Hello! I have been lurking/reading on these boards for months now. Your help has been invaluable!!! I can usually figure out where to change things by reading back posts, but I’m kinda stumped now and need some insight 🙂
My son Jackson is almost 5 1/2 months old. We finally figured out at 5 weeks old (from reading these boards) that he had silent reflux. Long story short he started on 15mg Prevacid capsules split twice a day and we switched to Enfamil A.R. He improved dramatically with little ups and downs for 2 months, at which point he was almost 4 months old and was starting to reflux more. We had just seen a Ped G.I.(May 18th) and she upped his Prevacid capsules to 30mg a day (15 a.m./p.m.) and that was all it took for him to be feeling better.
Except for she said we could switch him to solutabs to make it easier to give to him. So we ordered our 3months dosage from Medco and started them June 5th, followed by the next day doing his 4month shots. He went down hill fast after that. Within 3 days he was refluxing like wasn’t on medicine, horrible congested nose (which he had before when he wasn’t medicated) his bowels went from once a day formed to loose and 4-5 times a day. Which is when the mucus started, at 1st not as much but continued to get worse over the weeks. No blood that we could tell.
At first we thought it was the shots, but finally 11 days later on June 16th we switched him back to the capsules. Within 2 days he was remarkably better reflux anyway and within a week he was back to not refluxing( coughing/choking for him, he hardly spits up), the congested nose was gone. BUT he still was having horrible mucus diapers and it was not letting up. The other odd thing he started doing after the solutabs was making a mess with his feedings. which he never did before. He would be drinking but it was coming out the sides of his mouth like it was too fast, but it was the same nipples/thickness we had been doing.
Little back info, when we called the Ped G.I. about thinking he was reacting to something in the solutabs, they told us they hadn’t heard of that and didn’t think that was the problem and that we just needed to leave him on the solutabs and switch him to Elecare. We didn’t argee because he has been fine up to this point before the solutabs. We asked them to just call in the 30mg capsules, which they did.
So back to current. On June 30th, we switched him to Alimentum to see if that would ease up the mucus, but it hasn’t. In fact I am thickening the Alimentum with Beechnut Rice ceral, and he is refluxing more on the Alimentum then he did on the Enfamil A.R. and spitting up a little at least once a day. And it is NOT helping the mucus, and he poops a million times a day on the Alimentum. lol He grunts a lot, but then it is just loose diareha with the mucus mixed in. The only thing it seems to help is the formula isn’t coming out the sides of his mouth like it was with the Enfamil A.R.
So here is our thoughts…. Try a probiotic. See if we just need to get his stomach back on track. I know if we call the Ped G.I. they are going to say Elecare, I’m not against it, but before the solutabs he has never had mucus before. In 4 more days he will have been on the Alimentum for 2 weeks. We also want to switch him back to the Enfamil A.R. but don’t know how we should proceed with this. Or try regular Enfamil and thicken it with oatmeal??
I’ve read group intro, we do the empty stomach for medicine followed by a meal 30 minutes later, he sleeps good (sleeps all night or wakes only once). He can be fussy, but he is a momma’s boy too. 🙂
Thoughts? suggestions? We do have an appointment with the Ped G.I. July 21st for a check up. I had also called our family doctor for suggestion and she said the take a poopy diaper to the G.I. appointment and that instead of the probiotic to use baby yogurt. Which I really don’t want to do because at this point we aren’t positive its a dairy related issue and we haven’t introduced foods except for prunes (related to hard bm’s from the Enfamily A.R.) He is a healthy weight…more than healthy. lol He is a big boy!
Thank you so much!!!!!!!!!!!! Any thoughts are so helpful to me. If I left anything out just ask me!
Holly
Jackson born 1/27/2011 – Silent reflux
dhware2011-07-10 16:29:03
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– I was just in a hurry…Anyway, thickening is on the ‘controversial’ side of things and there have definitely been those who found it to help and who swear by it. Then, there are others, who find it ridiculously old-fashioned, out-dated & unecessary advice…Personally, I would try not thickening, if only for the simple reason of seeing how he does w/o it, now that he’s properly medicated…vaccinations totally can mess up a reflux baby (exacerbate the reflux)- there have been too many posts on here for me to believe otherwise, plus I saw it w/ my own son…however, like you said, it wouldn’t last so long…so I wouldn’t say that is still the cause of anything?so: the mucus started w/ the solutabs but did not stop when you stopped them? hmm. there have definitely been babies who react to the solutabs- most believe it’s the aspertame or one of the ingredients, the coloring, the flavoring, an inactive ingredient, who knows? It’s interesting that you feel that mucousy stools started w/ them but didn’t necessarily stop with them..I have no idea about this, other that what I wrote above?hth (hope this helps)~lauradhware: please update how your lo (little one) is doing
kristin: have you read Prevacid 101 yet
