been the one willing to work with us with the reflux. The only pediatrician she has seen told me that “she was just colicicky, and that she didnt’ have reflux.” If I had listened to that doctor, Aidan would be in so much pain now. to doctor’s that don’t understand!

I hope everything goes well with your “re-evaluation.” If not, maybe ask for a referral to a pediatric GI. Good Luck!
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