Just Started Medication–looking for advice

[Anonymous]

Hello,

My name is Karen and my son Henry is 4 months in a week. We just started Prevacid solutabs, 15 mg twice per day for reflux. His symptoms are choking, some spit up, short sleep, congestion, hiccups, eating his hands constantly, etc.

We just started the Prevacid yesterday and I am reading about dosing, etc. Henry is almost 17 lbs (i think he comfort nurses). Does 15 mg twice per day sound like enough?

Henry’s reflux has just gotten worse over time. He was happier, sleeping longer until the past few weeks when I finally realized the reflux was a lot worse. He jolts awake a lot. i hold him a lot.

Any thoughts about dosing or what I should be doing would be nice. Sleep has gotten so bad the past few weeks and we are all tired. I went off dairy for 3 weeks saw no improvement. i didn’t think of going off of soy! He has great skin so far.

He had a tongue tie that was clipped and breastfeeding has been better for both of us. There is some reattachment.

Any thoughts about dosing or tips would be great.

Thank you,

Karen and Henry

[Anonymous]

to clarify the dose is 15 mg split, so 7.5 twice per day.

[hellbennt]

welcome! you’ve found a great place!

you’r doing what you need to do – you’re researching so that you can be the best advocate for your baby!

as far as dosing goes, there’s a dosing chart- you’ll have to figure out your baby’s weight in kilos- there’s also a conversion chart to do this-

PLEASE read Prevacid 101:

scroll to the last page of this post, (it’s actually also about other PPIs like prilosec, too)

https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1936&PN=0&TPN=1

I have a LOT MORE to say and most of it’s here, in a link called ‘groupie intro.’

it’s looOong but TRULY will help you- read through it, refer back to it, scroll through it/skim through it. You’ll find yourself coming back to it!

https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=853

reflux what I have learned: https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2948&a mp;PN=2

[Anonymous]

thank you!! i’ve been non-stop reading the forum posts all day! and the archived marci site

if my math is correct my nearly 17 lb son needs 34ish mgs/day, does that sound right?

also, did you or others find that medication helps with the choking? he is choking 1-5 times per day and that is my biggest concern!

thank you again!!!!!

[Anonymous]

I am sorry your little one is suffering! ((HUG)) That is so hard to watch your child choking! When my boys were suffering from reflux there were numerous times that I was afraid they might die! 🙁

Beings you have been reading posts all day you have most likely read some of mine. So I will not bore you with my information on what we found to help. If you haven’t read my blog yet it might be worth your time! 🙂

I hope that soon you can find the right thing(s) to help your child get better!

[hellbennt]

the solutabs must be given on an empty stomach, followed by a ‘meal’ 30 minutes later

17lbs = 7.8 kilos

prevacid dose is 1.5mgs per kilo & then this dose is given 3x a day

so:

7.8 x 1.5 = 11.7 mgs

11.7 x 3 = 35mgs of prevacid total, for the day

the medicine won’t stop anything other than the pain.

it *might* help the choking bcse if baby isn’t in pain, maybe he won’t try to swallow everything back down?

the choking, if it’s mucous, comes from (most likely!) a protein in your diet? how are baby’s poops? gas?

Reasons a breastfeeding mother might think her baby is reacting to something in her milk:

*poop that is not ‘normal’ mustardy yellow, seedy breastfed baby poop

*mucous in poop; mucous can look like: snot, jelly, cottage cheese, stringy like the inside of a banana

*foul-smelling poop

*stinky, foul-smelling painful gas

*straining and grunting to poop and, when baby finally does poop, it’s soft

hellbennt2012-11-21 17:25:45

[Anonymous]

Thank you both so much, Laura and Happymom. And.. Happy Thanksgiving if you celebrate that holiday!

Happymom, I will be checking out your blog!

Laura, thank you for the dosing, I will be asking for an increase next week.

Also, Henry does have mucousy poops–we lost seeds in his poop around 4-5 weeks. They smell sweet and he doesn’t have much gas, but he always strains and I usually have to massage his tummy to help him or he tries to bite on things to help.

