Need help getting in to GI

[Anonymous]

This is my first time posting here, although I have lurked for over a year!

My son had reflux that he outgrew at a year old, he is now 16 mos. He was always a happy kid who just spit up a lot, never cried or squirmed in pain, but he was diagnosed after a scary trip to the ER and 3 day hospitalization at 3 mos old because he was vomiting blood (esophagitis). He was treated by the pedi GI while in the hospital, and continued to treat with him for months afterward. He was on zantac 3x daily and alimentum, he was also soy free until 12 mos.

I now have a 6 wk old daughter who has reflux as well, but she screams incessantly, straightens out like a board, arches back, scrunches up–all the usual symptoms. She was on zantac from 1wk to 3 wks, which only made her more angry. They switched her to pepcid, the pedi said the alcohol base of the zantac may have been bothering her. She was breast-fed until a week ago, I was trying to keep dairy and soy out of my diet, but I wasn’t successful, so now she’s on nutramigen. She was so much better all week (formula started last Sunday) and all of a sudden yesterday afternoon it all fell apart again.

So that’s the intro, here are my pleas for help!

When she was diagnosed we called the pedi GI and made an appointment. The earliest available was DECEMBER 21ST. He only sees patients tues/thurs because he has since been named chief of pediatrics at the hospital. I think the only way to get in sooner would be to have the pedi call and basically insist–but the pedi office seems to think they can treat her. It’s not working, and we can’t live like this. They won’t prescribe prevacid, they say they want the GI to do that. BUT WE CAN’T GET IN TO SEE HIM. Short of going to the hospital (trust me, I’m almost at that point) what can I say to them to get them to call????

Also, I have heard of a honeymoon period with a formula change–is it possible that this is what happened? Could we be back at square one?

Is there any difference between alimentum and nutramigen? I thought it was just a price difference, but now I’m suddenly worried that the GI chose alimentum for my son for a reason?

Thank you guys so much–she’s screaming, gotta run!!

Katie

Carter 6/23/05–recovered refluxer

Sadie 9/23/06–screaming wildly as I type

[hellbennt]

katie,

quick thought- if you don’t want to give up breastfeeding it may not be too late (not all reflux is from mspi…)

but whatever it is that you decide, we are all here for you!

a lot of times switching formulas gives you a ‘honeymoon’ period, so it can take up to 2wks to see if the formula is good for the baby…

unfortunately there’s a lot of trial & error involved in this reflux stuff

as for getting in sooner, can YOU call the ped GI every day??? ask if there are any cancellations; just call every day

as for your ped: SWITCH. sounds like your ped is an arrogant *&%$#!!

in the meantime, FAX over the info from http://www.marci-kids.com

HTH!

~laura

[Anonymous]

hi there

def. fax over marci-kids.com info about PPI’s to your ped.

alimentum and nurtri are the same, only different brands. both still contain amounts of milk proteins.

[Anonymous]

Hi Katie & Welcome.

Something you can do (if you haven’t already) is get on the cancellation list. That way they’ll call you as soon as they get a cancellation. That’s what we had to do with Bryce because we had a really long wait too. Eventually he got so bad that we had our family doctor call in and they moved us to the top of the cancellation list – we were in within a few days.

Good luck! I hope you can get some answers soon!

[Anonymous]

Hello and welcome.

I’m so sorry you are having to watch your baby suffer like this. I agree with Laura, your pediatrician is a ! It is cruel to let a baby suffer for weeks because he doesn’t want to prescribe Prevacid. I’d call and tell him (more nicely than I am) that your baby should not have to suffer when Prevacid is being prescribed by peds and family doctors for infants with reflux. Faxing the marci-kids information may help to sway him. That’s what swayed my son’s doctor. A nice cover letter would probably be a good idea, too.

In the meantime, calling and asking to be put on the cancellation list for the GI may help, too.

I hope you get some relief for your little girl soon.

[Author]

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