New here, please help!

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone,

I am new here. My baby boy Gavin is two weeks old and is already starting to show signs of acid reflux. I know it is acid reflux because my DD had severe acid reflux and by the time we found the right medication/dosage, she had dropped from 75% weight below 25%. It was hell living that experience. I prayed so hard that with this baby will not have to suffer through this but no luck. He has been fussing and crying at each feeding. He is breastfed and I pump and give him the milk in a Dr Brown bottle once or twice a day. He seems to lose interest in eating during the day. He will nurse for at most 5 minutes and then fall asleep. He is very squirmy and gassy. Arches his back and pulls away and sometimes starts crying as soon as he starts nursing. I am so worried that he will stop gaining weight and want to find a solution as soon as possible so he doesn’t suffer any more. We have inclined his little portacrib. He seems like he is hungry every hour on the hour. My boobs are so soar from latching and re-latching.

I am also worried that my milk will go down because he is not eating well.

I called his pediatrician and he prescribed Zantac 0.5ml twice a day and he told us to call back in a week if it is not working. Zanatc did nothing for my DD and we had to put her on prevacid and have it compounded with that chocobase stuff. It was very expensive because we had to get a new prescription filled every couple of weeks.

My son weighs about 8lbs and I looked at the chart on Marcikids for the appropriate dosing and the chart gives data after 1 year of age. WHat about below that? The doc said that he will put him on prevacid if Zantac doesn’t work after a week so I need to calculate the dosing to make sure that he gives him the right dose. Also, can Zantac make the baby sleepy? My son hates it because of the alcohol taste but we have noticed that as soon as he takes it he is so leepy. I am also going to order the tucker sling.

I feel like we are living this awful nightmare all over again. Having a newborn is supposed to be a beautiful experience. Acid reflux is making it so stresful and I am so depressed about the whole thing.

Thanks for listening

[hellbennt]

i’m so sorry you’re going through this again!

hi & welcome!

I have a LOT to say! & (most of) it’s here:

Groupie Intro: my intro: https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=853&PN=1&TPN=1

zantac dosing-highest is 10mgs per kilo- here’s why:

Zantac dosing- my/other’s question: https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9539&PID=82914#82914

http://www.marci-kids.com does indeed have dosing for infants- look at the dosing chart

so glad you found us!

~laura

[Anonymous]

Oh I am so sorry to hear you are battling reflux again! I haven’t visited marci-kids in a long time but I remember entering my DD’s weight and age in months to get the correct dosage. This was as early as 4 months so check their dosing calculator again and see if it will work. Maybe it’s changed since I was last on there???

I understand your frustration with realizing zantac probably won’t work. It will probably seem like a loooooooooooooooong week, but at least you know you can get prevacid soon! Did you ever try the prevacid solutabs or packets? I know they are a popular PPI choice of moms on here. (We used zegerid, which is another PPI). I don’t think they make chocobase anymore, that’s why I suggested other options. I believe that chocobase is now called caracream. Hopefully someone else can chime in with that.

Anyway, good luck with everything and I hope your little guy gets some relief soon!!

[hellbennt]

chocobase and caracream are the predescessors to zegerid…

contact marci-kids about chocbase or caracream- there *might* be some loophole where if you got the product(s) previously, you can get them again…

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your support and valuable information. I used the calculator and it says to give him 5.5mg to 7mg prevacid solutab three times a day. Now I just have to convince the doctor to prescribe that amount. He is a good doc but I don’t know how he will react if I show up on Thursday with the Marci kids info. Is Marci Kids a known website to pediatricians? I hope he doesn’t take it the wrong way. In either case, I am determined to fight for my baby. My other question is : Can babies get acid reflux this early? 2.5 weeks old? I remember with Sophia, we didn’t start seeing big symptoms until 8 weeks old. Or may be she had them and we just didn’t know it was acid reflux.

Also, if he prescribes the 15mg prevacid solutabs, can I cut them in half without affecting their potency or should I just have him prescribe the 7mg dosage?

