New to GERD

[Anonymous]

I am mother of 2 beautiful girls. The most recent 1/20/2006, Kierra! I am frantically typing as I know she will not sleep for long this morning. She never naps longer than 10 minutes during the day. So here is her story…she is allergic to dairy and soy (bleeding intestines) she is now on Alimentum. She started Zantac at 5 wks. old. It worked great for 3 days and then we were back to misery. We just upped her dosage, but the ped. thinks she will need to switch to a PPI. Thank goodness I just read on this site to continue her Zantac while starting the PPI as it can take up to 2 wks to work!!!

I spend my days walking the house, swaying, rocking and using my pouch for my little GERDling. As you well know this is exhausting. I have also noticed that she startles extremely easily, just with the slighest touch or upon waking. I have to return to work in a week and I am ultra worried about some one else having the patience for Kierra. A friend is watching so I do not worry about her safety, but I definately worry about her sanity while taking care of her 3 yr. old, 10 mo. old and my GERD infant.

I’m thinking I should go ahead and make an appt. with a GI Ped as I do I see this being an issue for quit some time and would prefer a Dr. to be aggressive in her treatment. We are lucky to live in the same city as Children’s Mercy Hospital (one of the best for kids).

It is so nice to read other postings as it makes me feel less crazy. I do beleive in the importance of following your instincts as they rarely lead you down the wrong path.

[Anonymous]

Oops…I forgot to ask…does Zantac cause more gas and digusting diapers? We increased dosage from 2.4 ml to 3 ml 2 days ago and she seems to have an upset tummy. Or is her gas due to the reflux? Also I am not seeing much of an improvement in her comfort level, but her spit up is a little less. However all other symptoms are still present: tummy aches, curling into a ball, painful crying, not sleeping during the day, uncomfortable feedings (she even has a suspicious look on her face while feeding as if she is just waiting for the pain to come). I’m thinking we need the PPI…

[Anonymous]

And oh my gosh…the HICCUPS!!! These are horrible after every feeding. It doesn’t exactly help keep down her food!!! She had the hiccups when inside of me at least 4 times a day. I read in some book, “hiccups are more then likely to bother the parent than the child”. Obviously, this is not a parent of a GERDling. The hiccups really make my little one mad!

[Anonymous]

Hello, welcome! How is the Alimentum working? Emma is on that and it works great but she never had bleeding intestines, is her stools normal now? I am not sure about zantac causing upset stomach. It seems to work for gas but every med can work different for babies. Emma had more gas with Alimentum, but her stools were good and a PPI helped with the acid so it all worked out. I use mylanta cherry supreme for the gas and it works wonders! All the pain she is having definetly means she needs a PPI. The hiccups and being very sensitive to everything is very common in reflux babies and unfortunetly there is not much to do about those they just get a lot better with age. The hiccups used to make Emma mad too and she had them inside me all the time. You said you are close to a childrens mercy hospital, where do you live??

[Anonymous]

Kansas City…the bleeding intestines were horrible. It stopped with the Alimentum, but she has horrible gas (I mean she can blow it on out for over 10 seconds at a time) and still has tummy pains. How much Mylanta can I give a 7 wk old? The infant gas drops are a joke.

[Anonymous]

OMG, You are the first one on this forum from Kansas city. I live in Oak Grove (origanlly from Richmond, MO) and work downtown kansas city. That is awesome. I have the greatest ped GI at childrens mercy. You will have to email me @ [email protected]. She is actually a nurse that works with the GI’s and I see her only everytime I go in. She has worked in Columbia where Dr Phillips works, he is the one off http://www.marci-kids.com. I can call her if you want and see if you can get straight in to see her. She knows me by name and keeps a picture of my daughter on her desk. She has changed our live dramtically by letting me have zegerid (the new PPI). I know what you are talking about with the gas. Emma’s tummy would get hard as a rock. I would first start out with just a little, maybe .25cc/ml or .50cc/ml to see how she handles it. I give Emma 1-2 cc every 30-45 minutes until the gas eases up. We really don’t know how much to give. Emma can handle it and I have never seen any reaction or side effect to it. Maybe if she handles it, .50cc every 45 minutes or so. I just use my own judgement on that. It is so awesome to talk to someone close. I have been in your shoes so I will help in any way that I can, just let me know!!!

[Anonymous]

Hi. kdayne. I am new too. Only posting for a few days. Tyler had the hiccups inside me all the time too. It is weird that they have symptoms even then. He still has hiccups all the time and he gets soooo mad at them. I feel for him – but at the same time his anger at them makes me laugh a little. As for the Zantac. Tyler starting having much looser stool as soon as we started him on Zantac. I can’t say that it is documented anywhere that it causes it – but it was the only change that I made at the time so that must be it. Tyler is allegic or intolerent (who the heck can really tell the difference) to diary and soy as well. Dairy increases spit up and soy no spit up but bloody stool. We are on Nutramagin but I am going to try the Alimentum to see if it helps the spitting a little. This whole process is a constant experiment to find the right “cocktail of things that work”. Good luck. This sight has been a lifesave for me – lots of wonderful info and made me feel less crazy too!

I just keep telling myself. Someday he will be a teenager and all this will be in the past and we will joke about it and talk about his anger at the hiccups and the fact that mommy wore out the washing machine doing his spit up laundry. It is intense at time when you are dealing with it – but my mom always told me “this too will pass”. I try to remember that he could have so many worse problems than this and I should be thankful that we have a reasonably healthy baby. For the record this is what I keep telling myself. This does not mean that I do not also scream “Calgon take me away!” just about every day.

Good Luck

Shelly

[Anonymous]

Welcome! (You too, Shelly!)

Def would make the appointment to see the GI or the nurse. You do want a PPI if the zantac is not working properly. AS for the mylanta, we could give 2.5ml about 6 times a day to matthew when he was about 8 weeks old, so i assume same for you guys.

How long on Alimentum… may take some time to work because of the buildup of antibodies in the body…

IT WILL GET BETTER… for us, the reflux is almost gone (we are dealing with feeding but not related to reflux)… it has been better since he was about 5moths old… some other people are still dealing with reflux but it is more manegeable after your baby is on the right meds/formula

[hellbennt]

I put together a welcome/intro for all newcomers and, while it is long, it really will help you- there’s information about the medications, their ‘proper’ dosing, mspi (milk soy protein intolerance), and more…here it is- please find the time to look it over and go back to it as you have questions: https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=853&am p;am p;am p;PN=1&TPN=1

so glad you found us!

~laura

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