Help!

[Anonymous]

Hi Everyone,

My daughter Kate might have reflux, she hasn’t been officially diagnosed yet, but I just am so discouraged because she was put on 15mg of prevacid on tuesday and I know it takes awhile to kick in but it seems like she’s getting worse. I called our ped because I wanted to know if maybe this med didn’t agree with her since it seems she’s worse since starting it, but his nurses said he was busy and just gave me a referral(sp?) to a ped G.I. The appointment is June 18th!!! What are we supposed to do in the meantime? I was just wondering if anyone knows if she could also be suffering from a milk allergy. Her poop is fine, could it be just causing fussiness? Is that possible? Also, I asked the docs nurse if we could up her dose maybe since marcikids.com says her dose is too low and he said no but keep her on the prevacid. Should we do it anyway if it will bring her some relief? I’m so frustrated but more brokenhearted for my little girl who I know is hurting somewhere. If anyone has any advice please help.

[Anonymous]

i answered your other post. and basically, yes, moms have had to increase doses themselves. thats up to you, you gotta go with the mommy instincts.

[hellbennt]

are you administering ‘correctly?’

there’s Prevacid 101

it’s linked to from Groupie Intro

[Anonymous]

Hi there,
I’m sorry for all you’re going through. The problem with Prevacid, is that it can take like 2 weeks to see the full effect, and meanwhile, it’s almost like they’re on no medicine at all! Is there something you could give her until the Prevacid “kicks” in? Like Zantac or Mylanta. You just have to space them a few hours apart from the Prevacid. That’s just an idea. Also, make sure you’re administering it correctly like Laura said.

If your ped. won’t prescribe a higher dose, you might want to try a family doctor. A lot of us have had good luck getting a higher dose from our family doctors.

Good luck; I hope you can get things under control soon!

[Anonymous]

Is she worse all day long since you started Prevacid, or for a period of time after giving it to her? Some babies react to the added ingredients in the solutabs (apartame and lactose) with tummy cramps. My son had this reaction but it did subside after 10-14 days. Many times this reaction does pass once the body adjusts to the medication.

Are you giving her the solutab on a full stomach and following it up with a meal 30 minutes later? This is important in getting the full effect of hte medication.

I do think it’s possible for her to have some milk senstivity even without poop issues. What formula is she on now?

[Anonymous]

Sorry to hear that it hasn’t helped her yet. I know how awful it is to watch them suffer. What type of prevacid are you giving?

[Anonymous]

I would probably give it a few more days myself. I know that is hard to do, with the fussiness, screaming, but it seems it really does take awhile for a PPI to show its effects. If you give it the two weeks or so without effect, then your Dr might be more persuaded to let you try something different? If not then you might have to go elsewhere.

It would seem like MSPI and reflux do seem to go hand in hand for some. Alana was not 100% until both were soreted out and still seems to suffer from the MSPI.

[Anonymous]

I am one of the moms that just upped the dose myself. My doc never knew the diff. She was too busy to realize that we were going through the meds faster than we should’ve been.

Is she on the pkts or the solutabs, Are you giving it in more than one dose, and are you giving it on an empty stomach, and not feeding for 30 minutes after? I was told by someone at marci-kids that the pkts for infants are pretty worthless because you have to split it up and you have to make sure you get the same amt of white things in each dose. Sorry, can’t think of the word for the white things.I’m sure that is not the case for all, but could be possibly the cause too. I’m sorry your having to go through this. It is a pain in the rear, but it will end.

[Anonymous]

Hey Everyone,

I can’t thank you enough for all the helpful advice and words of encouragement. It sure is hard to see a light at the end of the tunnel but I’m confident we’ll find it. Hopefully sooner rather than later. Kate is on 15mg of the solutabs and I wasn’t administering it correctly so now I know and hopefully soon we’ll see some sort of change. Now, what does mylanta do? I was just wondering because maybe we could do that in the meantime right? She screams during a feed(she’s breastfed)and sporatically at night where she wakes herself up and is inconsolable and also during the day usually if she’s not in her swing and is getting tired that’s the only way she’ll fall asleep. I definately think I have an OAL so I take her off when my milk let’s down which still makes her really mad. Would the mylanta possible help relieve her pain while she’s feeding? The screaming on my breast rips my heart out(actually all the screams do)and I want to stick it out with breastfeeding but don’t want to cause her any extra pain. Would a bottle be any different? Anyway, thanks so much everyone. You have been my lifeline!!!

[Anonymous]

Mylanta is an antacid…it reduced the acidicy of the stomach contents and so if they spit up it is less likely to burn. You could try doing this before a feed and see if it helps.

Try doing a seach for OAL (the search button is at the top of the page)…there have been some recent posts about this and strategies to manage it. I’m racking my brain of the user name, but one mum here has managed to keep her bub of meds by controlling the OAL (I know nothing about it so can’t help). Hopefully she will see this and post. Or start your own post labelling it OAL and all those fabulous mums who have experienced it will see it and hopefully post.

[Anonymous]

I think it was Ben’s mom who had pretty severe OAL. I’ll see if I can find a post about it for you.

Yes, it was Bensmama Here’s a thread where she mentions it. Maybe you can pm her for some additional information on how she managed the OAL.

https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=8359&a mp;KW=OAL

[Anonymous]

Hey,

Yep, it’s me with the OAL, and it’s still an issue actually, but there are many things you can do to help.

I take him off the breast when my milk lets down, as you say you do. Also, I try to nurse him from one breast per feed, as much as he will let me. Now that he’s older, he usually will feed from both, but at your daughter’s age, I really tried to stick to one at a time. There is another mom on here, I think momof4, who blocked nursed for about 8 hours at a time, that is she nursed from one side only for 8 hours at a time. She’s the one who kept her little guy off meds. this way.

Other things to try… nursing lying down or on your back with baby on top of you.. check out http://www.kellymom.com There are some good ideas for dealing with OAL on there.

[Anonymous]

Wow, great advice ladies.

I know what you mean about it being so heart breaking when nursing. I felt like I was hurting him because he hurt so much when he nursed. It all got better once he was on the correct meds and correct dose. Now bfing is such a bonding thing. Your little one will get there. I wouldn’t try a bottle though because he just might refuse to go back to bfing. That is just me though. Keep up the good work. I know how hard it is to bf a reflux baby. As do these other women. It is tough stuff. Keep us posted.

[hellbennt]

OAL:Gaining, Gulping, and Grimacing?
http://www.wiessinger.baka.com/bfing/trouble/gulping.html

[Anonymous]

Thanks again for all the great tips ladies. We had the worst night ever last night. All evening when Kate would nurse she would whimper or scream, pull off and then act like she’s starving, and while she was nursing she would twist her wrist around in this really jerky way. She did that last night when I was trying to get her to sleep(bedtime was midnight lastnight)She kept flailing her arms around and twisting her wrist and breathing really heavy and fast. I know it sounds silly but has anyone experienced this? Anway, I read Laura’s thread about OAL and that gave me some more tips of what to do which makes me hopeful. Thanks for that! She just seems SO uncomfortable ALL the time I feel so helpless. I wonder if we should switch peds because ours never seems like he takes me seriously or seems concerned when I’m freaking out. He just says “don’t worry so much.” I guess I’ve been hesitant to jump the gun with finding a new ped because I have a long history of overreacting in my life and blowing things out of proportion that with all this craziness with the baby I feel like I never know which end is up anymore. Anyhow, thanks for listening.

Claire

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