Gavin seems to be very gassy and always fussy and uncomfortable after he eats. He pulls on my nipple and then starts crying. He cries less when I pump and give him the bottle. I am wondering if my milk is coming at him too fast? Sorry so many questions. I am just so depressed about having to deal with this again:( I also plan on asking the doc to test him for milk protein intolerance to see if he is intolerant to my milk. Hopefully that is not the case.

[hellbennt]

marci-kids ‘invented’ chocobase, so if your doctor in the past was ok w/ you using chocobase, then you can use this as a reference when explaining marci-kids. the ‘inventor’ of chocobase is dr philips (he’s a dr of pharmacology) and he and marci-kids are at the forefront of researching the use & dosing of PPIs in infants. he will actually even correspond with your dr if you ask him!

as for early onset of reflux, my son was born with it, so yes, it can happen even at birth…

as for the solutabs- I would see about getting chocobase (or caracream)again as you don’t have to time around feedings…in the meantime, yes, I’d get solutabs- there are many here who use a pill cutter to split them, so yes you can use the higher dose tablets…

I would also highly recommend you get to an Internationall Board Certified Lactation Consultant:

http://www.ilca.org/falc.html

and also contact la leche league: The La Leche League Breastfeeding Helpline – US began on June 1, 2007. Everyone in the U.S.A. will have access to toll free breastfeeding help 24 hours a day. Just call 1-877-4-LALECHE (1-877-452-5324).

if you think you have Overactive Letdown, yes, this can exacerbate reflux…

this expalins it: http://www.users.qwest.net/~fsdebra1/refluxoal.html

and here:

OAL:Gaining, Gulping, and Grimacing?
http://www.wiessinger.baka.com/bfing/trouble/gulping.html

as for asking the dr about mspi, I don’t think there’s any kind of ‘test’ for this- there’s a difference b/t intolerances & allergies, and there’s an amazing article linked from the ‘main’ mspi page that explains it all really well:

Mspi/allergy info(‘main page’): https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2697&PN=1&TPN=1

I hope this helps!

I don’t mean to overwhelm you…

~laura

[Anonymous]

I just talked to the pediatrician. He upped the zantac dosage to 0.7mg and he said if Gavin doesn’t get better by Friday, he will order an upper GI and consider giving him prevacid after that. I told him about the Marci-kids website and he said he has discussed that website with several doctors including GI specialists and they all said that the owner is paid by pharmaceutical companies. He said he will not give Gavin more than 15mg prevacid solutab per day For now that might be a good dose, but as Gavin grows, that will not be enough according to the PPI dosage calculator on the Marci-Kids website. I am at lost as to what to do. The pediatrician quoted this GI specialist he sent us to in another city. And we had a horrible experience with her. We even took video of my DD during feeding times to her to show her the beahvior and she said that DD was fine as long as she was gaining wright and no medication was necessary. So this woman is no expert because Sophia had a severe case of acid reflux and the evidence was staring her right in the face and she still didn’t diagnose it.

Man, I don’t know what to do, this guys is a good doc and I don’t want to take Gavin to somebody else and him finding out and refusing to see my DD.

[hellbennt]

it’s a shame the drs feel that way about dr. philips…he actually is NOT paid by the pharmaceutical companies…he sold his ‘way’ of compounding CORRECTLY to a company called Santarus (something like that) and THEY make zegerid, using prilosec (that’s why you can’t get caracream or chocobase- becuase it can be used w/ prilosec OR prevacid and bcse zegerid is used w/ prilosec then they have the ‘right’ to the formula, etc).

many people here have had great success with their family dr prescribing the higher dosing for their babies…dr. philips can help that way, too…

as for the upper GI: this is just to check for structural abnormalities. it is not good to DIAGNOSE reflux, because it’s a snap shot in time, if you were, and if baby doesn’t reflux right there & then during the test, then they won’t see it…

[hellbennt]

8lbs = 3.6 kilos

3.6 x 10 = 36mgs total, for the day, for the highest dose of zantac by weight

36 divided by 15 (check your bottke it should say 15mgs/ml) = 2.4mls, total for the day, of zantac that he can have, at the highest dose by weight

so, you have some room to increase the dose (two doses of .7 = 1.4mls total, unless you’re doing 3 doses? even then you can increase a bit)

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