Zantac baby turned to Prevacid: Still no change

[Anonymous]

Landon, 5 months old, breastfed, Similac Soy supplemented, reflux since 2 months old.
____________________

After reading Laura’s main post I decided to ask our doctor to switch us to prevacid from
zantac. We are one day away from being on prevacid for two weeks. And
STILL no relief.

I breastfeed but am having supply issues because he isn’t eating. So I supplement with Similac Soy.

He
will not eat from breast. Nor take a bottle anymore. He will take milk
by a spoon from his daddy. I have to syringe feed him. It has been
heartbreaking. The ENTIRE time he is awake is spent trying to get him to
eat. The rest of the time is trying to get him to sleep.

I don’t understand why we are still having SUCH a hard time. I am at my wits end. He cries. I cry. My husband gets upset. It is a horrible cycle.

My husband thinks that landon will just eat when he finally gets hungry enough. I know that is simply not the case.

Why is it taking this long for the Prevacid to kick in? I mean, he literally has had NO relief these past two weeks.

It costs us $100 to go to the doctor each time. And if I take him in again then this will be 5th time in less than 3 months.

I just don’t know what to do anymore.

[Anonymous]

He is on 15mg of Prevacid, btw. I don’t know if that is important to know or not but there you go. Thank!

[Anonymous]

Dear mommy to Landon,

First of all I want to give you a BIG (((HUG)))!!! I am so sorry about your little one! Second, I want to say, “I understand”. My first 2 children were VERY MISERABLE the first several months of their life and then just miserable for a long time after that. AND SO WAS I!!! After having the second child with digestive problems I realized that I had to have an antidepressant for a few months. 🙁 It is so hard to live with so much stress, responsibility, and lack of sleep.

My first recommendation would be to keep trying to pump and give him as much of your milk as he will take. NOTHING beats mama milk. But I don’t blame you if you quit. I nursed my first for 3 months and my second for only 2 months. I was just so stressed that I couldn’t handle it. But if you keep nursing you might want to try cutting dairy and soy out of your diet. Dairy is often the number one food trigger for reflux and soy second. I personally would NOT give a soy based formula. I would go to Similac Alimentum or Enfamil Nutramigen. The proteins in in them are extensively broken down and much easier for baby to digest. But yes, they are expensive. 🙁 So, doing an elimation diet would be much cheaper. Luckily we qualified for WIC and they paid for the formula but a doctor does have to prescribe it.

Has Landon (or you while pregnant or nursing) had any antibiotics? They can wreck havoc with the digestive system.

As far as the dose your little one is on, Laura is the expert on that but by that age I think my little one was on 30mg of Prevacid and even then it didn’t take his reflux/pain away.

You can go to my blog and find a lot of different useful info on there about reflux. http://help4acidreflux.wordpress.com/ But I will copy and past here some info that I have written up about what we found to help our children. And hopefully is can be of use to you.

I am not a doctor and am not claiming to cure or diagnose anyone. I am simply telling my story of what we found to help our children. I know that what works for one will not work for the other so although this helped my children it may not help yours. I do know of many babies, children, and adults that have found relief for their digestive problems with probiotics and enzymes, so it may be worth a try for you and your little one.

My first 2 children suffered badly from digestive problems. My oldest had blood in his stools before he was a week old and soon spent most of his time screaming in pain. He always acted hungry but very quickly threw up whatever he ate and he slept for only very short periods at a time. At a couple months of age his pediatrician labeled him “Failure to Thrive”. Eventually we figured out that dairy and soy were a big part of the problem. Until he was age one he drank Nutramigen, then we tried different milks with no success. He was on Prevacid until age 3. He was able to quit the meds when we started giving him alkaline water to drink. Although it did not cure him, he was quite a bit better with the water than the meds.

My second child was pretty much a rerun of my first except that I knew just a little bit more about reflux etc. He started taking Prevacid at 5 days old. At 9 months old I started making his bottles with alkaline water and by a year old he was off the meds.

Alkaline water helped with the reflux and pain, but did not make it so they could tolerate foods.

A year after starting them with the alkaline water, a friend suggested that I contact a well known nutritionist named Shan Stratton that specializes in digestion. I was surprised and impressed at how much he knew and how well he explained what was going on with my children. I will try my best to explain what I have learned from him along with some of what I have learned on my own through research. What I write is correct to the best of my knowledge, but it is possible that there is some incorrect statements and if so, I ask your pardon.

Before a baby is born, their digestive tract is sterile- meaning it is free from bacteria. The baby will pick up it’s first “dose” of good live bacteria (also known as probiotics or gut flora) from the birth canal. Whatever kind of probiotics mom has in there is what the baby will get. The next “dose” which is the highest strongest dose a baby will ever get, is from colostrum. Probiotics play a huge role in the health of the baby. They make up over 70% of the immune system and they are what line, coat, and protect the entire digestive tract.

