Getting Prilosec down…

[Anonymous]

Hi,
I’m new to this reflux thing. My 9 week old son has silent reflux (I diagnosed him, and ped finally agreed to put him on medication. He was reluctant because my son is a big boy and rarely spit up…but has ALWAYS been in pain since he came home from the hospital). Anyway, so we’ve just started the compounded prilosec, this is day 4. As the days go on, he is less and less happy about swallowing it, since it’s obviously not such tasty stuff. Anyone have any great tips on getting a very young infant to swallow it? I squirt it into his cheek and try to shut his little lips, but he’ll hold it in there and then push it out with his tongue, gag, and look at me like I’m a monster. He doesn’t care when I tell him it’ll make him feel better 🙂

Also – are you supposed to wait 4 hours between prilosec and mylanta? I’d like to try giving him mylanta at night because he keeps waking at 4 a.m. and screaming in pain. I give him the prilosec at about 6:30 p.m.

Thanks!
Andrea

[Anonymous]

Hi!

Your post reminds me so much of my daughter. We started on prilosec and it’s funny, after a few days she got wise to the fact that she could just NOT swallow and spit it out. Not good! This meant that she got angry and her spitting it out meant I had to give it to her AGAIN!!! It was so frustrating and I felt so bad for her. It tastes so yucky, I wouldn’t want to swallow it!!! Anyway, we’ve run the gammit with meds but the only way I can get her to down meds right now is through a bottle. I don’t know if you’re bf or bottle but I’m bf and I just give her her “meds bottle” in the morning and at night. Probably with 1/2 ounce of bm. I don’t know if that helps or not but Kate’s a smarty pants and that’s the only thing that’s REALLY worked so far. Cross your fingers!! Welcome by the way!!! I hope your baby finds relief soon. Meds and right dosing is a BIG piece of the puzzle for a lot of kiddos. These moms on this board are the best so I’m glad you’re here and I know you’ll find a wealth of advice and support here. Hang in there, you’re an awesome mommy for searching for answers!

[hellbennt]

welcome! there’s a lot of info here to help you

groupie intro is in the introduce yourself forum it’s the 1st post there

and in the medicine forum, there are 2 top/stickied posts that also will help

glad you found us!

~laura

[Anonymous]

Sorry I just had a thought bubble. Putting meds in a bottle only works for meds that don’t have to be timed with meals. Those can be tricky. We’re using Zegerid right now and what a relief it is not to have to time the meds anymore!

Woo hoo!!(it’s actually not THAT bad, just tricky)

[Anonymous]

I’ve always done it by squirting it in his cheek and popping his pacifier in his mouth.. suck, suck.. squirt some more, suck, suck… and so on.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your replies. Yes, I’m breastfeeding and I got excited about the thought of putting it in a bottle with bm, but you’re right – doesn’t work with the timing thing. Darn! I also tried the pacifier route, but he gagged on the pacifier, and the medicine came out with it. He’s very picky about the pacifier and sometimes gags on it and other times loves it. I enlisted the help of my husband tonight and between the two of us, we coaxed (and, unfortunately, forced) the medicine down, but he did spit quite a bit of it back out.

The prescription said only one dose daily, but I might split it up into two times daily(and actually increase it a bit since I’m reading that 2.5 ml isn’t going to be very effective) to see if he’ll accept the smaller doses throughout the day. We have a doctor’s appt. Tuesday, but I’m feeling that the pediatrician is just humoring me by giving me such a small dose. He didn’t want to give Cade any medication, wanted to see if he’d “grow out of it” first. I later called and insisted on the meds. Anyway, I’m going to ask him all these questions Tues., but I have a bad feeling that he’ll blow it off again. Who wants to watch their kid suffer for 3+ months to see if he’ll “grow out of it”??? Not me!

Thanks for the info!
Andrea

[Anonymous]

Hi and welcome.

If it is compounded prilosec then it does not need to be timed and you can put in in bm. I will leave other more educated mums to give you more info on compounds (seems some pharmacies don’t compound them right and they lose effectiveness quickly).

Certainly agree with you about “the just grow out of it”. Perhaps you should suggest that your Dr doesn’t take his/her medicine next time they are sick

Stick to you guns!!! and goodluck.

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately if you’re using the compounded Prilosec it’s possible that it won’t work at all because many times (probably most of the time) it is not prepared properly by the pharmacist. It has to be made with exactly 16.8 % sodium bicarb. It has to have no flavorings whatsoever. And each dose must be at least 3.5 mls in order for there to be enough buffer to prevent the meds from being degraded in the stomach. Here’s a thread that explains it well.

https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=4505&KW=pharmacy+compounded+

I would definitely check with the pharmacist to make sure it’s being made properly, (ask for an actual printout of the ingredients) or ask for a different PPI. Prevacid solutabs are very easy to give and they taste good, so that’s a good option. Zegerid is a good choice because it does not have to be timed around meals. Many babies don’t like the taste of Zegerid though so that may be an issue with your little guy.

