Sad to be back!

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone!

I too am sad to be back on these boards for my own child again 🙁

I have a 6 weeker- full term, VBAC delivery (Yay!!!), but saw signs of reflux almost immediately while we were still in the hospital. He was practically inconsolable the day he was born already! But, when my milk came in, things started to get a bit better and he actually had a really good week when we were first home from the hospital. Things have gone downhill since– no spitting (but neither did my first), has gotten really fussy at feedings often gagging and choking and yesterday needing to stop to cry regularly upon swallowing, hiccups all the time (often wakes himself up from hiccuping), very wet burps and crying after burping. On a side note, but not thinking this is reflux related, he can not tolerate being in the car at all. He SCREAMS the whole time, to the point where I feel like he is going to choke himself from crying so hard. Really difficult with second child because I need to drive places to get my 4 year old places.

Anyways, ped started him on zantac, and I think b/c I was in denial still, we waited until last week to start it. We’ve been gradually upping dose b/c he was started low and we keep increasing to see where he’ll get relief. I have not been able to find Mylanta (our old bottles from Isaac have all expired) so we ordered it on line and I’m desperately awaiting it’s arrival. I’ve been off ALL dairy for about 2 weeks now, but have not gone full elimination route yet– although headed that direction just to be certain. I’ve learned now at a later age, that corn seems to be the culprit for Isaac, which I never figured out before. I found an amazing nutritionist that I took him about 4 months ago that did a ton of blood work — anyways, an entirely different saga… but interesting nonetheless because Isaac still takes Zegerid and about 6 months ago, it stopped working. Anyways, I was back on a quest to try to figure out relief for him as well.

It took me 4 years to get the courage to have another child after Isaac’s struggles. I have loved nothing more than being Isaac’s mom, but I was so traumatized from seeing him suffer, I wasn’t sure I could watch another baby suffer like he did.

Well, although I didn’t forget, somehow I was crazy enough to think I could handle it again

Ok, there is my venting— now for my questions.

1. Does anyone dose zantac splitting b/w 3 times per day rather than 2? I remember at some point Isaac needed the zegerid 3 times per day for relief and I wonder if that might make a difference with Silas.

2. Has anyone actually gotten relief from the zantac for their babies and did not need PPI?

thanks to everyone for still being there!!!

robyn

[Anonymous]

OMG, how discouraging that your 4 year old is still suffering from reflux! : (

I’m sorry to hear that your little one has it too. I can relate to how challenging it is with one. My 10 week old baby has reflux. I can’t imagine how hard it must be with two!

I don’t think Zantac works very well. After reading many posts and talking with others, including my doctor, I think doctor’s just perscribe it to ‘appease’ worried parents. My son was on Zantac for 5 weeks and actually got worse. We finally saw a GI Specialist last week who said that sometimes Zantac makes the baby more fussy because it has a lot of side effects. Since my son was put on Prevacid, he has been eating so much better. He still struggles, but he is up to 30 ounces a day (he weighs 10 pounds) and before the Prevacid (on Zantac) he was eating only 23 oz. a day and each feeding took about an hour to get through so we were constantly feeding (about 19 hours a day feeding) just to get that amount down him!!

We only tried Zantac at once in am and pm, never split it into 3 doses.

Best of luck to you and a speedy recovery for Silas!

[hellbennt]

hi robyn! congratulations!
I love the name Silas!

I’m sorry you have to be here again…

please tell us about baby Silas’ poops…I know you know about poops and intolerances bcse of Isaac…

you say the car seat has nothing to do w/ the reflux but IT DOES!
the position he is in, in the infant seat, can scrunch him up & put pressure on his belly. you might want to get a Britax and a sling (ring sling, pouch, wrap, mei tai, etc) and skip the infant car seat.
babywearing SAVED us

You might not have to do a complete elimination. OR you might just want to, to rule out everything. is there corn syrup in the zegerid? hmmm…
corn seems to have made it into everything! for sure, I’d cut THAT out of your diet…

you ask if some babies do ok w/ just zantac. the answer is yes, but you don’t usually ‘see’ them on this forum because if someone has found this forum they are usually searching for some ‘more’ answers- not sure this makes sense?

for sure you can try giving the zantac 3 times a day. so much of this is experimentation/trial & error…

you can also give Silas probiotics! and YOU can take enzymes…

[Anonymous]

Hi Laura I knew you’d reply right away!!

I so hope you’re right about the car seat— I actually had my mom bring over our old Britax Roundabout this afternoon, hoping that if I switched him to that seat it might help. It isn’t like I’m getting any use out of having an infant seat b/c he doesn’t fall asleep in it. He was using a Moby with him for first few weeks, but now he doesn’t like that either— I haven’t found a carrier that he seems to tolerate right now, but I don’t have a sling so I’m going to borrow one to try.

Totally makes sense what you’re saying re: zantac— most of us are all at the point of desperation which likely means that they need something stronger.

Poops: They aren’t green/mucusy poops the way I remember isaac’s being before doing elimination diet— but he only poops every 2 to 3 days (which I don’t think is normal when they’re so young and BF only– initially he was doing the typical poop at every feeding), and although they seem to be yellow/seedy- they seem pretty watery, and he certainly grunts when pushing them out— which seems odd b/c they are totally mush/watery. I have seen a positive difference since taking out dairy in his poops (now they are usually every other day— before taking out the dairy, sometimes he went 4 days!!!).

I looked at previous posts re: probiotics. Does anyone have any that they really like and that only require a small amount 🙂 The one I bought– Udus is 1/2 tsp. per day which seems like so much to get in him.

