I am going to go insane!

[Anonymous]

I am sooooo frustrated. Started Prevacid and Oatmeal cereal at the same time. I know I know – one thing at a time so you know what is causing what. I have issues with this. Anyway – he got soooo gassy and cranky and I thought it was the cereal, so we stopped the cereal. His spitting did lessen but it was hard to tell if his reflux discomfort was better because now he was uncomfortable from the gas it seemed. So after we stopped the cereal he seemed a little better with the fussinesss but was arching even more than before it seemed and also started to pull his legs up. He also was whining more when he arched. Spitting was still much better but now lots of wet burps and it seemed like maybe some silent reflux which might explain the additional arching since the silent is probably more painful. I continued giving Zantac since it was not 14 days yet and sometimes I would give Mylanta as well. (All spaced out from the PPI) and it seemed to do nothing – sometimes it even seemed to make it worse. He also started have one explosive loose stool a day that he had to push really hard to get out. He was not napping well which is not like him and would wake up once or twice in the night – also not like him. Then today happened. Really arching in the morning but had a really good happy feeding at 9:00 and then all hell broke loose after his 12:00 feeding – fussy, arching, would not take his nap, fed again around 3:00 and he refused the bottle half way through and would not stop screaming. He took his bottle at 6:00 but cried with that one as well. The morale of the story is he is not himself at all. I am so frustrated. I call my pediatrician and they said to take him off the prevacid. It may be the prev, it may be a stomach flu, it may be both. I just feel like the last 9 days have been a complete waste. I am trying to make him better and it seems that we are making him worse. I just want my happy baby back who naps and smiles. I can’t stand watching him suffer anymore. It seems like he is a human experiment – we try this we stop that we try something else and all the while he is the one who suffers until we find the right “cocktail” to help him. I am just sooo sick of it all. I told the pediatrician that I want to see a Ped GI NOW! But I am just worried that we will start a new round of experiments to see what works, and it seems everything we have tried so far has made him feel worse than the reflux does. He was a happy baby who slept well and ate well who had a several epidsodes a day of arching and pain from spitting, but when they were over he was back to happy baby Now he seems miserable most of the time.

OK so now that I am over my tantrum! Sorry I just needed to vent. I do have a question:

Why do they start them on prevacid if there are so many potential side effects. Do the other PPI’s have the same potential side effects? I have read a lot of posts about others going through the same thing I am with the prevacid but not many on other PPI’s Are others easier on the tummy?

Do they do the arching with gas pain and other tummy pain as well? Wondering if the increased arching is related or if silent reflux taking over now that the spitting has decreased.

[hellbennt]

It is so frustrating!!

I think they start on prevacid because babies seem, in general, to do well with it. Jonah started on prilosec and then he maxed out on it for his weight- then he went to prevacid and did much better…there are some babies who do better with nexium and there are some that do better with protonix. unfortunately it is a lot of trial & error

what form of prevacid was it? solutabs have some lactose, strawberry flavoring and aspertame- babies can react to any one of these things (or none at all). w/ the packets, babies can react to the strawberry flavoring…if it was compounded, it could be any number of things…

what brand oatmeal was it? gerber and other brands have soy…beechnut does not.

I guess just go back to formula and zantac- check to see what dose-how much does he weigh?

[Anonymous]

Shelley, I don’t really have any advice, except to hang in there. It is so hard, and it makes me so sad every time I hear about another little baby that is suffering. I too find the trial and error maddening!!!! Sometimes I thought I would lose it trying to find the right size nipple, the right flow bottle, the right sippy cup, the right medicine, the right ratio of medicine to milk, the right texture of food, and the list goes on and on. It’s unbelievable sometimes. I really think that a ped GI referral is a good idea. I hope this is the answer for you and your little one, with happier days ahead very soon.

[Anonymous]

Shelley, a few weeks ago, my dd had horrible gas and stomach problems. I couldn’t figure out what was going on. I literally had to push on her stomach to get the gas out, a massage therapist showed me how to give her some releif. Turns out that she started reacting to the traces of milk proteins in the nutramigen after being on it for a few months. I asked for a couple cans of neocate from the gi doc, 6 days later it was like a new baby. Alot of people say that the tummy aches do subside after a couple weeks from the PPI. Also, we had to use barley and reintroduce oatmeal at a later time. too much gas! And we started thickening with simply thick.

