Zantac making reflux worse??

[Anonymous]

Does anyone have any experience with Zantac making reflux worse?

I just started my almost 6-month-old, 17 pound baby on 1.2 mL Zantac

bid today. I gave him the first dose tonight and he proceeded to projectile

vomit 3 times within the next 3 to 4 hours. Of course, he was fussy right

before each episode. Does it take a while for the Zantac to start to work?

He surely didn’t build up a tolerance after one dose. Does anyone have

any advice?

His reflux has never been so bad that he’s projectile vomited before, so

I’m wondering if I should keep on keepin’ on with the Zantac or forget it

altogether. I had hoped the doc would prescribe Prevacid or Zegerid

anyway (after all the helpful info I’ve seen here), but he wanted to start

with Zantac.

Thanks in advance for your help!

[Anonymous]

In our experience I don’t know that it made her reflux worse, but it definitely did NOT make things better!!! I would give it a few days but my guess is you will have to move to a PPI to see real results. Did your doc say how long he wanted you to trial the zantac before you could move on? We had to trial a few things first also before we were prescribed a PPI (after MY research and pushing for it). I’m still angry that we lost 4 months of a happy baby in our failed trial. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

OUr Doc told us to try Zantac for 1 week. So I would give it at least that long before you give up. We were on Zantac for 3 weeks with 1 formula change in the process before we started Prevacid. Have been on that for just over 2 weeks now and he is a totally different baby and I am so pleased. Make sure that if you are seeing just a Ped that they feel comfortable with the PPI, mine did not and refered us to a ped GI, but she started the prevacid before we saw the ped GI b/c she knew that is what he was going to do, just had my husband (a pharmacist) calculate the dose for her b/c she wasn’t familiar with the dosing of prevacid, but just be knowledgeable and stay on them and things will get better.

[hellbennt]

17lbs = 7.7 kilos

*zantac dosing: I will calculate for 2mg/kilo, 5mgs/kilo & 10mgs/kilo

2 x 7.7 = 15.4 mgs total for the day of zantac

(divide by 15 to get the mls) that is 1ml total for the day

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

5 x 7.7 = 38.5 mgs total for the day of zantac

that is 2.6 ml total for the day

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

10 x 7.7 = 77 mgs total for the day of zantac

that is 5.1 ml total for the day

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*pharmacists have an electronic device called an ipharmacist, which is updated regularly with all the current dosing. this is what it says for oral pediatric dosing of zantac:

Duodenal and gastric ulcer: children 1 month to 16 years: 2-4 mg/kg/day divided twice daily to a maximum dose of 300 mg/day

GERD and erosive esophagitis: children 1 month to 16 years: 5-10 mg/kg/day divided twice daily. GERD max dosage: 300 mg/day. erosive esophagitis max dosage: 600 mg/day

[Anonymous]

I have known some babies who were bothered by the alcohol content in Zantac…maybe your doc could prescribe another H2 blocker (pepcid or something) or even better a PPI.

[Author]

Posts