New here and need help please

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone,

I have 10 week old boy/girl twins who have reflux. They have been gaining weight just fine, but I am so worried about them. Their main troubles are wanting to nurse often, but pain during nursing, crying after eating, and my son is extremely stiff and arches his head back for a good part of the day. It is so hard to see them in pain like this. Nursing has been really tough, Christopher, my son, keeps bucking off and crying and has these reflexive movements while he is nursing almost like he has Tourette’s. They are unable to nurse for more than about 5-10 minutes and they can’t take more than about 1-2 ounces of breastmilk in a bottle without screaming in pain. They also have almost all of the other classic signs of reflux. It breaks my heart to see them like this.

We started out with Zantac, that didn’t help. We moved to Prilosec suspension, but the stabililty of the compound didn’t seem to last and they were in pain again very soon. I talked to our pediatrician and she put them on 7.5 mg of Prevacid. It has been three days now and I am not seeing any improvement. I am so sad because I was hoping it was really going to help right away. I read the marci-kids dosing and I know they recommend 21-27 mgs daily, but I was really hoping the 7.5 solutab would be enough. Our twins weigh about 12 pounds each.

Does the Prevacid take awhile to “kick-in”? Is 7.5 enough for some children or is that generally just too low?

Also, I am having so much trouble timing when they get their medicine since they nurse so often. I really don’t think their stomachs are truly empty. They nurse every 2 hours so I am trying to give it to them 1 1/2 hours after nursing but 30 minutes before a meal…is this okay? Any suggestions?

I may be able to convince my doctor to up it to 15 mg, but I really don’t think she’ll do more than that since they are so young.

I know this is something they will outgrow but it sure is tough while it is happening. I am so thankful I found this site, it has been very helpful!

Any thoughts would be appreciated, thanks!

Cathy

Cara- 10/20/03- milk intolerance until 15 months, mild reflux, had trouble with solids, outgrew it at 9 months.

Christopher 8/16/06 and Alison 8/17/06 (twins born on different days!)- reflux, Chris has Sandifers, just started on 7.5 mg of Prevacid…waiting for it to start helping.

[hellbennt]

cathy, welcome!

I have a lot to say & I’ve said a lot of it here: https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=853&am p;am p;PN=1&TPN=1

please please find the time to read/skim/bookmark this link, as it really will help you!

you can stick with compounded meds, just ask for it to be compounded exactly the way it’s described in the links here: go to the ‘medicine’ forum & click on the top post called ‘treating GERD w/ PPIs and from there, scroll down to the purple post, then you can read how exactly to ask for your PPI to be compounded.…

also, it might just be that the dose is to low, not that your compound wasn’t working- with nursing it does help to use a compounded PPI…

I would get to a lactation consultant ASAP and/or a LLL meeting…I’d also get to a ped GI ASAP…

any chance you hae Overactive Letdown? check out the links from my welcome/intro (link given above)…

as for switching from prilosec to prevacid there really shouldn’t be any ‘lag’ time…

glad you found us!

~laura

[Anonymous]

i posted in your other post.

to be honest i have never heard of a baby being on 7.5 mg of prevacid and it helping…. my son started on 24 mg at 3 months old.

good lcuk and def look into a GI doctor.

also check out marci-kids.com. that is the site that convinced many of our doctors to prescribe the proper doses.

nataliachick72006-11-3 22:15:27

[Anonymous]

yes that seems like a low dose, my daughter was started on 30mg when she was about two weeks old. print out the marci-kids info and bring it to your doctor……………good luck

[Anonymous]

Hi,

Thanks for your replies! This morning has been better. Instead of mixing the half solutab in water (and losing a lot of it), I just popped it into their cheeks and they sucked it right down. They had about 20 minutes of content time which is great for them. 🙂

Laura, yes, I do have OAL problems. I have been working on trying to solve that w/o pumping which would just increase my supply. Do you mind me asking what medicine your son was on and how much? I am so glad he is better. Thanks, I am just trying to get an idea so I can talk to my doctor next week.

Thanks again!

[hellbennt]

OAL can cause reflux…

there are links from https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=853&am p;am p;am p;PN=1&TPN=1

scroll down to the ‘breastfeeding’ section

the majority of jonah’s story is from the above link

but yes, he was on pepsid & reglan, then zantac & reglan (then I realized from here that there was no need for reglan! see link!), then zantac & prilosec, then he maxed out on prilosec so he switched to prevacid & zantac & then once the dose of prevacid was ‘right’ then he didnt need the zantac except for some breakthrough acid at night and oh yeah there was also carafate that really helped during his worst times (it’s not a long term solution- carafate I mean)

it should all be there in the above link

~laura

[Anonymous]

My daughter is 11 lbs 8 oz and is on 15 mg of prevacid. It really seems to help to have two doses a day because in my experience, it always wore off for the night feedings and it made for a horrible night of sleep.

It does seem like a low dose but keep in mind it can take up to two weeks to kick in. You were already on prilosec so it might not take as long. Hang in there. You will find the right med/dosage for your kids. It just may take a while.

[Anonymous]

yes, 2 or 3 doses are much better than one. babies metabolize these meds much faster than adults….

[Author]

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