Cough Congestion/3 month old w/reflux/LONG POST

[Anonymous]

Greetings,

I am new to this board. I am a mother of two (as my username suggests!) I have a 4 1/2 old little girl and I now have a 3 month old little boy who was diagnosed with reflux at 2 weeks old. My DD has asthma (non-reflux related although now I’m starting to wonder…) My DS was put on Nexium 10 mg packets by his pediatrician. He is to take 3 ml a day in the morning. I saw a complete improvement withing 2 days of the meds.

So I was mixing the entire 10 mg packet with 15 ml of water as directed on the packaging but only giving him 3 ml of it and disposing of the rest. My DS was also seen by a pedi GI who told me to give him another dose in the afternoon. He didn’t give me an additional Rx. So I doubled the dosage of the orignal 1x of day Rx and finished my packets way before the 30 day refill authorization. I called my pedi and she switched the Rx authorization to 2x per day but my insurance is giving me a hard time about changing the Rx from 1x a day to 2x a day in the middle of the 30 day authorized Rx so it’s pending at the pharmacy right now waiting for insurance approval. In the meantime, I decided to split the 10 mg packet in two and give half the dose (5 mg with 5 ml of water) in the a.m. and the other half in the p.m. (okayed by the pedi). He continues to do great except that 1 week ago he developed a cough with some chest rattling. He has no fever, no fussiness, no runny nose…just a cough with rattling noise when he breaths. I took him immediately to his pedi and she told me his lungs are clear. She asked that I use a humidifier and pour saline drops in his nose and suck the phlegm with a bulb syringe. Neither one of us correlated the cough/congestion to reflux. It’s been a week without any change. I hate listening to his little chest rattle all day long!

My question: is it normal for a reflux infant to have this type of cough and chest rattling? Am I going to have to deal with this until he outgrows it? Or after a week of this, should I take him back and have him re-checked for pneumonia or RSV? I want to eliminate reflux before I take him back to the pedi.

Any help for this newbie is appreciated. Thanks!

Edit: I forgot to mention that DS is exclusively breastfed. I am now back at work and pump-expressing and he’s getting b/milk in a bottle. Motheroftwo2013-01-14 15:27:02

[Anonymous]

Welcome… mom of 2… from a mom of 3. 🙂 Cough and congestion can be VERY related to reflux.

I have created a blog that contains our story of what all we went through with our children’s reflux and digestive problems and what all we found to help. It also has numerous other pages with various types of info about reflux etc, some links to other sites with helpful info, and also some other moms stories.

Here is a story about a mom that had a baby wit reflux and a lot of congestion. http://help4acidreflux.wordpress.com/micaelas-story/

I sure don’t blame you for being concerned about the chest rattling etc. You can find out more about it being related to reflux by using the search button on the top right corner of this page. Be sure to search back further than 6 months.

I hope that soon you can get something figured out for your little one!

[hellbennt]

Hi & welcome!
you have found a wonderful place to research all you can!

first of all I need to encourage you to PLEASE read the following link- it’s called Groupie Intro
& it’s LONG. However, it TRULY will help you! Read through it, skim through it- you’ll find yourself refering back to it again & again!
https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=853

As you will learn from the link Groupie Intro, many doctors and even ped GIs don’t know as much as the collected first-hand knowledge found on this site!

read all you can & make your own, educated decisions!
there’s a link from groupie called Prevacid 101 – PLEASE find that link & read the research. Then, you may feel comfortable increasing the dose on your own. I can’t tell you what to do!

you’ll also find (I think it’s in there!) a link called probiotics, brands used
if the link is NOT there, go to the upper right-hand corner of this page & click on the search button.
type in those keywords & you’ll find it.

what else? I think I’ve overloaded you enough for now

One more thing, I promise that’s it
BABYWEARING!
it SAVED us!
look for the link in groupie intro!

SO GLAD YOU FOUND US!
~laura

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your responses. I took him to the pedi’s office again and it turns out he has “Bronchialitis”. He tested negative for RSV. The pedi said it was not due to his reflux. I am giving him Albuterol nebulizer treatments every 3 hours and he’s getting much better. I also ask the dr about the dosage for Nexium and he allowed me to increase it to 10 ml per day (his previous dosage was 3 ml).

Thanks again. I do baby wear when I’m at home but unfortunately I work full time outside of the home so babywearing him everyday is not possible.

[Anonymous]

I’m sure glad he’s getting better. 🙂

[hellbennt]

hi! how is everything?

what’s working/not working?

do you recommend your dr? your ped Gi?

your information helps others who find this board and are desperate (or even just looking to learn more)…

thanks!

[Author]

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