A trick I used to get Myles to take his medicine was this….. I’d fill the syringe or medicine dropper and then stick it inside his right cheek towards the back (but not far back enough to trigger the gag reflex), and then when I started squirting I’d slide the syringe across the back of his tongue from right to left. This worked well because it would evenly distribute the medication across the back of the mouth instead of leaving it all in one spot. Dispersing it that way made it more difficult for him to spit it out. Also it’s harder for them to spit it out when the syringe is still in the mouth. Once I did remove the syringe I’d push up firmly on his chin which also makes it harder for them to spit.

I hope you can get your doctor to work with you and get your little guy on a high enough dose soon. If he won’t budge maybe try your family doctor. Many of us have had better luck with family docs. They see adult patients with reflux all the time so they are familiar with PPI meds and they seem to be more sympathetic about how painful reflux is.

Good luck and keep us posted.

[Anonymous]

Great advice! I love the idea of moving the syringe across the tongue. Brilliant!

I’ve read about the compounded prilosec/pharmacies. So far, it seems to be working though – except for his early morning problems (and it’s not flavored AT ALL. I almost went back to request it, but I’m glad I didn’t) I’m going to discuss with the doctor on Tuesday. I think it’s a matter of not a high enough dose. I’m unsure how to bring it up without directly insulting them though…do your doctors take it personally when you question their expertise?!

Thank you all for the wonderful information. I’m an info. junky so I’m so glad I found this site and all the information it provides about a condition I was totally oblivious to before a few weeks ago!

Andrea

[Anonymous]

Some docs definitely are insulted and put off when we show them information on higher PPI dosing, but we do what we have to for our babies. It took me over a month to convince Myles’ doctor but it was well worth the effort. I printed and faxed the information from http://www.marci-kids.com to her with a cover letter explaining how miserable he was on the dose he was on and then I called her to see if she got the information and surprising she said, “OK, let’s try it” Ten days later he was a new baby!!

This is the document she mentioned when she said ok. She said something about these drugs being “non-toxic” so she felt that even if it didn’t work (which it did) that it would at least not hurt him.

http://www.marci-kids.com/pdfs/dosingppis.pdf

One last thing about the compounded Prilosec, if it’s not being made properly it will work for a few days, even up to two weeks, but then it will begin to lose it’s effectivenss. So if you notice that he does fine when you first get the RX filled but then things start to go down hill, that’s probably why. And, yes he probably needs a higher dose. marci-kids has a dosing calculator that will help you with that.

Do whatever it takes and don’t give up.

[Anonymous]

Thanks so much! I was just thinking that I needed to print some information off to take with me on Tuesday, but wasn’t sure what to take. This is perfect.

Thanks again.

[Anonymous]

You’re welcome! I’d bring the dosing information and charts too.

[Anonymous]

Andrea,

We have dealt with the whole “he’ll grow out of it” thing with our ped too. I hate it, because we rely on him to help us, but all he can say is that he’ll grow out of it?!? He obviously has never lived with an infant who has reflux!

Anyway, we are switching peds at this time due to all of the hassle we’ve had getting help for Caden’s reflux. I actually thought he’d outgrown it, and he was doing so well (no more sour breath, no more fussy nights, taking 2 hour naps, etc.) but then he got an ear infection and all h*ll broke loose! Now, he’s back to fussy nightwaking, etc.

So, I have an appointment scheduled with a new ped for this week. I want a fresh set of eyes and ears and someone who will WANT to figure this out not just blow us off.

I hope the Priolosec helps little Cade soon! I know how hard it can be to get them to take those nasty meds when they’re so little. They aren’t accustomed to different tastes then, and they are so sensitive to those strong flavorings. Caden now seems to like medicines most of the time, but he is older (8 months).

Good luck and Welcome to the site!

[Anonymous]

Hi Andrea,

We used to put Leah’s compounded prilosec with a touch of formula into a bottle nipple as her amounts got bigger I split it into dosing with the bottle nipple~

Now we have a small bottle we put a little warmed formula-very little-and all of her prilosec which is about 5 ml–it doesn’t spill and the dr. said you can take your time giving it to her and not jam it down b/c I would get stressed when she wouldn’t finish it immediately—

we always wait 30 min to then feed her as we were instructed at the hospital and it is also on the label on her meds–ideally using no formula would be great but she hates that it is cold

~Veronica

[Anonymous]

Hello,

My two youngest children have taken the Prilosec. I have gave it to my two year old at the same time as his bottle. I just squirted it in righ beside the bottle. Now my darling daughter won’t fall for it. I give her hers @9am in about 10cc of formula just before I feed her. I had tried waiting 30 minutes, but it didn’t really seem to make much difference. It helps her pain either way. Then at night give her evening dose @9pm. She eats directly after that, goes to sleep, and sleeps until about 6:30am.

Hope this helps.

[Author]

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