tell me it gets better

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I’m very new here but have been dealing with my ds for 4 months now. i knew he had reflux from the beginning, but only got meds at 3 months since I was hoping he would outgrow it.

Like usual he started on Zantac and Reglan. He HATED reglan and reacted to it by not sleeping at all and being very uncomfortable. Both the Dr and the pharmacy guy said that it couldn’t be the drug, but I took him off and he was much happier.

Recently, again like very common, Zantac stopped working for him so I went back to the Dr who basically said there was nothing more they could do. HA, luckily I had the MARCI stuff printed out, so the Dr prescribed Zegrid, stupid doses, but I’m just using the MARCI site and giving him 8mg 3x daily as it suggests there.

I’m at the end of day 2 and life is terrible. He’s arching his back and not feeding. It seems more stomach pain that reflux, but it’s kind of the same. He’s only napping for 20mins at a time and then waking crying. I know that Zegrid takes a while to kick in, so I’m still giving him the Zantac for whatever cover that is giving him.

I’m thinking this is just a reaction to the new drug and maybe (hopefully) it’ll calm down – is that a valid thing to think? How long until I see an improvement – I’m going out of my tree here.

[Anonymous]

I’m sorry your dealing with this, but you have found the right place. First thing I will say is yes, it does get better. Babies usually outgrow reflux at 6 mos, 9mos, and a year. I was told by our Gi doc that 9 months is the magic age and for me both of my boys outgrew it at 9 months. So, it does get better, but when it will get better for you and your little guy is anyones guess. I think the best thing is to not think about the future and when he will outgrow it. I know easier said then done right? I’m not sure I actually got to that place, but I sure did try.

About the reglan you are probably right that your baby was reacting to it. I know there are plenty of babies that do fine on it, but there are also babies that don’t. I have heard from a friend of mine about 3 ladies that took reglan for themselves and one went into a major depression, and the other two felt like they were coming out of their skin. All three said it was horrible.

About the zegerid, I think that is a normal reaction. The stomach pain that is. Not sure why though. Anyway, it takes a good two weeks for the drug to kick in. I would wait at least that two weeks before deciding if it’s working or not. You can always e=mail Dr. Phillips at Marci-kids also and ask him any questions about the zegerid that you might have. To get in touch with him you go to the Marci-kids site and go to the very bottom and click on contact us or something like that. Dr. Phillips is good about getting back to you, but sometimes the e-mails don’t get to him, so you might have to e-mail him again. Also, keep your e-mails short and to the point. He is a very busy man and you can tell by his replies back, but he does want to help.

Things will be better before you know it. You are doing an amazing job and your baby is so blessed to have you for his mom.

[Anonymous]

Here is Laura’s intro in case you haven’t read it yet. She is one of the moderators and an amazing lady that has done tons of research.

https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=853

[Anonymous]

Is your lo on the 20 mg. packs or the 40 mg. packs? We used the 20 mg. packets at first and my son couldn’t tolerate them. The extra sodium bicarb gave him horrible stomach cramps, so we moved to the 40 mg. packs and that really helped. Of course, then you have to add extra buffer, but it worked better for us that way.

Like Shelby said though, I would stick with the Zegerid for the two weeks at least until you try something else.

[Anonymous]

It took a little over two weeks before I saw complete results with zegerid. It seemed like an eternity and I was starting to lose hope…but we did finally have the happy baby we always dreamed of!!! Slowly, little things started happening…less fussing…slightly better sleeping…these things gave me a little bit of hope until it finally started working full force! GOOD LUCK!!

[Anonymous]

I remember asking if it would get better! I never thought Landen would be one of the babies that would outgrow reflux at 9 months either. He has really bad MFPI still, but looking back I would swear he’d be 2 or older before his reflux symptoms would be gone– he was just SO much worse than my firstborn!!

You are already winning a big part of the reflux battle by getting your little guy on a good dose of a good PPI like Zegerid! Don’t get discouraged too fast when first trialing a drug. We went through a few PPI’s and dosages to get Landen straight. We even had to use Pepcid complete at night (during 4-7 mos of age I think) when he was in the worst stages of the reflux.

As far away as it seems right now, you will look back on this. I’ve had 2 refluxers and my 3 yr old improved at 6 months and outgrew his at 8 months completly. There little systems all just have to reach a certain point.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your support you guys. We had a better day yestday when he actually took a nap or two (actually 2 and another short one) so I was over the moon. But last night and this morning it’s been tough. To be honest I’m not sure that the Zantac isn’t causeing more problems as he often cries after it and gets tummy cramps, so I stopped giving him it yesterday, but as I said the night wasn’t great. Maybe I should just give it to him in the evening.

Jill, thanks, I’m longing for the day he’ll grow out of it. Like many here I’m sure, I HATE giving him medication three times a day, but know his life is miserable with out it.

This forum is great though, you guys are definately helping a lot.

[Anonymous]

((((HUGS)))) Both of my children have had reflux…my DS who is 4 months is going through it right now. It does get better. My DD got better around 9 months. Hang in there!!

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