Ohh, we switched to zegerid for a while before i figured out what was bugging her tummy. It worked pretty fast, within a few days. Might want to try a sample.

[Anonymous]

Can you describe the message technique you used? I am going to try Barley next. Though I am scared to even try cereal after the rice and oatmeal failures.

Thanks

[Anonymous]

Tyler is much much much better today after not giving the prevacid. He is back to being a happy baby and he is napping normally. And the spitting has remained pretty well under control. He has only arched twice so far today. I am calling to get referral to a GI on Monday. I am tired of this. I want an expert. I hope I get a good one. Thanks to all who talked me down from the ledge! 🙂

[Anonymous]

Hi Shelly-

I’m so sorry it’s been a hard time. Really feel for you!

Just wanted to put my two cents in (and I know this is hard because all babies are different but..). My son was born just a week before yours and we went through similar experiences. Tried rice and it helped with spit up but took awhile to realize it was causing him stomach discomfort. Also tried Nutramagin and had to go to Elecare (like neocate). Also tried prevacid. The only thing I can tell you is that if your son is reacting that much to the prevacid you may want to go to a neocate just because it sounds like his intolerance could be high. That helped us alot. Also, I can tell you it took us a month to see results on prevacid but they were dramatic. Once he started to do better, we even tried weaning him off and he did well for 2 weeks but it then came back full force. Is it possible that (you did a 9 day trial, right?) maybe it was starting to kick in? Again, take all of this with a grain of salt-just a thought. I only say this because I LOATHED those first weeks when we switched to Elecare/prevacid, but once they kicked in, it was a miracle for us. Any time we try to change back, we notice dramatic declines.

Good luck! It’s like a needle in a haystack, but you’ll find what works.

Tracy (Ian’s Mom 9-26-05)

[Anonymous]

Wow, that’s odd that he is doing so much better without the prevacid. All I can say is that I hate this game we are playing. It’s trial and error, we just try to grasp at anything that will help our little ones. I sure would hate to have you stop it if you only have a week or so before the stomach pain subsides. But… listen to your mommy insticts. You know your son best, maybe he is one of those kids that reacts to all the side effects serverely. Still wondering if he might feel better on neocate. When you try the barley, just do like a scope or two for the first couple days.

The massage technique… just basically has us follow the path of the large intestine. Taking a few fingers and pushing up the right side of the tummy, over (below the belly button) and down the left, pushing the gas out of the bowels. It helps move things along if the kiddo is constipated too.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the message technique. I will try it. When I say I have my happy baby back I am comparing to the past 9 days. He is still refluxing and he arched by the end of the day today about 10 times so it got worse as the day went on. But the thing is in between the arching and reflux episodes he is a really happy baby. On the prevacid he was nightmare all day long. I will see what the GI says next week. I think I would like to try a different PPI. Lots have seemed to have side effects on Prevacid but I have not read as many problem post on the others. Just a frustrating guessing game. THanks again.

[Anonymous]

We weren’t able to continue using prevacid with Isaac. We have tried it twice and both times were unbearable! We have had big success with protonix and the only side effect was a headache a few times. We never went to neocate and I am glad that we didn’t b/c for us it was a matter of finding the right ppi!

[Anonymous]

Just wanted to add that I did not start my son on solid cereal (cereal not in the bottle) until he was 6 months old. Once I tried to give him cereal and he’d try to reflux up all the cereal – you can imagine how horrible it would be to reflux up something thick as opposed to refluxing up liquids. Keep that in mind when making your diagnosis. Also, I believe my son’s stomach wasn’t READY to digest food until 6 months old – to digest food, you create a lot more stomach acid, making reflux worse.

[Anonymous]

Marsha

Does cereal in the bottle react differently than spoon fed? I assumed it would be the same?

[Anonymous]

It was definitley different for my son. The thicker the cereal, the harder to digest AND the harder it was to reflux up. My son also had a narrowing in his esophagus from his surgery, so maybe other babies can reflux up the solids easier? My son had a really hard time will refluxing up the solids, it was like he was choking. I think the thicker the food, the more stomach acids that are produced to digest it, which makes the reflux even worse until they get a little older. That’s just my observations with my son.

[Author]

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