Antibiotics kill not only bad bacteria but the good also. If a mother has been on many different antibiotics throughout her life it can alter her probiotics. This in turn will alter what kind the baby gets. If the mother has been on antibiotics while pregnant, for sure close to or at the time of giving birth this can severely alter the probiotics that baby gets. In fact, if on antibiotics at the time of birth, the mother may have no probiotics to pass on to her baby. And of course if baby has antibiotics at any given time it will kill off the probiotics. If the mother takes them while nursing, she will pass them on to her baby and it also will kill his/her probiotics.

If a baby is born by c-section, this can make him/her be behind in building up the probiotics. But if he/she gets plenty of colostrum it will certainly help.

Some babies who are born by c-section, are on antibiotics, get no colostrum, or all of the above, are not necessarily doomed for digestive problems. Some babies are really strong and healthy and their body has no problems making and building up its own probiotics. But for some, this can be the start to the digestive system not working well.

For some babies, they will greatly benefit from a probiotic supplement. When someone is low on probiotics, they are low on many, so the best supplement would be one that has at least 10 different strains in it. But the bottom line is that your child gets relief.

Another problem for some children can be a lack of sufficient digestive enzymes. Digestive enzymes are what are in all foods (before they are cooked or processed) to aid in breaking them down. They are especially needed for breaking down proteins. If a nursing mom eats a diet of mostly raw foods this can help some but unless the foods are organically grown, they are not very enzyme rich. The pancreas is what makes digestive enzymes and it will try to compensate for the lack of them in foods, but for some babies it can be difficult for their pancreas to keep up making enough to break down the food (proteins in particular) that they take in whether it be through breast milk, formula, or solids as they get older.

For some babies, they can inherit the problems of their body not making enough digestive enzymes, and for these children, they may carry this problem all of their life. Just like the diabetic doesn’t make enough insulin.

When “food” is placed in the stomach, the stomach will excrete a small amount of acid to activate the enzymes so they will start breaking down the food. If there are no or little enzymes, then the stomach will excrete a little more acid. Eventually the food is forced into the intestines even if it isn’t fully properly broken down. If the food isn’t broken down then it will very difficult for the body to be able to absorb and use it. For some children, this undigested food will sit in the intestines too long and the longer “food” stays in the intestines, the more moisture that is drawn out of it, and it can cause constipation.

This excess acid that the stomach makes, can play a major part in some bab
ies digestive problems. Too much acid will kill probiotics. And beings that probiotics are the protective coating for the entire digestive tract, then without it, the food, reflux, or stool will rub right up next to the esophagus and intestines themselves and can cause them to become raw, inflamed, and even bleed sometimes.

So, how have digestive enzymes and probiotics affected my children? Well, they have made a huge difference. Cure? No! They have been taking a supplement of them for 2 years and today they are able to eat any and all foods. But they have to take a pill with every meal and any snack that does not have enzymes in it. I still try not to let my boys a lot of dairy though. But if the ask for a glass of milk I normally let them. They were not used to drinking milk when they were younger so it is not something they like terribly well. One evening awhile ago, when I let them have a glass of milk, I reminded them to take a pill with it. I put them to bed, read them stories, then sat in there for a few minutes with them. After Quinton fell asleep, I noticed how restless he was. Soon he sat fully up he was so uncomfortable but he didn’t wake up. This reminded me so much of how he used to be and I got to thinking that he had probably not taken a pill. So I went and got 2 of them with a glass of water and woke him up and made him take them. I was impressed how in about a minute he completely settled down and peacefully slept the rest of the night.

There are many different brands and companies out there that sell probiotic and enzyme supplements. We use a product called “Digestive Health” sold by Core Health Products. It contains 13 different strains of pH stabilized probiotics, prebiotics (which are food for the probiotics), over 20 types of broad spectrum plant based digestive enzymes, and several different types of soothing herbs. If you wish to look for a different brand you can find more info about it on my blog on the page titled “How to find the right probioit/enzyme supplement”

If you decide to try probiotics and/or enzymes, be aware that it can possibly make symptoms worsen for a day or two. This is called Herxheimer Reaction. The Herxheimer Reaction is an immune system reaction to the toxins (endotoxins) that are released when large amounts of pathogens are being killed off, and the body does not eliminate the toxins quickly enough. Simply stated, it is a reaction that occurs when the body is detoxifying and the released toxins either exacerbate the symptoms being treated or create their own symptoms. The important thing to note is that worsening symptoms do not indicate failure of the treatment in question; in fact, usually just the opposite.

I am so glad that you joined as there is no better place to get support than from other moms. It often felt like to me that no one fully understood what I was going through with my children. My husband tried but not even he fully understood.