And, for those reading this and feeling panicked that my 4 year old still has reflux— IT IS ABSOLUTELY NOT AS BAD!!!! I don’t want to freak anyone out! He got over all food aversions by the time he 2 and is an incredibly happy, energetic kid!!! It took him a long time (until 2) to sleep, but he is a FABULOUS sleeper now! His expression of symptoms now that he is older is so different– he can say “mommy, my burps taste yucky and hurt” or even just saying he has a tummy ache. We can respond so quickly b/c they can tell us what is bothering them. I don’t want anyone to panic. It is only recently that we figured out that corn might be a new culprit (which isn’t surprising given it is in EVERYTHING- and we don’t have things with corn syrup–even in everything that is organic etc..), so we’re hoping that things will improve again w/out that.

I am only hoping that I can get relief for Silas the way I did for Isaac! It is so hard to see them suffering

Thanks to anyone reading this long post! Exhausted and have no filter to think through what I’m saying…..

robyn 🙂

[hellbennt]

while you’re ‘waiting’ tell me how much silas weighs and we can figure out the highest dose of zantac for him for his weight

also for probiotics:
https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=8970&PN=1

and here’s a lot of info, lol – please excuse any underlined words that are not hyperlinks- my computer doesn’t like me copying from microsftword into mozilla fire fox:

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Erin’s sticky: https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=12948&PID=105126#105126

More
erin; https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=13175&PID=106395#106395

Erin post: https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=13576

Great anne post: https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9242

Exposure
to foods & blood testing: https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=12993

Sheri’s
allergy/intolerance explanation: https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=10223&PID=87638#87638

Another
Sheri explanation- intolerance/allergy post:

https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=11579&PID=97442#97442

Accuracy of
allergy testing & great post
by sherri explaining IgE and IgG (intolerance/allergies) https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=10815

(sue again, replying to gina- breastfeeding info to (TED)https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=11324&PN=1

hellbennt2010-07-15 07:36:54

[Anonymous]

Oh thank goodness the reflux isn’t so bad for the older one! I was thinking that I couldn’t handle four years of this!

I forgot to add that my son too screams in his carseat. He absolutely hates it and car rides anywhere are so miserable. I read about a car seat insert that is designed for reflux (Hug Me Joey) and paid about $50 bucks for the thing and it DID NOT WORK!!! I am going to have to research this Britax that you are refering to!

[hellbennt]

car seat info:
https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=7652

[Anonymous]

I too remember wasting so much $ trying various things to try to help Isaac—my husband and I were recently laughing about it b/c we’d be so exhausted, middle of the night, desperate, ordering all kinds of sh-t thinking it might help at 2AM 🙂 Totally understandable— I’m sure we’d all spend out last penny if it would somehow ease our little ones’ suffering!

Another question: anyone know how giving Mylant might interfere with elimination diet??? I looked at ingredients today and as I’m preparing to start full elimination tomorrow (yuck!!!! takes me a lot of mental preparation b/c I’m vegetarian so needing to rely on turkey for my protein source is my most miserable part of the diet), I looked at ingredients and there is sorbitol and some other stuff in there—- does that screw up what I might be seeing? I actually don’t think I ever even thought about that when I did it with Isaac.

Last ped appt for Silas he weighed 11 lbs (yes- BIG BOY!!)- was prescribed only .8 ml twice daily— we’ve been giving 1.2 mls twice daily…..

robyn

[Anonymous]

Hi Robyn,

So sorry to hear that Silas also has reflux! Just wanted to comment on the car seat…. all I can say is that 5 years later, I can still feel your pain. Hailey HATED every car seat we tried! It was terrible!!! She would scream like crazy and projectile vomit all over the van and herself, and then gag and choke every time we were in the car. She soon caught on and it went on to every time she was in a car seat, before we even put her in the car. It was so miserable, sometimes I would lose it and start crying while driving because it was so stressful, especially for long drives, or when I needed to get somewhere, and then had this hysterical baby that was covered in stinky vomit (for a feed that had taken hours to get into her because of her feeding aversion)… definitely not fun. It was such a surprise to me, because my older one loved the car, and I used to love the added bonus of how it calmed her down and put her to sleep. Hailey never once fell asleep in the car as an infant or toddler, and rarely even to date. But all I can tell you, is that it actually started to get better around 5 months old I think. She still didn’t like it, but wouldn’t cry consistently, and when we turned her around to face forward at about a year, she was definitely much happier. Hang in there, I remember the horror!

[Anonymous]

And, just to comment on your previous post, I can’t tell you how much money I wasted on products trying to help with her sleep. In the end, the only think that helped were a good dose of meds, and like Laura said, a good sling (which freed up my hands to do other things!).

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your thoughts Lori— there is no empathy out there like this board! It is grueling— I’m avoiding car now at all possible costs unless emergency b/c I too end up crying myself every time I take him in the car. I’ve kept Isaac home from camp a few times b/c I also feel horrible having him listen to the crying for 20 minutes to get there. Breaks my heart.

[Anonymous]

Elie hates the car seat as well. We just took a ridiculously long car ride and broke several vehicle/baby safety laws….but, one thing we found to help is called the snuggin go. it was created by a nicu nurse. it is an insert that helps keep the baby from slouching. we ended up using it in our nap nanny too to help keep her from scrunching/slouching. it hasn’t been the cure all, but it has helped a bit….

[Anonymous]

So funny! I just bought one of those— not thinking it would help with comfort, but more to help keep him in place in switching to a regular rear-facing car seat instead of infant seat. As it turns out— we just took our first walk in the stroller using it, and he FELL ASLEEP!!! I haven’t had him in the car yet to see if it helps there- we shall see 🙂 Happy about stroller though b/c I think he doesn’t like carrier right now simply b/c of heat.

[Author]

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