So Where Do I Start??

[Anonymous]

I can’t believe I’m even typing this – my first ds was a reflux baby. I guess I thought I knew what I was doing, but no such luck…

My ds is 3 months old. I suspected he had reflux from the beginning. He was arching all the time. Terrible sleeper, etc. By about 2 weeks old I was certain and we took him to the dr. She prescribed Zantac to start with. As is typical, the Zantac helped for a whopping week. Then it wasn’t cutting it. So we put him on Prevacid once daily. Zantac twice daily.

After poking around this site and Marci-kids I called the doctor and asked her if we could put ds on 7.5mg of Prevacid 3 times daily. She okayed that.

So here are my questions: How in the world do I get all this medicine into him?? He’s breastfed so timing feedings is hard! I know the Zantac and Prevacid have to be spread out 4 hours. The Prevacid has to be given on an empty stomach (how long does it take a breastfed baby’s stomach to empty?) and then you have to wait 30 to 60 minutes to give a feeding. What does your feeding and medicine schedule look like?? I’m feeling really overwhelmed by all of this….

[hellbennt]

welcome!

well for one thing what form is the Prevacid? there’s ‘Prevacid 101’ that should help you- it can be accessed from 2 places- first of all it’s linked from Groupie Intro, which is stickied in the Introduce Yourself forum- groupie intro is my welcome/intro & please please bookmark it so you can refer back to it– there’s a lot of info there (sorry for it being overwhelming) so you’ll find that you scroll/skim through to find what you need & then come back– there’s even a ‘section’ about breastfeeding your GERDling

Prevacid 101 is also found in the Medicines forum, there’s a sticky there called ‘treating GERD w/ PPIs’ this is a very informative thread, and Prevacid 101 is a few posts down into the thread

[Anonymous]

Hello and welcome,

I’ve had two reflux babies, so I sure know how hard it is. It can be very overwhelming to say the least.

As for timing the Prevacid, I used to sneak into Myles’ room while he was asleep and give him his dose, then stick the nuk in so he’d suck and swallow and then go back and wake him to eat 30 minutes later. This worked very well for us. (Generally two hours is enough for the stomach to be empty).

If your’re using both Zantac and Prevacid, make sure you space them 4 hours apart. It could be tricky with three doses of Prevacid and two doses of Zantac, but hopefully once he’s been on the Prevacid for a few weeks you won’t need the Zantac anymore, or you can drop it down to one dose of Zantac. Many babies do great with Prevacid alone if the dose is high enough.

I hope that helps some. I’m glad you found us and I hope your little guy is feelign better soon.

[Anonymous]

We aren’t bf but I usually give him his meds 2hrs after he eats, but he is taking 7oz at a time and usually goes 3.5hrs b/t feeds. We are only doing it 2x/day 15mg each time and that is working well for us. Just a thought so you don’t have to try and time around 3 feedings is try giving 7.5mg in the morning and then 15 in the evening and then you would only have to time around 2 feedings which would I am sure be much easier. I think bf babies empty stomachs quicker since the bm is so easy to digest, so 1.5hrs would probably be okay to give the med after a feeding. Good Luck, the timing is very hard.

[Anonymous]

Cooper’s mom wrote: We aren’t bf but I usually give him his meds 2hrs after he eats, but he is taking 7oz at a time and usually goes 3.5hrs b/t feeds. We are only doing it 2x/day 15mg each time and that is working well for us. Just a thought so you don’t have to try and time around 3 feedings is try giving 7.5mg in the morning and then 15 in the evening and then you would only have to time around 2 feedings which would I am sure be much easier. I think bf babies empty stomachs quicker since the bm is so easy to digest, so 1.5hrs would probably be okay to give the med after a feeding. Good Luck, the timing is very hard.

Thank you! That’s a great suggestion. I’ll try that!

I forgot to say in my first post: we are giving the Prevacid solutabs. Also, I’m on TED to see if that makes any difference. I’ve been on it for months now and still not always sure if a bad night is because of something I ate or just a bad reflux da7.

Thanks for your help!!

ps I did go back and read the info about PPIs. Very informative!!

[Anonymous]

Good luck timing the prevacid. It can be challenging when they’re young, but it seems to get easier once they get on more of a predictable feeding routine. Keep us posted.

[Anonymous]

Another thing I forgot to mention: ds (Gabe) does GREAT during the day. He always has. He’s a very content baby for the most part. He nurses more frequently than most babies his age and gets mad FAST if I’m not available to nurse, but that’s all fine. I can handle that.

It’s the nights that are killing me. He does. not. sleep. I’ve tried him in his swing which gets the longest stretches – 1-2 hours at a time. I tried him on his stomach in the tucker sling last night. No go. I prop myself up and lay him on me. That works pretty well for him, but it kills me.

I feel bad for complaining because I know some reflux babies are miserable all the time and Gabe isn’t. But this not-getting-any-sleep business is exhausting. I’m sure you all can relate.

[hellbennt]

maybe he needs a higher dose of PPI? http://www.marci-kids.com

has doses by weight/age

also: if you have any zantac left, you can give that at night- just make sure it’s given 4hrs seperate from the PPI- there’s a link to zantac dosing from the Prevacid 101 that’s on the ‘treating GERD w/ PPIs’ page & also links from groupie intro

people also have success giving pepsid complete at night (otc adult kind) but I truly don’t know about dosing of that

also: you say you’ve been on TED for months? it’s not meant for long-term- so if all you’re eating is squash, rice, sweet potato, free range ground lamb & turkey then let’s discuss this in the TED forum

[Anonymous]

hellbennt wrote: maybe he needs a higher dose of PPI? http://www.marci-kids.com

has doses by weight/age

also: if you have any zantac left, you can give that at night- just make sure it’s given 4hrs seperate from the PPI- there’s a link to zantac dosing from the Prevacid 101 that’s on the ‘treating GERD w/ PPIs’ page & also links from groupie intro

people also have success giving pepsid complete at night (otc adult kind) but I truly don’t know about dosing of that

also: you say you’ve been on TED for months? it’s not meant for long-term- so if all you’re eating is squash, rice, sweet potato, free range ground lamb & turkey then let’s discuss this in the TED forum

I’m able to eat a bit more than that, but not much more. I’ll head over to the TED forum here in a bit. Thanks!

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