Home › Forums › Infant Reflux Information › Medicines › Besanicol (sp?)
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January 4, 2007 at 10:06 am #21633
Anonymous
InactiveHi All,
So my daughter again is arching/screaming at feedings, trying to clear her throat, etc, the usual… I spoke with the pedi gi yesterday, and they want me to up the rice cereal to 1-2 Tablespoons/ounce and they are going to prescribe a medicine called Besanicol (not sure of the spelling), which is supposed to help tighten the sphincter muscle. They called it in to CVS who refused to fill it as a liquid (according to the voicemail the drs left me, despite the specialist trying to ‘educate’ CVS, they wouldn’t budge and refused to fill it). So now I left about 3-4 other local pharmacy numbers on her voicemail, and hopefully 1 of them will be able to fill it as requested.
Has anyone had any experience with this drug? I asked her if there were any adverse side effects, and she said it just makes some kids drool more, which between spit up & drool, my daughter’s a good producer already! I also askd if it was like Reglan, and she said it was not. I upped the rice cereal beginning last night to almost 1 T per ounce, but it’s so thick, she’s going to need time to get used to it. That in itself, though, seems to have helped a lot alone, which is good, she had a rough day yesterday!
Thanks in advance for any info.
January 4, 2007 at 10:14 am #21634InactiveHi Denise,
I haven’t ever heard of Besanicol… I hope it’s something that will help her. I’m sorry you’re having problems with the pharmacy. I hope one of the other pharmacies will do it for you.As for the rice cereal, if you’re using that much, you might want to alternate with oatmeal to prevent her from getting contipated. My son did much better if I alternated like that, or even used oatmeal only.
Good luck with everything!
January 4, 2007 at 10:21 am #21638InactiveYes, I agree about the oatmeal. That much rice may bind her up too much.
I haven’t heard of that drug either. Why did they refluse to fill it?
January 4, 2007 at 11:00 am #21644Inactivei will try the oatmeal too. she’s not constipated yet, but is still not feeling well. i’m not sure how much to expect her to eat now that the formula is so thick. any ideas?
the pharmacy called me & said the rx doesnt exist as a liquid, so apparently the dr wanted them to compound it & they wouldnt. hopefully someone will!
January 4, 2007 at 11:36 am #21645InactiveI believe you’re talking about bethanacol. It’s used as an alternate motility med. I don’t know much about it, but have heard of others using it, so I’ll try to get some infor for you. I believe that others are using it as a liquid.
January 4, 2007 at 3:10 pm #21667InactiveWe used bethanacol for a short time but it didn’t work for us but its not as bad as reglan. If I was given a choice I would use it over reglan anytime.
January 4, 2007 at 4:23 pm #21677hellbennt
Keymasterdoes the thickening stop the pain? I wouldn’t thicken so much unless baby is failure to thrive/having a hard time keeping weight on/gaining weight?
I would think w/ being mspi & being on neocate her little system might be up to all that cereal?
maybe I’m wrong?
January 4, 2007 at 5:22 pm #21681InactiveOkay. Bethanacol I have heard of. Supposedly it’s normally used to stimulate the urinary tract to help empty the bladder, but it can work for motility as well. We even asked our GI doc about it when for Bryce when they were hesitant about giving him a higher dose of Erythromycin. The GI told us that they generally don’t use it but he would be willing to try it as a last resort. (They ended up just okaying the higher dose of Erythro).
Hope you can find a pharmacy that will compound it.
Also, this kind of med might help with the spitting up, but it probably won’t help the esophogus pain that she seems to have… did you ask about a higher dose of Prevacid?
January 5, 2007 at 8:45 am #21713InactiveWe have found a pharmacy that will compound the medcine, which is good. They had to order it, though, so I need to call this mornign to see when it will be ready. The dr. told me there aren’t any bad side effects other than possible drool, and I couldn’t really find anything on it myself, is that really the case? Was there a reason your doctor didn’t want to use it until a last resort?
