strange symptoms?

[Anonymous]

hi I am new here… new baby 1mo.2 wks old has had reflux symptoms since birth (needed bassinett raised, arching, difficulty swallowing, crying after eating) he does not spit up much and actually i hear it gurgling up in his throat but he swallows it most of the time. his breath is always sour and he cries after feedings or if he has gas. i am at a loss over the following symptoms which my doctor is brushing off but i really feel is somehow connected or possibly a symptom of something other than reflux. PLEASE let me know if these are common for reflux or not… grunting constantly, diffuculty having a bowel movement (I have had to use suppositories or q-tips to stimulate for just about all his movements since birth), doubling over while grunting, turing bright red in the face, stiff legs (almost refuses to bend them to pass gas or to poop), sucking loudly (not while eating just sucking in general). these are strange to me to be connected with reflux. this is my first time with all of this and i am reading all i can to become better informed (this site is incredible!) so forgive my ignorance if these do seem to be reflux related. do all babies or most with reflux have such difficulty passing stool? do they scream when they pass gas? can they not burp easily? sometimes i think if i can figure out the poop issues the reflux will be better or is it the other way around?

currently we have gone from breastfeeding (so proud i was able to do this only to have to go off – soooo sad!) to nutramigen (my older son was on this) to elecare. started on zantac – he refused to take – to axid .8 3x day to prevacid packets 15 mg. (still taking axid till the prevacid kicks in)he has only had 2 doses of the prevacid and i am noticing a ton of gas today – is this typical?

i am so frustrated knowing there has to be a solution for him. his cries are so full of pain and so pitiful. his little lip pouts out and he looks as if he is begging me to figure this out for him. any info will be so helpful!

thank you!

stacey

[Anonymous]

Stacey,

I am relatively new to reflux as well but I can tell you that many, many babies put on a show when trying to have a bowel movement – the grunting, red face, stiff legs, etc. It’s actually quite common in all babies. It doesn’t necessarily mean that anything is wrong. What happens if you don’t do anything to provoke a BM? How long will it take before he goes on his own? What are his BMs like – soft, hard, dry? The PPIs (Prevacid) can cause constipation so that might be the source of the extra gas you’ve been noticing.

Karen

[hellbennt]

stacey,

welcome!

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

it’s my welcome/intro & it’s loong, so please skim/scroll through it & bookmark it so you can come back to it! There’s a LOT to help you!

as for the gas, here’s one (possible) explanation:

1) what is the biological/physical/scientific explanation for the
> connection between food
> allergies and reflux?

The body has difficulty digesting or tolerating the food for whatever
reason, so it is essentially treated the same way the body would treat
a non-food substance or poison – back up the way it came so that it
can’t affect the rest of the digestive system.

> 2) what’s the connection between gas and reflux?

Gas is created when something isn’t digested properly; for example,
beans are generally harder to digest than other foods, which is why
they are notorious for causing gas in most people (they are generally
not a common problem with breastfed babies through mom’s milk, though;
this is just a common example to help make sense.)

Also, gas puts pressure on the esophageal sphincter (the muscle at the
top of the stomach that helps move and keep things down), making it
easier for whatever is in the stomach to be refluxed.

glad you found us!

~laura

[Anonymous]

Karen,

Thank you so much for replying. It is so difficult to go through any of this alone and SO nice to have others to bounce ideas off of. The reason we stimulate him for a bm is that he will grunt until he pukes every time. It interrupts his sleep and he shrieks in pain and it makes him spit up/gurgle acid. In the beginning he would go days without a bm, but now if he hasn’t gone in a day I will stimulate. I try not to stimulate it until absolutely he is so miserable. My doc. said I could stimulate as often as needed (several times a day in fact) but I will not do this. I dont see how that wouldn’t be bothersome to Rowan. This is why I am so worried about it – why is it so difficult for him and why is it so painful? The gas in particular will make him scream so loudly (normally he has quite a gentle cry, almost pitiful). His bm are mostly soft and seedy but I am noticing that after a rather fitful episode (and having to go to the suppository)they are dry. My older son demonstrated the typical baby pooping routine (same type of symptoms) without the pain. When Rowan was on nutramigen he developed a very bad rash (yeast) and blood in his stools. Since going on elecare that has resolved itself but he continues to have a red ring around his anus – know anything of that? I read on the prevacid packet that it can upset stomach which I am sure causes gas. My question then it what to do about it? I do not want to stop the prevacid when we just started but we cannot have another day like yesterday – it was like starting from the beginning. I did notice a huge improvement in the gurgling – he did not smell of stomach acid all day ! So, I have read some post about mylanta and other meds. to help the gas/upset. How old are they usually and how is it administered? Again, thank you so much for any input!!!

Stacey

[hellbennt]

sounds like possible mspi, as the ring around the anus is a symptom, as is constipation- from my welcome/intro link in the post above, there’s a link to everything about mspi (milk soy protein intolerance, or allergy)

[Anonymous]

Thanks Laura,

I read the into – wow! what a ton of info – so very helpful!!! How could he still be showing symptoms on elecare (same as neocate) since it is supposed to be free of all that stuff?