[hellbennt]

PLEASE research HOW MUCH he should be getting and HOW to give it to him/WHAT form/Proper form

you can always go rogue! If/when higher dose WORKS then you’ll know…

PLEASE READ PREVACID 101

Prevacid 101:

scroll to the last page of this post, (it’s actually also about other PPIs like prilosec, too)

https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1936&PN=0&TPN=1

and PLEASE read/skim through the MEDICINES FORUM

I CANNOT TELL YOU WHAT TO DO

hang in there!

laura

[Anonymous]

Thank you, Happy Mom. It means so much just to hear that people are going through the same things as us.

Let’s see. Antibiotics. Umm, I had a yeast infection twice. Used Monistat 1 with that each time. Had a UTI a couple times as well. Used Uribel before I learned that I should have take that then was on Antibiotics for that. Then I also had realllly bad heartburn (ironic?) while in my last trimester. And finally, I had a pregnancy tumor that I had removed in my last trimester as well and I had to take antibiotics for that. Oh, and after he was born I got mastitis once and took antibiotics

Wow, I didn’t think i took that much but now that I list it all it does seem like a lot.

I am going to buy some Digestive Health. Just like you suggested.

We did end up going back to his Doctor last night. He increased his dosage and told me to break it up into more than just two doses.

As of today, he has eaten FROM ME for every meal! Praise the Lord! I don’t know if it is just a break from the storm that will come back tomorrow but I am enjoying EVERY moment of this day. I even got to go on some errands with him!!!!

His doctor said that if he goes back to not eating then on Monday we need to go see a GI. But I may try the Digestive Health before going to a GI and see if that helps.

[Anonymous]

Oh I am SO glad that your little one had a good day today. 🙂 Us Mommy’s need a break sometimes. Hopefully he stays better. Often times GI’s are booked out pretty far so if the doctor suggests getting an appointment, you could go ahead and make one and also try the Digestive Health. Then if as time gets closer to the GI appointment and if your little one is doing a lot better then you could cancel the appointment if you felt it was unnecessary to go to it.

Probiotics and digestive enzymes have helped many babies but each child is different. They are not a cure but they have had a life changing effect with our family. 🙂 I hope that they will help your little one as much as they have mine and others! Please keep us posted on here!

[hellbennt]

so good to read your news!

so glad an increase in medicine seems to be helping!

what form is the dose?

prevacid solutab? compound made by the pharmacy? capsules?

this can also make a difference (finding the form that works)

keep us posted!

[Anonymous]

hello all! it has been a couple months since I posted. here is my update:

i did put landon on probiobotics. he got them daily.
he was still taking prevacid in the solutab form. which is $50 a month!
so last month i tried to switch him to prevacid in the normal form. i would open the pills and pour them into his mouth. he took them just fine that way (Zantac babies are sooooo good with meds)

well, the new form didn’t take. he started back all of his pain and rejection of eating. AND it also showed me that the probiobotics hadn’t cured him yet. i know it takes time. i was just sorta hoping that we were already at that point.

today he is still taking both. i haven’t had the heart to try and see if he is better on his own without medicine. he is 8 months old now.

[Anonymous]

oh. he is still being breastfed.
though, i am about to have to get on some medication that will make me have to stop 🙁 which makes me sad. hopefully moving to formula won’t make things worse or what not.

[hellbennt]

you gotta do what works!!!

are you content w/ your dr? if so (& eeven if not!) please post!

Looking for GI: https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=660

there are recommendations for ped GIs in your area…

also:

you’ve already started solids- but here’s a link to help:

https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=13768&KW=order+introduce+solids

[Anonymous]

we LOVE his doctor. but he is just a general ped. not a GI. thankfully we didn’t have to go to one (knock on wood) because the prevacid kicked in.

we are in memphis, tn and see Dr. Lelon “BUBBA” O. Edwards, MD
http://www.pedseast.com/doctors/germantownoffice2002exeterrd

he has walked with me hand in hand with landons reflux. each time we came in he was ALWAYS extremely patient with us and very kind. very supportive of our journey with this. said that Landon was one of his harder cases due to his eating strikes he would have.

[Anonymous]

as for solid foods, my kid is a trash can! he will eat any and everything (thus far). and he has thrown his first ‘fit’ because i wasn’t giving him food fast enough.

bland- he loves it
spicy- he loves it.
everything in between- he loves it.

haha. seriously, he makes ‘yummy’ noises the whole time while eating. haha.

and thus far we haven’t found anything that has upset his reflux. praying that continues.

[hellbennt]

yay !!

[Anonymous]

I’m really glad that your little one is doing so well! It would be nice if the probiotics/enzymes would cure him, but cure isn’t normally what they do. I wouldn’t claim that cure my children. But I will say that my children are MUCH MUCH better and we would never be able to be with out those pills!!! They have been life changing for us!

How much and how often do you give them to Landon? That can have a big effect on how much they help.

[Author]

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