Need Advice Comfort!

[Anonymous]

Like most of you guys on here, I need some advice and a little bit of comfort!

Things are a mess right now with my 4 month old. Since 3 weeks of age, he’s been spitting up with feeds, projectile vomiting and screaming. The discomfort and the screaming has been getting worse and it’s practically unmanagable to feed him right now.

We started off with Enfamil Newborn. Then added prilosec. He’s up to 5ml of prilosec a day (2.5ml in the morning and 2.5ml at night). Then added cereal to thicken the formula (1tsp per oz). We also give him Mylicon after every feeding. Things were getting worse and worse (the screaming during and after feeds, the projectile vomiting and the wet burps), so the doctor had us change to Alimentum. We’ve been on that for a week now. We had about 2 days in the past week which seemed to go really well, then things fell apart the past few days. We’re back to the discomfort, screaming and spitting up and as soon as we put him in the position to take the bottle, he starts screaming (the bottle’s not even near him yet!). Called the dr. today because this is just unmanageable – he takes 2.5oz of formula now per feeding, if we’re lucky. I know we were supposed to try the Alimentum for a week, but if it were working, wouldn’t things be getting better, NOT worse?!

I experienced this all before with my first son and he outgrew it after a year, but it was a year of pure hell. No solution was found for my first son, and he developed a severe aversion to eating because we had to push him so hard to get anything in him.

So, a couple of questions…..

#1) Is this typical with Alimentum? For it to get “worse” before it gets better?

#2) Has anybody had any success with Elecare? I believe that’s the next step if the Alimentum doesn’t work…

3) Anybody have any methods to cope with all of this? It’s so so hard, especially the second time around and I feel like we’re so isolated because everybody else we know has wonderful happy, hungry little babies. As you all know, it’s near impossible to go out anywhere (at least not around feeding times!) and you become secluded and shut inside this “secret” GERD world….

Any advice and/or words of comfort would really be appreciated!!!!

thanks 🙂

[hellbennt]

hang in there, mama!

give the alimentum a good two weeks and research all you can.

yes, elecare or neocate would be next. I suppose you can switch to that right now, but again, every change takes two weeks to see it’s full effects.

You say your other child and now this one were not seeing affects of your efforts- the thing that strikes me is the liquid prilosec. it is NOTORIOUS for becoming inaffective if it is compounded by the pharmacy.

please research all you can:

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

try

Carafate:

https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=13485&KW=search+feeding+aversion+forum

here’s more to help:

https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=13904&KW=feeding+aversion

https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=13876&KW=feeding+aversion

https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=13875&KW=feeding+aversion

https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=13866&KW=feeding+aversion

https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=13809&KW=feeding+aversion

https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/search_results_posts.asp?SearchID=20110108140213&KW=feeding+aversion&PN=2

Feeding Aversion:

https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=13904&KW

[Anonymous]

I agree with Laura that you should try and give Alimentum some time to work. Has the doctor discussed a possible milk/soy protein intolerance? I would definitely read the links Laura provided, there is some great info.

Basically, if your LO continues to do poorly on Alimentum you should try an elemental formula like EleCare or Neocate. If your LO has MSPI, he could still be reacting to the protein chains found in Alimentum. EleCare and Neocate are hypoallergenic formulas, they do not contain any protein chains, instead they are made up of individual amino acids (the building blocks of protein).

I hope your LO starts feeling better soon!

[Anonymous]

Hi, I’m dealing with this for our second baby as well. She’s 3.5 months. She is on Alimentum and Prevacid (20 mg per day).

I used to post more often on this board years ago but this time around, there isn’t as much activity…

A couple of things I thought of for you to try…

What about the Prilosec dose, maybe the dose is low? how many mgs per day is he getting? I agree about the liquid form possibly not working well, something you might try is Prevacid Solutabs.

How about the rice cereal, is it 1 teaspoon per ounce you are giving him? I don’t really think that small amount would do much to help. You could go up to 1 tablespoon per ounce which is a lot but you could try adding more and go down/up as needed. We ended up needing 1/2 tablespoon per ounce. I just recently tried removing the rice because of constipation and now my dd is back to choking and being even more fussy so we’ll probably go back to it. We used the same amount for dd #1 from 3 – 7 months. It helped a ton!

Give the Alimentum some time, I would say several weeks before another switch.

One distraction we’ve already found is TV, she’ll watch Finding Nemo for about 15 minutes with no fussing! Horrible I know but hey you gotta do what you gotta do!

As far as coping, it’s so hard. I keep telling myself “this too shall pass” and remind myself how lucky I am to have this little one – reflux and

all. Hang in there, we will get through this!

debit342011-07-07 22:10:57

[hellbennt]

babywearing SAVED US! https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1044&PN=1

http://www.thebabywearer.com/forum

[Anonymous]

thank you for all the responses. I called the dr. after a pretty bad week on Alimentum and she switched my LO to EleCare (maybe they should’ve given it more than one week but it was pretty rough at the end of the week). 3 days on EleCare thus far…so far ok feedings and 1 projectile vomit.

I’m calling the dr. on MOnday and will ask about the Prilosec Solutabs. Great info!

GI appt. on the 25th, but not too hopeful about this. We’ve been there, done that with our first son.

Will keep you all updated. Thanks so much (Laura especially, for all the links you sent!)

[hellbennt]

since your baby struggles w/ feeding, I would read about bufferbabies and caracream, from prevacid 101. This is a STABLE compound (liquid) and you can give it at any time. Solutabs have to be given on an empty stomach and then followed by a ‘meal’ 30 minutes later. Anyway, read prevacid 101 & you can decide what to try next…

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