HELP – Keeps spitting up medicine

[Anonymous]

Well, our little Braydon is doing so-so with his reflux. We have one problem which we have not figured out how to handle. He takes his medicines early in the day without a problem. But by late afternoon and evening, when we give him his medicine(s), they are almost immediately refluxing back up (sometimes within 1-2 minutes). Anybody have this same problem and/or have a solution to this problem? We are getting very frustated. Sometimes when he refluxes the medicine it actually comes out his nose also. Then it takes us a while to get him calmed down. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Anonymous]

Hi Sandra,
We have this same problem! My son has a G-tube, so we give him his meds through that. If I’m lucky he’ll be asleep when I give him medicine, and then he does fine; but if he’s not asleep, he often times spits up the meds. Then it’s frustrating, because I have no idea how much he’s spit up, so I don’t dare give him more.

The only thing that seems to help (and not always) is to hold him completely upright for 30 minutes after giving him the meds. You could try that (if you haven’t already).

Good luck! I know how frustrating this can be.

[Anonymous]

Heather –

Thanks so much for responding. We will definitely try to hold him upright for 30 minutes after we give him the meds. We also dose him sometimes while he is asleep – sometimes it works, and sometimes he refluxes it back up. This is so frustating for everyone. I especially worry about my grandson, Braydon. He is growing and it looks like he doesn’t miss many meals – but he sometimes spits up what looks like the entire bottle. I’m sure it’s not since he is gaining. Thanks for your help.

Sandra

Braydon’s Grandmother

Born June 27, 2006

[Anonymous]

My son very frequently threw up entire feeds and he wasn’t a big eater to begin with. I don’t know how, but he always stayed on track with his growth and development.

Does he take a pacifier? I found that it sometimes helped to give Myles his pacifier after giving him his meds and that sometimes helped him keep it down.

Is he on Zegerid? Sometimes babies throw up Zegerid because of the high sodium content.

[Anonymous]

Christine –

We do try the pacifier and sometimes it does help – but other times he spits up around the pacifier. He is not on Zegerid. He is on Prilosec; but we were seriously thinking about talking to the doctor and changing him to the zegerid. Now after reading your reply, I’m not sure if we should try it or not. It sounds like both your babies each outgrew it at nine months. I can only hope and pray that Braydon will do the same. Thanks so much for your input.

[Anonymous]

Hailey also puked her meds. Do you think he’s vomitting them up because of the reflux, or because he doesn’t like the taste? Is it the prilosec compound? The compound tastes quite salty, and for Hailey it used to cause a vomitting reaction. I didn’t find this out until later, but Joel said that the saltiness of the solution can cause them to gag and puke. I did find that for her, it wasn’t reflux as much as the taste causing them to come back up. Sometimes it was better if I flushed it down with a “chaser” of water. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Lori –

We “think” he is spitting them up because of the reflux. The prilosec is compounded and they add bubblegum flavoring. We are pretty sure that after about a week and a half the Prilosec is losing its effectiveness. He has started with the hiccups again and fights us on his bottles now also. When the script is first filled he does really well for about a week or so. We are definitely going to try to get it compounded every two weeks instead of once a month – if our insurance will allow. I will definitely tell my daughter to try to give Braydon a “chaser” of water after she gives the meds.

I noticed that you have Hailey on Prevacid. Is it compounded or is it the solutabs? And do you think it is better that Prilosec? Just curious.

Thanks so much for your concern.

[Anonymous]

Hi Sandra,
Something you can do is to ask your pharmacy to just fill half of the order at a time. Then you can get two weeks worth instead of a month. They’re usually fine with doing this.
Also, I was going to mention – And sorry if this is gross – but if you are worried about how much your grandson is spitting up, you can try to catch the spit up in a bottle or something and measure it. Then you can judge better how much he is actually losing (might come in handy for a doc visit later too). Sometimes it looks like more than it actually is. Yuck, I know.

[Anonymous]

Good idea about the two week supply….

Joel (who used to work at http://www.marci-kids.com ) once posted about adding Mylanta Cherry Supreme to Zegerid doses to help prevent the vomitting that ocurrs due to the high sodium content. I wonder if it would help with Prilosec as well. Maybe you can email Dr. Phillips and ask him. Here’s his email address phillipsjo@health.missouri.edu

Myles was on the Prevacid Solutabs. I don’t know it it’s any better because it’s the only thing he was ever on, but it was really hard timing it around meals. I think it’s easy to give and tastes good, but some babies have problems with the added ingredients (lactose and aspartame).

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