Infantreflux.org | pain while eating

This topic has 8 replies, 1 voice, and was last updated 19 years, 3 months ago by Anonymous.

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July 18, 2007 at 2:08 pm #39465

Anonymous
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Hi, I’m hoping someone on this board has some insight to a fairly recent problem that we’ve been having with our 3 1/2 month old son. He was diagnosed with reflux at around 2 months due to pain issues and frequent spitting up. He was prescribed zantac which he give him twice a day. We had also tried all the different milk-based formulas and gentle formulas. Over the course of the month and a 1/2 since, we’ve seen an improvement in the pain until the past couple of days. For the past couple of days, our son cries and writhes in pain during the first ounce or two of formula that he is fed. This is a new occurrence for us. It’s very strange though because he’s not in pain prior to being fed and once he gets past that bout of pain during the first couple of ounces, he’s fine. I should also mention that we can hear awful stomach grumbling noises when he’s acting like he’s in pain. We took him to the ped. yesterday who upped his dosage of zantac. I’m not sure what to think of everything and we’re not sure if that’s the appropriate course of action. We have an appt. with the GI specialist but not until Aug 7. Has anyone ever had a smiliar experience or advice to offer? It’s very frustrating to see our baby in pain and not be able to do anything for him. Thanks in advance!!

July 18, 2007 at 3:53 pm #39468

Anonymous
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Hello and welcome,

What you are describing is pretty common with reflux babies. More than likely he has outgrown his Zantac dose and that’s why he’s having pain with feedings. Zantac is a very weight sensitive drug and so babies typically need frequent increases. Sometimes they even plateau on it and can no longer get relief. If that happens you may want to ask about a PPI medication for him (Prevacid or Zegerid).

The probable reason that his pain begins during the first ounce or two is that eating triggers reflux. When he’s eating stomach contents and acid begin to back up into his esophagus. I’m not sure why he settles down after a few ounces though. And the rumbling sounds are interesting. That sounds more like gas than reflux. He could very well have both; gas and reflux.

What kind of formula is he on now? He could be MSPI (milk/soy protein intolerant). Have you tried a hypo formula like Alimentum?

I hope I haven’t confused you more. Reflux and MSPI are hard to sort out because they both cause pain and feeding issues.

Be sure to look at Laura’s Intro link (stickied in the Introduce Yourself Forum). It has lots of valuable information which may help you.

I’m glad you found us and I hope you get things sorted out soon.

July 18, 2007 at 7:03 pm #39486

Anonymous
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LIke Christine said, he has probably outgrown his Zantac dose. It is very wt sensitive and has to be adjusted all the time for it to work properly. You may want to look into a PPI like prevacid or Zegrid which seem to work better.

July 18, 2007 at 8:07 pm #39488

Anonymous
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Ben’s belly used to rumble and even pop and makes noises when he was younger. For him, it always happened when it was time to up his medicine. I think it was also due to an immature digestive system.

July 19, 2007 at 6:09 am #39500

Anonymous
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Thank you all. It’s nice to have your support and opinions as we kind of felt annoyed with the ped. She just kept saying “let’s look at the big picture…he’s gaining weight and he looks ok”. Well, he is and I’m glad he’s gaining (b/c at first we had issues with that as well) but I hate to see him in pain. Thankfully, the last two feeds of the day yesterday went off without any problems. I’m not sure if the upped dosage of zantac would work that quickly or if it was just a fluke. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it continues today. Thank you again!!!

July 19, 2007 at 8:44 am #39502

Anonymous
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I’m sorry to hear that you’re having trouble feeding your little one. I agree with the others- I’d try a PPI if you think he’s having reflux pain. My daughter started off with pain right from the start, and feeding her became gradually harder until she developed an aversion to both bottle/breast and solids. Our MANY docs all told us that she was fine b/c she was gaining weight. It wasn’t true.

July 26, 2007 at 6:36 am #39872

Anonymous
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One more quick question…if the zantac dose is upped, how long would it be before we would see some relief? He has been on the higher dose for a week now and we haven’t seen any change. What’s strange is that he does much better with the feed if my husband or I walk around the house while feeding him or we bounce him while he’s eating. We will definitely be asking about alternatives at our 4 month check-up (next week) and when we meet with the GI (2 weeks). I do feel very fortunate as it doesn’t sound like his reflux is nearly as bad as some other children…it’s just hard to watch him be in pain when it’s time to eat. Thank you again for any help you can provide.

July 26, 2007 at 9:14 am #39877

Anonymous
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Shooey,

From this site, I’ve seen that a lot of babies who are in pain do better if they’re being walked or bounced while they’re fed. I don’t know why- I think that the distraction helps them to focus on something other than the discomfort. My personal opinion is that it’s very important to get the pain under control as soon as possible. I often wonder if our whole situation could have been different had we been able to get my daughter some relief.

July 26, 2007 at 11:23 am #39883

Anonymous
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We were told that with Zantac you should improvement in a week. The PPI’s take longer.

Also wanted to add that we had issues with my son about 2 weeks ago where he would take about two ounces of formula, then we would burp him and he would start screaming and crying and refuse to drink anymore no matter how hard we tried. The pedi GI put him on Carafate in addition to the Prevacid and that did the trick. Carafate is a prescription med that coats and soothes the esophagus so it’s not painful for the baby to eat. It works in tandem with the PPI but they have to be given at least 90 minutes apart. Carafate is only a short term solution (Brian will be on it for about a month) but the expectation is that when we take him off it, his esophagus will be healed and the PPI will be controlling the acid production going forward so that the esophagus doesn’t get irritated again. Good luck!
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