I tried dairy free for three weeks and didn’t see a change, but didn’t know to also not use soy. i tried gluten for two weeks, but ate some accidentially and now I’m at Thanksgiving in a small town and have little access to those foods. I saw other posts about diet, could you suggest how I’d go about figuring out which protein is causing the problem? After Thanksgiving I’m going to start again.

Thank you again, so much for responding!

Karen and Baby Henry (4 months with reflux)

[hellbennt]

diet can be tough, but if you focus on what you CAN eat, it’s not so bad. And, it’s ‘only’ for 2 weeks.

me, I did the TED, that’s the dr sears total elimination diet.

you follow it for two weeks and then you add foods back in.

you might want to start there – it’s hard, but not impossible and you may find foods that your baby reacts to.

In my case, I was DESPERATE. truly. I really didn’t think it was my diet (it wasn’t), but I was at my wit’s end!

following the diet did help me know that there WERE some foods that caused more reflux/pain for my ds. They were ‘odd’ foods! So, after the diet, I knew that citrus, tomatoes & tomato products, eggplant & tuna (he reacted after canned tuna so I also tried a tuna steak, thinking maybe it was something in the canned tuna…)

in your case, you have the mucousy poop to go by and the thick spit-up (I’m guessing that the choking is from thick spit up?) – you can monitor this way and also in terms of reflux pain/discomfort, etc.

here’s some more light reading for you:

best EXPLANATION OF FOOD ALLERGIES/INTOLERANCES and their RELATION TO REFLUX that I have found, to date: 2nd post: https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2697&PN=2

MSPI ‘Main’ page:

https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2697

THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT:

Erin’s sticky:

https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=12948&PID=105126#105126

More Erin:

https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=13175&PID=106395#106395

Erin post: https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=13576

More recent post – TED and success also using probiotics

https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=15293&PN=1

Great anne post: https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9242

Misconceptions about how Neocate & Elecare work: https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=6013

[Anonymous]

Hi laura,

I just wanted to update you and ask a few more questions. The prevacid solutabs two times a day did reduce his choking a lot. We went back to the doctor today adn asked to increase the dose to three times a day and she agreed. We have started our first 3 times a day today.

I also ordered TCM-did you use this? Did it cause a lot of gas?

Also, do you have any thoughts about Prevacid and sleeplessness?

Thank you!!

Karen and Henry (4 months old)

[hellbennt]

I used the predecessor to TCM; it was called caracream.

we also used prevacid.

I never saw anything with gas or sleeplessness.

I haven’t heard much about either one in all the years (going on ten!) until rather recently…

I would give zantac at night if you’re worried about the prevacid at night- I’d give an evening dose and then if baby wakes up again w/ discomfort, I’d give zantac (that’s what I did)…

[Anonymous]

My 3 month old was on the solutabs. As Henry grows, the dose will have to be adjusted. My GI said that 4 months is typically when symptoms peak. So hopefully, things will start to get better.

Cassie was a really short sleeper before. She now sleeps upright in her swing which bumped us to about 3 hours sleep time. The prevacid got her to 4 to 5 hours. With the Nexium she’s on now, we’re getting 5 to 7 hours(still in the swing).

Cassie wasn’t a big spit upper – just every so often. Mainly she was having reflux that would come into her throat but not all the way out. The GI indicated that it takes time for her throat and stomach to heal. And that on the prevacid (since Cassie is an acid producer)she was outgrowing the medicine before she could heal.

I hope he’s starting to feel better now that he’s been on prevacid for a while.

The thing I did that has helped the most – every time she got worse, I called the doc. We’ve been in about every 2 weeks since she was born. That got us to a GI specialist who is trying to more actively manage the symptoms. Cassie’s other big clue that reflux is flared is that she gets incosolable – for an hour or 2 at a time. There’s nothing you can do to help. We’ve gone in every time that happened during the day. And they consistently decide that it’s reflux causing the crying.

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