Medication Roll Call

[Anonymous]

Hi. . . New to this forum. I had my preemie (nearly 6 months now, corrected to 3.5 months) enrolled in an acid reflux clinical medication study for several weeks. It was a Protonix study (PPI). She did wonderful when she was actually getting the medication, but now we are in the “randomized” section of the study where she “could” get the placebo. Well, there is no “COULD” in this scenario . . .she DID get the placebo. We’ve seen a down-hill progression in the last week since she started the randomization portion of the study. She’s back to spitting up large volumes continuously, crying during feedings, refusing to feed, constant back arching, waking up every 2 hours in the night whaling at the top of her lungs, coughing, etc. Back to square 1 now. Zantac only minimally helped the situation and I don’t want to go back to that.

SO, my question to you is. . . What medications are your kiddos on. . . Prilosec, Zegerid, etc? and the dosage? What worked the best for you and what worked the worst?

Thanks!!!

[Anonymous]

Hi and welcome!

I’m so sorry your little girl had to get taken off the medicine! It sounds like it was really helping her. I would suggest getting back on a PPI as soon as possible. My son is on Prevacid and it has worked wonderfully for him. He’s been on 18 mg. since he was about 4 months old, however many babies seem to need much higher doses. I’m not sure if you’ve seen http://www.marci-kids.com. It has a lot of great information on reflux meds, specifically PPIs and it even has a dosing calculator. Good luck! I hope you can get your daughter back on a good medicine and get her feeling better again soon!

[Anonymous]

hi! my son has been on 30 mg of prevacid since 3 months old. recently we switched to 20 mg of prilosec since i lost my sons med bottle!! its been fine though.

[Anonymous]

Hello and welcome,

It must be awful to see your little sweetie suffering after doing so well on medication. I hope you can put her on something again soon. My son was on Prevacid solutabs, 10 mgs. 3 times daily. This worked wonders for him.

Is Protonix a compounded (liquid) medication? PPI meds are notorioulsy difficult to compound correctly and they often lose their effectiveness right in the bottle if they are not being compounded properly. You can read about that and more info on PPI drugs for infant reflux at http://www.marci-kids.com

It’s good to know there’s more research being done into PPI meds for infant reflux.

[Anonymous]

It is very difficult to see her suffering now after finally doing better.

Question for anyone. . . what is the youngest solutabs can be used in children/infants? They seem so much easier to regulate dosages, but can infants use them safely?

[Anonymous]

Regarding the question of Protonix. It was a packet of grape-flavored granules that you mix in 5 ml water just before administration. It was a once-a-day dosage. . . I think. . .5 mg, but don’t qoute me on that.

Since it was a clinical study, she can’t be continued on the Protonix. I just hope it is FDA approved soon. It did work well. . .and the once-a-day dosing is so much less hassle.

[Anonymous]

Abby was on Zegerid since she was a month old (now almost 19 months old). She started on 21mg to start with and was up to as much as 36mg when she was about 6 months old. We started to wean her off when she was about a year old and got her down to just a nightime dose of 12 mg which we finally were able to eliminate about 2 weeks ago (yippee!!). Our oldest daughter’s reflux was well controlled by just using Pepcid.

Good luck to you!!

Robin

[Anonymous]

We are on prevacid and have been since I think 10wks old. We gradually got our dosage to where it is perfect at 30mg, I give 15mg in the a.m and 15mg in the p.m that way I only have to time with 2 meals instead of 3. My GI didn’t want to go that high but b/c both dh and I have medical backgrounds he told me I could try it for a week and when it worked, I just went to my regular ped and she writes our prescriptions b/c she knows we both know what we are talking about. I do know this is rare and I am very lucky that we have that relationship. I would fight to get your lo back on meds and not the placebo. It sounds so harsh to give them relief and then take it away… I guess it is all in the name of research. Good luck, glad you found us.

[Anonymous]

We started off on Prevacid Soutabs (15mgs) and had cramping and dosing problems. Went to Zegerid and had puking problems from sodium bicarbonate. Now we are on Nexium 20mg powder packs daily and this has worked out the best for us.

[Anonymous]

Many babies on this site have used prevacid solutabs in very young infants. The challenge is that you need to give them on an empty stomach and follow up with a meal 30 minutes later. I assume that you were supposed to do the same with the protonix. My dd was on prilosec at 2 months until about 9 months, then on prevacid. Prevacid has worked so much better for her than the prilosec did.

[Anonymous]

How do you administer a solutab to an infant?? Do you just put it in their mouth to let it desolve?? Or do you disolve it in water first and then give it with a syringe?

It sounds like a catch-22. . . the solutab sounds easier to dose and give, but the Zegerid sounds nice because you don’t have to worry about mealtimes. With the Protonix, it was to be given on an empty stomach 30-minutes before any meals. . . .we sometime only waited 15 minutes when she’d get really fussy and it didn’t seem to make any difference that we noticed.

I’ve gotten lots of good info from this site and from MARCI-Kids. Thanks for all the input. . .I’ll print it all out and take it with me tomorrow.

[Anonymous]

Alana was on 30mg of prevacid. I only gave once a day and also rarely waited the 30 minutes (initially I did have to supplement with zantac which I may not have had to if I had divided the 30mg into 2 or 3 doses but once a day just worked better for us).

[hellbennt]

there’s a link from Prevacid 101 about how to administer the solutabs…

Prevacid 101(last post on the page): https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1936&PN=0&TPN=1

[Anonymous]

You can dissolve the Prevacid tablet in a few mls of water and administer using a medicine dropper or syringe (the dropper works better because the little granules often stick to the plunger on the syringe). Some moms hold it in the cheek like you mentioned and let it dissolve. That didn’t work well for Myles though. We did better dissolving it and using a medicine dropper.

I hope you can get her on some new meds soon.

[Anonymous]

Isaac did much better on Protonix (we got it compounded and it worked just fine for him) than he does Prevacid. The solutabs are easier to give but having to time them are a pain for us.

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