On a different note yet still related… Elecare changes his bowl to a dark yellow/brown and today I thought I saw what might be a streak of blood – does anyone know how the doc takes blood samples from stool? Is it manually (the GI we saw (he was awful!!!! ) did it that way and my little guy screamed and screamed so I do not want to go that route again) or can you bring in stool to be sampled? How do you store it till you go to the doc in case they do not have a bm the day you go?

It seems like each time I get a question answered a ton more pop up or when one problem is fixed new ones arrise!

[Anonymous]

screaming baby boy – does anyone know if you can give mylicon drops with prevacid ? anything else that helps relieve this ? tried warm water on belly -hated it and did not like hot water bottle either I just hate to hear him scream from this gas pain…and he was just sleeping so peacefully!

thanks so much &n bsp; &n bsp;

[Anonymous]

I know that the Prevacid gave our little girl awful gas – she was in so much pain. Since we’ve started Zegerid, that is all behind us and she is a much happier baby. We started her on Prevacid at about 3 weeks and tried it for a couple weeks with very poor results. That’s when I found the Marci-kids.com website and this message board and discovered Zegerid. What a difference the right medication and even more important, the right dose, has made. I am sure Joel will be posting on this message soon.

We did continue to try the Mylicon drops while on the Prevacid but never noticed much difference.

Hang in there!!

[hellbennt]

how long has he been on the elacare? he could be getting the proteins out of his system…I don’t know a whole lot about elecare- most babies here on an elemental formula are on neocate- but of course there are some on elecare- hope they can help you

[Anonymous]

[QUOTE=babyrowrow]

does anyone know how the doc takes blood samples from stool? Is it manually (the GI we saw (he was awful!!!! ) did it that way and my little guy screamed and screamed so I do not want to go that route again) or can you bring in stool to be sampled? How do you store it till you go to the doc in case they do not have a bm the day you go?

So sorry that you are going through this with your little one. I was wondering what you meant by “collecting it manually”…that doesn’t sound right. I know that others have brought diapers into their doc and had them checked. We took a sample and put it in the fridge and then brought it that way. Good luck and welcome to the site.

[Anonymous]

Aidan was switched from the soltabs (prevacid) to the packets at 2 months..he had a horrible reaction to the packets, screaming, gas, congestion, hoarseness…they made his reflux worse ( no idea why, its the same med as the soltabs) I think it might have been from the flavoring…long story short, I made the doc switch back to the soltabs….have to pay out of pocket but its worth it…If your insurance will pay for them I think the soltabs are better…granules are so tiny and its much easier to get them to take them

[Anonymous]

Lori,

the gi inserted his finger making Rowan scream for obvious reasons and took some stool that way. I am guessing that is not the norm?

Stacey

[Anonymous]

Stacey, I’ve never heard of a doc doing that. Our GI had to do a digital rectal exam on hailey, but it was only to check for any malformations. Most docs I know ask you to collect a sample and bring it in.

[Anonymous]

lori,

as i stated in an earlier post this GI was a jerk! his first comment to me was “I know hearing your child cry is difficult but that is your job after all” i had a little voice in my head telling me to turn around when i entered the waiting room and i should have listened… i just wanted so badly for someone (supposedly a specialist) to help him. when i questioned him about Rowan’s current dose of Axid he interrupted me and said “I’ll give you a prescription for prevacid since that is obviously the only reason you are here”. I had not even said anything about prevacid! he gave me the impression that there were sicker kids and that i was wasting his time.

enough about that… sorry… what is a digital exam?

[Anonymous]

Stacey,

So sorry to hear your troubles. Reading your initial post almost makes me want to cry because it reminds me of Max’s first few months. We had very similar symptoms; the grunting, crying in pain, doubling over, as well as a similar progression from breast milk, to soy, to milk based formula to Nutramigen and finally Elecare. At the time, Max had diarrhea for three weeks straight and the Ped GI told me he was allergic to soy, then milk, then breastmilk. Come to find out, the diarrhea continued on the Elecare and the doc put Max back on breast milk and soy formula. Also, we upped his meds (he is on Zegerid, 12 mg a day, split into four doses a day). That was the ticket. He was never allergic to anything, just had too many changes to his diet too quickly.

Because of the diarrhea, we were concerned about allergies and blood in the stool is obviously one symptom. My PED GI doc had us bring in a dirty diaper and then he used a small hemocult strip to test for blood. I asked him if I could take a few home with me and he let me (they are an everyday item to them and probably cost them less than 50 cents each). I would just dip it into his stool and that was that…very easy and the baby was none the wiser. Sounds like you need to find a new PED GI, ask for a few hemocult strips to take home with you and ALWAYS trust your instincts. I have gotten a different opinion from every doc. I took a lot of advice from this site, challenged my docs to read the Marci.kids info and now Max is a completely different baby, so happy and almost normal! Good luck!

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