Need advice

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I’m new here and posted this in the introduction thread but after exploring more it seems like it would be more appropriate here.

My daughter is almost 5 months old- she cried non-stop for the 1st 3.5 months of her life. I was exclusively BF, cut out all dairy/soy which seemed to make no difference- her stools were always negative for blood. She spit up multiple times per day. We saw a pedi GI specialist at Children’s and she was diagnosed with reflux. They started her on Zantac- we tried it for 2 weeks and didn’t notice a difference- then they prescribed her prilosec which we tried for 2 weeks and didn’t notice a difference.

Then we switched her to Nutramigen and she seemed like a different baby- happy all the time, minimal crying. She still spit up but at least she was happy. However when we started her on the nutramigen, she started with a cough. At first it wasn’t a lot and didn’t really effect her. At her 4 month appointment I mentioned the cough, they listened and her lungs were clear, she is gaining weight and they weren’t concerned.

Well after that appointment, the cough started getting worse- she was coughing/gagging/crying during feeds, coughing/crying at night, etc. I brought her back to the pedi and they were not concerned. Her cough continued to get worse and last monday we went back to see the pedi GI. They recommended thickening her feeding and started her back on Prilosec 2.5mg twice per day.

Since then the cough continues to get worse, she went from sleeping 8-10 hour stretches to waking every 15 minutes due to coughing- she is exhausted. On thursday I brought her back to the pedi and they said the same thing- lungs are clear, gaining weight- no problem. Today I brought her back to the pedi and now she is wheezing and on nebulizer treatments.

I’m not sure what else we need to be doing- clearly something is not right- she coughs all the time and sounds congested when not coughing, she is coughing during her feeds and we just feel so bad for her. The pedi said that we need to give the prilosec more time to work.

I’m wondering how much more time I need to give it and what should we do next- I feel like they should be doing some testing or ?? something.

Thanks is advance for any information provided.

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I am so sorry your little one is having such troubles! (((HUG))) to you and her both!

It sounds like maybe her coughing might be from the reflux but I can’t say for sure. I know that that is how it is with my children. They rarely suffer from reflux anymore but if they do one of the first symptoms is coughing and the second is restlessness, thrashing, and sometimes crying at night.

How long were you without dairy and soy in your diet? And how strict were you? It takes at least 2 weeks to get dairy and soy completely out of your system, your milk, and your baby’s system. And strict means NO soy or milk what sover. Like, not even a granola bar that has a little whey in it. When my first child has reflux I too was told to avoid dairy but the dr said just mainly fresh stuff and never explained about it taking 2 weeks to see a difference.

At 12 weeks when this was explained to me and my baby was miserable I quit nursing and went to Nutramigen. My baby did wonderful at first but didn’t take long and I could tell we had not gotten to the root of the problem and he still had to be on Prevacid.

Nutramigen has the proteins in it extensively broken down in it but it is still milk based. The proteins in milk and soy can be very difficult for babies to break down.

We have found that probiotics and digestive enzymes really helped alleviate our children’s reflux much better than their antacid meds did. It also has helped with their food intolerances. If they will take one of their probiotic/enzyme pills every time they eat something they hardly ever have any problems. But if I forget to give them one then I’m surprised how fast it can bother them.

When my children are coughing from reflux I will give them one of their pills and it helps them stop coughing quite quickly.

Here’s some info that will explain why the probiotics and enzymes helped my children so much.

The pancreas is what makes digestive enzymes and puts them in our stomach to break down the food we eat. All foods have enzymes in them but anytime a food is cooked or processed it kills the enzymes. With our diets today of mostly cooked and processed foods it’s hard for our pancreas to be able to produce enough enzymes. Without enough enzymes in the stomach to break down the food the only thing our stomach knows to do is produce more acid to try to break it down. Too much acid in the stomach will cause heart burn, acid reflux, indigestion, irritable bowel syndrome, etc.

If a parent has a pancreas that isn’t producing enough enzymes then it is possible that their children can be born with a pancreas that doesn’t work well either. If the mother will take a supplement of enzymes and probiotics while pregnant she will pass these on to her baby and have a baby with a healthy digestive system.

Probiotics are the good, live bacteria that live in our body. One of the things they do is coat and protect our entire digestive tract (and also the ears and nose). When the stomach produces too much acid then it is forced up the esophagus and down the intestines and will kill probiotics. (Antibiotics also kill probiotics.) When the probiotics are depleted then the acid is traveling right up next to the , throat, esophagus and intestines with no protection. This can cause them to get raw, inflamed, and even bleed sometimes.

…………

When my children have a cough other than from reflux I find that Hyland’s brand “Nighttime Cold and Cough 4 Kids” works really well. I found it first at a health food store but then later found it at Walmart. I thinks its just natural homeopathic stuff but really helps.

I hope you can find some answers and relief soon!!

[Anonymous]

Sorry, I meant to say more… 🙂

About the feed thickening… what are using to do that? It could be that that is something your little one is having a hard time breaking down too.

As for the Prilosec, it normally takes at least 2 weeks for that to have full effect.

[hellbennt]

Hi again! I answered your other post-

you’ll find I give a lot of links, because (unfortunately) you’re not the first to have the questions that you do…

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

[Anonymous]

Hi there…Im so sorry for you and your little one. I know how hard it is…It seems like the cough is maybe due to reflux? My little one coughs quite a bit when his reflux is not under control. For me, the thickened feeds with cereal actually made his reflux worse, and he couldnt handle nutramigen becuase there are still milk/soy proteins in it…could you maybe try an elemental formula and see if that would help, like neocate or elecare perhaps? I hope they figure it out…nebs and wheezing is not normal for such a little babe

[hellbennt]

any updates?

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