Which med to try first?

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I have done tons of research and have decided that my son has silent reflux for sure. He is 4 months old now. We’ve been giving him the cherry mylanta which temporarily helps things but our nights are especially bad.

As far as which med to start first does the ped usually start with a certain one, should I request one over the others or what? The ones I see a lot are Zantac, Prilosec and Prevacid. Is it just a trial and error kind of thing or does one have a better track record? Also, when I’ve talked to our ped he wasn’t real anxious to start him on meds. He suggested I take OTC zantac and see if he got a residual effect from BF. That hasn’t seemed to help much. Will I have to push for the meds, talk to a specialist or what should I do?

Thanks so much!

Risa

[Anonymous]

First go ahead and schedule an appointment with a ped G.I. because it can take months to get in and see them. Then check out http://www.marci-kids.com about meds. Zantac works differently than prevacid, prilosec, zegerid. Zantac has to be increased frequently because it is weight sensitive. Everytime you have a growth spurt you need to increase it. PPI’s do need to be increased from time to time but not as often as zantac. I would try to get on one of the ppi’s as most of us have experienced the need to change to one anyways. If your son can tolerate the taste of zegerid that would be the easiest to give because you don’t have to wait to feed 30 minutes after giving it. Check out marci-kids as the information on the medications is great and will really help you decide which one you might think will work best for your situation.

[Anonymous]

Hello and welcome.

From my own experience with my two refluxers and from reading these posts, I would recommend asking for a PPI medicaiton like Prevacid, or Zegerid. You can read more about these medications at marci-kids.com. Here’s the link.

http://www.marci-kids.com/

Some babies do well on Zantac, but it seems that most outgrow their dose quickly and need continual increases as they gain weight and then end up leveling off and not getting any relief from the drug. This happened with my daughter and I didn’t know anything about PPI’s then, so she suffered from the misery of reflux until she outgrew it at 8-9 months old.

My son has been on Prevacd and has done very well on it.

Of the PPI’s Zegerid is probably easier to give because it can be given with or without food, whereas Prevacid has to be given on an empty stomach and then followed up 30 minutes later with a full meal.

If his doctor won’t prescribe a PPI you may need to find a Ped GI, but many peds do prescribe PPI’s for babies. My family doctor prescribed it for Myles. Maybe bring the marci-kids info or send it to him. That’s what I did to convince my doctor to give Myles the right dose. She prescribed it with no problem but initially gave him a dose which was too low and was not helping. Once he was on the right dose things turned around and he became a happy boy!

Here’s Laura’s intro link. It’s long but has lots of valuable information. You may want to bookmark it so you can read when you have time.

https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=853&am p;PN=1&TPN=1

I know what you about the nights. Night time was horrible with Eliana. Nobody in this house slept except my then 2 year old who sleeps like a log. I hope you can get your little guy on some good medication soon so you can all get some sleep. Good luck and please keep us posted.

[Anonymous]

Thanks so much for the replies. That was kind of what I was wondering about. Just skip Zantac and go straight to the PPI’s. Thanks for the links to the other info as well. I will read up and be prepared when I visit with the doc. I’ll also schedule an appt with the ped GI now in case I need it.

Thanks again!

Risa

[hellbennt]

hi there,

I’m the abovementioned laura, and there is tons of info from my welcome/intro to help you…

one thought: get a prescription for zantac anyway. it is effective pretty much right away and the PPIs take up to 2 weeks to kick in…so, you might just want to have zantac to give to your baby as you wait for the PPI to kick in AND it’s good to have around in case you have issues getting the ‘proper’ dose and/or ‘proper’ form of PPI (it’s all from the link above) – just make sure that you get a ‘proper’ dose of zantac!! dosing info is from the link, too

just a thought

~laura

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