When to start meds?

[Anonymous]

My newest baby is following in big brother’s footsteps, she is refluxing. Now, I *know* dairy affects her even in the smallest quantity, so I do refrain from dairy ( with the exception to see if she would react) soy and gluten, since they were all my son’s triggers.

Now, she responds to the mylanta supreme, and so far gets relief with that 4 times per day. But, DH is worried that all of her refluxing~ mostly silent with gagging and reswallowing will erode her esophogas so he wants to have her on prevacid, the sooner, the better in his opinion.

I’m just not sure if we should do the prevacid, yet. My son was so severe so early that there was no question as to starting the meds, he didn’t gain properly ( she is) and screamed all day all night, no matter what ( she doesn’t only after feeds.)

what would you do? when or would you start the prevacid? Or just stick with the mylanta supreme and see where it leads??

TIA!

[Anonymous]

in my opinion if she is gagging and screaming after feeds there is no question she would benefit from prevacid. good luck.

[Anonymous]

I think it would be worth giving Prevacid a try, and see how she does with it. If she’s crying after she eats, then she must be in some pain from the acid. I think the mylanta would soothe the pain temporarily, but the prevacid would prevent it. Good luck with your decision!

[Anonymous]

Hi there. Welcome to the site. My daughter had the same symptoms that you describe early on but I didn’t know what they were. She also pulled on and off the breast, and gagged, choked a lot. I didn’t know what it was so I didn’t give her anything for it, and the docs told us that she fine b/c she was eating and gaining well. Then all of a sudden she decided that it hurt too much to eat, and that was the start of her awful feeding aversion that’s still with us. Even once she was medicated, the memory of pain still stuck with her, and it’s been a challenge since then.

Anyhow, my point is that I agree with the others. PPIs are quite safe and so I’d say best to give the prevacid a try using a prevention approach. It’s always easier to wean them off meds, then to try and fix the problems that go along with esophageal damage.

If you’re leary about the prevacid (though our GI recently assured us that it’s very safe and doesn’t build up in the system over time), then you could always ask for an H2 blocker like pepcid, but it is very weight sensitive and not always effective.

Good luck in your decision.

[Anonymous]

Hello and welcome.

With both of my refluxers their symptoms were quite mild until they were about 10 weeks old. If she’s irritable after feeds it likely means she is in some pain. If she wasn’t also refluxing and swallowing it back down, then you could argue that it’s just gas, or colic. But with the family history, the refluxing, and the crying after feeds, I personally would start meds right away.

Like Lori said, things can turn bad really quick. Myles suddenly just stopped eating. The early signs were there but I didn’t see it until it was too late. He was finally on the right meds and did well but gave up his bottle at 7 months of age (!) which I think is related to all the time he was in pain and associated the bottle with pain.

So, I think you’re dh is right on this one.

Good luck and keep us posted.

[Anonymous]

Thanks, mamas. We did prevacid 30 mg for my son last time, the smaller dose never helped him, so he had to take it twice daily along with a slew of other meds~ and is still on it to this day at 3. I guess I was on the fence because she just isn’t as bad as he was, although I don’t wish her to GET as bad as he did, KWIM? I’ll think on it some more, and make her appt with her pedi~ since he knows our background he’ll be proactive, I am sure, and I do trust him, so guess I should make the call.

[Anonymous]

Good luck. Thank goodness you have a doctor who will be proactive and is not afraid to prescribe a high dose.

[Anonymous]

Well, I made the call, and she has her appt this afternoon. It seems like her discomfort is ramping up, and as much as I hate to medicate her, I hate the thought if her being as miserable as her brother more. So… Prevacid, here we come..

[Anonymous]

Good luck with the prevacid!!! Hope it helps.

I noticed that your son was diagnosed with celiac at age two? What symptoms did he have? Was he tested before then? How did they find out? Also, was it hard to keep him on the diet with his feeding aversion? My dd hasn’t been diagnosed with anything official other than reflux and a severe feeding aversion, but I’ve often wondered if there’s more to it and my gut of course tells me that there is.

BTW, I love your kids middle names. My kids are half Japanese and I wanted to give them cultural middle names, but dh didn’t want to (even though it’s his culture!). I’ve always been kind of regretful though.

s&h’s mum2006-10-3 15:7:6

[Anonymous]

s&h’s mum wrote:

Good luck with the prevacid!!! Hope it helps.

BTW, I love your kids middle names. My kids are half Japanese and I wanted to give them cultural middle names, but dh didn’t want to (even though it’s his culture!). I’ve always been kind of regretful though.

thank you! My DH named the two in the middle after his mother. They love thier names and embrace thier culture, however, my SIL’s children shun all of thier japanese heritage and come up with wild stories/ways to cover thier japanese appearance. So I can see both sides.

[Anonymous]

Good luck with her appointment! I hope the Prevacid helps. It did wonders for my little guy.

[hellbennt]

lisa,

if you had Mason on Caracream, there’s a chance you can still get it for Coda (they stopped making/distributing it when they came out w/ Zegerid & sold it, zegerid., to another company; there’s a non compete agreement so they can’t sell caracream- but if you’ve had it before it’s possible to get again- pm me if you need to)…

~laura

[Anonymous]

well, he gave her zantac and reglan. now, I’m OK with zantac, but not crazy about reglan AT ALL…. He said ins says they have to try that now before moving on to prevacid~ a new one for us…

Laura, Mason used chocobase~ I wondered what happened to it. I’ll PM you later..

[Anonymous]

cherie012 wrote:

.. He said ins says they have to try that now before moving on to prevacid~ a new one for us…

im sorry but thats messed up! does she have delayed gastric emptying issues? i would really fight them on this one.

[Anonymous]

to my knowledge, there isn’t a delay in the emptying. I have already decided that I won’t give her the reglan, I hate the side effects. I will try the zantac, if it doesn’t work, then we’ll move on..

[Author]

Posts