Medications helping sleep?

[Anonymous]

Hi again everyone,

I’m going to our new pediatrician today with Caden, and I would like to possibly ask her to give us a prescription for Zegerid to try with him. Our MAIN issue right now is sleep. He seems ok during the day (not really fussy), but he is having a terrible time sleeping right now, especially at night. His naps are ok at this point most days. He usually takes a 1-2 hour nap in the morning and same thing in the afternoon. However, his night time sleep has gotten to the point that he is waking every 30 minutes to hour sometimes going 2 hours max…also, I’ve noticed in the last week that a couple of times during the night he has choked and panicked on spit up (almost like a child who goes underwater and panicks). This concerns me, because he has mostly been a silent refluxer, so this choking on spit up at night is a new thing…

This has all happened since his ear infection, so I’m going to get her opinion on it too, and see if she thinks this is just related to that (a flare up that will go away) or if we should try meds again.

I’m just wanting feedback on whether the meds have made a REAL difference in your baby’s sleep and if so, which med you use…since sleep is the only real issue right now, I would like to hear from anyone who has found that the meds have helped with that. I have read many posts on the site that basically say the meds have helped with eating issues, discomfort, etc. but not really sleep. Has anyone had good luck with their baby’s sleep improving once they were on medication?

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Sarah’s main issue before properly medicated was that she would SCREAM when she got tired. As soon as the fussiness started, we had to intervene and swaddle her tightly and bounce her to sleep on our exercise ball. This whole process took 30-60 minutes and we were lucky to get a 20 minute nap out of the whole ordeal. This went on for the first 4 months of her life until we started zegerid. Sarah would NEVER peacefully drift off to sleep like babies are supposed to. Within a few days after starting zegerid, the screaming got less and less and within 2 weeks she was falling asleep WITHOUT crying. Unique situation…but Sarah’s reflux pain DIRECTLY correlated with her falling and staying sleep. Things have been AWESOME ever since. I hope you find something that works for you!!

Hope that helped!

[Anonymous]

Before Cooper was on meds he didn’t sleep at all. He would be up for 5-6hrs at at time which for an infant is odd and if I got him to take a nap it would be for 15minutes on me and then maybe 10minutes in his crib. Night we were lucky if we got 3hrs total. Now on Prevacid he takes naps that can last up to 2.5hrs and he sleeps anywhere from 5-8hrs straight most nights. We are teething right now and have a bad diaper rash so that is disrupting our sleep, but at least these will go away. The Solutabs have been a miracle for us.

[Anonymous]

Emily,

Kate started sleeping so much better after being put on meds.(it started with prevacid, I know, not much comfort)Now, starting the zegerid, last night for the first time in her life I put her in her crib(she’s finally sleeping in her crib since the Zegerid)kissed her, rubbed her belly for awhile, said goodnight and left. Well, to her I left. I really just went to sit on the couch in our room and hold my breath She fell asleep BY HERSELF within 10 minutes! For us this is a HUGE breakthrough! Especially considering there were fireworks going off out side! Anyway, I bet once Caden gets on a good med that works for him his sleep will improve. Let me know how the ped appoint. goes!! I’ll be thinking of you!

[Anonymous]

Thanks everyone. It really means a lot to me that you all took the time to respond so quickly. This will help me at my appointment this afternoon. If she won’t let us try Zegerid, I may be willing to try the solutabs, because last time we had the granules, and they were SUCH a hassle to divide and administer. Also, it would be a little easier to time it around meals now that he is older and not nursing constantly.

I’m hoping for the Zegerid though

Thanks again!

[Anonymous]

Good luck. Hope you get the zegerid. Sorry I have no useful advice to offer when it comes to sleep… we’re still trying to sort the kinks out.

[Anonymous]

I think I responded to one of your other posts on the same topic. Maybe even on the breastfeeding reflux yahoo group. If not your story is the same as another mom. Anyway, zegerid was great for us, but didn’t help with the sleep issues. We eventually had to do sleep training at 10 months. I wanted to be sure he was reflux free before starting and we took him off meds at 9 months. We did not do cio so if you are interested I am willing to tell you what we did once you are ready for sleep training. I hope for you though that a simple med change will make all the difference. That is much easier.

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone-

Anna was diagnosed at 5 weeks with silent reflux (if you ask me she wasn’t so silent!!!). Her sleeping was just awful for naps. At her age she was only sleeping like 10 min at a time. The perpetual cranky-overtired state. She couldn’t sleep because of the pain…though she slept better at night thankfully. She was placed on prevacid solutabs 15mg/day (1/2 in afternoon and 1/2 in evening). We found relief after about 3-4 weeks on it. She turned into a happy little joy and even started falling asleep on her own in her crib at around 3 months and her naps were a couple of hours at a time! We had even stopped waiting 30 minutes before a feeding and it worked just fine. At 3.5 months we decided to cut back the evening dose. Three weeks later we watched our happy baby turn miserable all over again. This time not as much screaming but showing all of the other signs plus really cranky and clingy, including about 3 45 minute naps a day, which isn’t enough and she is really cranky as a result. The cycle gets worse because overtired = more difficult to get to sleep. One week back on the 2x / day dose and she is still not her old baby self but I think there is improvement, even though the napping hasn’t improved. I’m going to go for 3 times per day until it’s back under control but I know it could take a few more weeks. I’m not doing this again until she’s 1! I hope we didn’t completely screw up her wonderful sleeping habits! Thank goodness she still sleeps well at night, getting up only once for a feeding (though while on the increased prevacid dose she went 7 weeks without waking up at night!). I will tell you what, when Anna had her first cold, she was cranky but TOTALLY manageable compared to this reflux craziness!

ammrsmom2007-07-17 22:17:09

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I replied to your other post too. I would definitely keep her on the meds until at least 9 months. Most of these babies don’t grow out of this till at least 9-12 months, and 4-7 months is usually when the reflux is at its WORST for them, so she really probably needs her meds right now. Depending on her weight, she may even need a higher dose since she’s grown a lot, I’m sure, since she was orignially placed on the Prevacid. Check out http://www.marci-kids.com for what their recommendatikons are. Many kids do fine on the lower doses, but if you notice after 2 weeks of being back up to 15mg she’s still not better, you may want to consider showing your doc the info from that site and asking for a higher dose. Dagney didn’t see real relief until she was on 10mg 3x/day. But, like your lo, she wouldn’t sleep much at all during the day before she was properly medicated. Nights she would sleep long hours straight, because she was so exhausted from the days, and getting her to sleep (without waking up as soon as we put her down) was always a challenge! Now she has good naps (usually 1- 1.5 hours) and sleeps great at night (knock on wood!). Hope your lo is back to her old self soon!

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