I mentioned the MARCI-KIDS recommendation for the higher prevacid, but they won’t go that high for her, which seems like the only thing to me too that would stop the pain. She also didn’t want to go to Carafate because apparently it has to be given 1 1/2 hours away from any food or medicine, and at my daughter’s age, that would be hard to coordinate. They said that thickening the cereal would help keep it down, and help eliminate the pain if nothing’s coming up. She definitely still has a bit of pain, but certainly not as bad as a couple of days ago when she’d eat 3 ounces, make all those noises, cry, spit up, and then cry at the site of the bottle again! She’s not failure to thrive, I think she’s about 14 pounds now and will be 4 months old next week. I’m taking her on Tuesday for her 4 month check-up and will get more specifics on percentiles etc.
Since my daughter is doing better, I will give the Bethanecol a chance over the weekend, if there’s no real improvement by Monday, I’m going to call them to push for more prevacid. She is still harder now to put down at night, and wakes up making those throaty noises after just 1/2 for naps, so I can tell she’s not feeling 100%, yet she’s still such a sweet little smiley girl. Luckily, her nights are still pretty good, though she’s getting to sleep later (since it’s harder again for it to “take”), and waking up a bit earlier.
January 5, 2007 at 9:09 am #21716InactiveIt doesn’t have any serious side effects that I know of. I got the feeling my doctor didn’t want to prescribe it simply because he was kind of set in his way, & usually prescribed Erythormycin or Reglan.
I’m glad you found a pharmacy to compound it, and I hope this does the trick. If she does seem to still be in pain after you try this, you might try going to a family practice doctor for a higher prevacid dose. They seem to be a little more open minded about it. Hopefully the Bethanecol will help though. Good luck!
January 5, 2007 at 9:11 am #21717InactiveOk, here’s an update…I just spoke with the pharmacy & they weren’t able to get the Bethanacol. According to the pharmacist, there aren’t any real adverse side effects, the drug is just not used much anymore and we’ll be hard pressed to find a pharmacy who can get it. Here we go again… I left a message for the pedi gi’s nurse, who is in clinic and probably again won’t return my call until this afternoon and that will probably leave us at the weekend again without any resolution. The thickening up the formula is helping a bit earlier in the day, but my daughter & I were both soaked with spit up by dinnertime, so what good does that really do? Now she’s eating less formula AND spitting up, which sounds like a bad equation to me. I’m not going to let this get me down again, though, I just have to keep pushing to get her the right treatment.
January 5, 2007 at 9:27 am #21721InactiveHow frustrating!
I sure hope you can figure something out before the weekend. If you can’t find someone to fill it, maybe ask for a different motility med?? January 5, 2007 at 9:30 am #21722InactiveI guess I’m still not sure what a motility med is, and what the other options are. Would that be the erythrimicin or reglan? I just really think she needs more prevacid, so I’m just getting frustrated they won’t listen to me!!
Thanks for all of your support!
January 5, 2007 at 9:48 am #21724InactiveMotility meds are used to increase motility in the gi tract. Many babies with reflux have low motility; meaning things move along too slowly. This can cause a low appetite (due to the fact that food sits in the stomach so long), spitting up (due to stomach being so full all the time), and constipation.
Myles definitly had low motility/DGE. I talked to his doctor about it she firmly believes it’s best not to test for or treat it unless there is FTT or other severe complications because the meds to treat it can have side effects and as long as the baby is eating enough to gain weight it’s better to avoid them. So, we did not treat Myles’ low motility. He threw up a whole lot and motility drugs may have helped with that but I agreed with her that as long as he was gaining I’d perfer not to give him any meds for it.
This plan of not treating low motility worked for us because his pain was controlled with a high enough dose of Prevacid. Have you asked about increasing her Prevacid. It seems reasonable to me to try that before adding motility meds to the mix.
About the cereal….thickening formula for refluxers is controversial in the first place. Some moms and doctors say it helps, others see no difference. Thickening did nothing for Myles except help him with swallowing since he used to choke on thinner feeds, but he threw up as much and as often with thickened formula.
I hope you get a call back soon and hopefully get her Prevacid increased.
January 5, 2007 at 11:10 am #21732InactiveDenise,
I agree with you that she needs more Prevacid (from what you’ve told us). From my experience, it just doesn’t sound like she needs a motility med. Pain seems to be her main problem, right? Of course, I’m not a doctor.You might want to just look for another doctor who will prescribe a higher dose… whether its a family doctor (that’s where we initially got our higher dose), a ped, or another GI.
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