Help! Going to Specialist Wednesday

[Anonymous]

Hi All,

It was another bad weekend. It seems like my little girl is only getting worse. She’s really having trouble sleeping now, and just looked exhausted this morning. The acid reflux seems to be bothering her all day now, she’s choking, and doing this new things where she throws her body forward and it looks like she’s trying to cough or clear her throat. She gets so upset when she’s in pain too, we feel so badly for her, she’s not even 14 weeks yet! We ended up on the phone with the pediatrician office again over the weekend, and they finally said that they didn’t know why she wasn’t responding better, or what was going on. She’s now on the prevacid 15 mg solutab in the morning, and the Zantac at night. I’m concidering taking her back off the Zantac, though, as the last 3 nights–3 of the worst yet–were when she was back on Zantac. Has anyone else experienced bad side effects from the Zantac??

We are going to the specialist on Wednesday, we were hoping they’d be able to get her in sooner, but apparently she’s not enough of an “emergency”, which is just ridiculous to me. What should I ask the doctor, and what kinds of things should I request that he do to check her out? As of now, she was diagnosed as milk allergy at 4 weeks (although the nurse practitioner now seems to think maybe it was just the reflux starting to show), and the GERD at 9 weeks. (The nurse practitioner mentioned that if she isn’t allergic to milk, she could switch possibly to that Enfamil with the rice in it to help keep her food down better, and also I know somewhere on this board someone mentioned that the solutabs may not work as well with Nutramigen-fed babies.) My sister-in-law (an ultrasound tech) said we should ask for a belly sonogram, and I’m definitely asking for a milk allergy test, but I’m not sure what else. I don’t want them to treat her like another number, I want to go in there informed and able to challenge them if need be, as we’ve had to do in the past.

Thank you in advance to anyone who can help, and I’m sorry if this is rambling at all, it was somewhat of a sleepless night here!

[hellbennt]

hi there,

ok first the solutab: check out http://www.marci-kids.com to find out what dosage of PPI to ask for from the GI. If S/he won’t go that high, ask for 3mgs prevacid per kilo to start with AT LEAST…

are you giving on an empty stomach?

you also might want to try splitting the dose- night time might be worse bcse of the amount of acid, bcse the prevacid has worn off, & the zantac isn’t ‘cutting it’? but, if you think it’s the zantac, then ask for pepsid or axid from the GI…

also ask the GI about carfate to get you through- this is like a tephlon coating for the esophogus- NO, it’s not really tephlon- just a super duper mega coating medicine (think mylanta but to the maximum strength)

testing: Upper GI looks for structural abnormalities. Ask for a milk scan I think it is- to see how the milk is digested (how long it takes to empty out of stomach. this will rule out or diagnose Delayed Gastric Emptying (DGE). Ask for a Swallow Study- this will see if she’s aspirating liquid into her lungs (you mention choking…).

For milk allergy: I do think there’s a skin prick test and there’s a blood test. I’m not sure how accurate these are. Discuss w/ the Dr. Ask about Endoscopy (see if you/& dr. thik it’s necessary) – this looks at esophogus & will tell you what it looks like- raw, irritated, ulcerated- they also take little biopsies and, if there are EOS cells present, this will tell you that there are allergies (proteins- milk & soy are the ‘main’ ones). you can also find out if there’s esophageal thrush in there too…

Someone correct me if I’m wrong!

HTH (hope this helps),

~laura

ps: when you get a chance, can you put info in your signature? I hate to be a pain, but it’s so hard to keep track of all these little GERDlings– go to the upper right hand corner of the screen & click on ‘settings’ & from there, scroll down to ‘profile’ and ‘signature’ thanks)

[Anonymous]

Sorry to hear your little girl is so miserable.

I would suggest taking along some printed information from http://www.marci-kids.com and asking to please be allowed to try the dose of Prevacid that these researchers recommend. That’s what finally turned things around for my son.

[Anonymous]

I could’ve sworn my little girl was worse on Zantac. At least I know my little one is not the only one having this kind of a reaction to all this. I definitely feel for you. We’ve also had not been sleeping with our 12 week-old. The doctor put her on Axid (same thing as Zantac, go figure). We have not seen any improvement as of yet. This journey can get difficult and frustrating at times but do try to keep a positive outlook. mariannardh2006-12-18 22:4:33

[Anonymous]

DEFINITELY it’s the Zantac with my daughter. We decided not to give it to her last night, and her evening was almost calm & she basically slept through the night. She actually fell asleep EARLIER than usual, missing her last bottle, so she woke up around 10:30, ate, and went right back to sleep until almost 7 am. No more Zantac for her. She’s still having symptoms, and we’re still going to the dr to get the prevacid dosages adjusted & her milik allergy checked out, but she’s already so much happier!

Marianna, I would definitely see if your doc can switch you over to something like Prevacid. The Zantac does have side effects that may just effect our little ones more than others! Best of luck with Ariella!

[Anonymous]

I know what you are going through i never want to go back to that stage again !!

I have been trying all different things with my daughters medication (not recommended i’m sure!) to see if i can help her more as nothing seemed to be working very well.

Yesterday i stopped the zantac at lunch and gave her an extra dose of prevacid (so she has 7.5mg 3x a day) well she had a great day, then i thought i would just give the zantac at night.

I put her down at 8.oopm, she woke at 11.00pm and i decided the next time she woke to give her the zantac as she normally wakes every 2 hours but then it was 7.30am i’m still in shock…………today she has been great too.

Looks like replacing the zantac with prevacid helps !! I hope things continue like this though as it has only been 2 days!

So maybe the zantac was upsetting her?

[Anonymous]

I definitely think the Zantac is the culprit! I looked online for possible side effects, and some listed are ABDOMINAL PAIN (isn’t that what we’re trying to avoid?) and sleeplessness! My daughter had a great day today, and just went to sleep at 7:00 (earliest yet). We’ll see how the night goes, but if it’s anything like last night, we’ll be thrilled!

Best of luck to you too! I’ll let you know what the specialist says!

Denise

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