Zantac: stimulating? upset tummy?

[Anonymous]

Hi, my 10 week old has had a mild degree of silent reflux since birth,
didn’t seem to bother him too much, occasional choking and gaggin (which bothered me!) but had terrible flares of it starting around 5 weeks, including gas
pains and tummy bubbles. I dropped all dairy and soy (actually also
corn, wheat, nuts, fish, chocolate, caffeine, everything!) and that’s
been gone for over amonth now. Tried Colic Calm and gas drops to help
keep the bubbles down. Probiotics helped a lot with the gas bubbles.
but we still had some flareups and bad days so we went with the lowest
dosage of Zantac, starting one week ago. I had it compounded at a
pharmacy so there is no alcohol or flavoring in it.

So it’s been 8 days now. In my estimation, his tummy has been more
upset since then. More gluping up in his throat. More refluxy! He sounds wet often now, lots of burps and squirming now. he isn’t napping well at all in the mornings after
taking it, and now at night for the last 5 nights I’m fighting for an
hour to get him to sleep, which I’ve NEVER done before, and this is about an hour after giving the meds. Also, no bowel
movement for 4 days now, he used to be daily.

Could the Zantac be stimulating and keeping him up? Is it upsetting his
tummy? We’re dealing with the bubbles again, and the sour stomach
look on his face. Does the commerical kind with alcohol make them
sleepier?

Any guidance would be appreciated. Can’t tell if I’m making it better
or worse, and don’t want to stop after a week, in case the pain comes
with more stuff in the throat.

[hellbennt]

Hi & welcome!

research all you can!

you can stop the zantac.

unfortunately it’s a lot of trial & error.

Zantac can be stopped & then you can start back up with it.

It’s extremely weight sensitive and babies also seem to plateau on it.

You need to keep adjusting dose for weight & also keep in mind that after a while it just might not work…

about your diet:

how are baby’s poops?

Reasons a breastfeeding mother might think her baby is reacting to something in her milk:

*poop that is not ‘normal’ mustardy yellow, seedy breastfed baby poop

*mucous in poop; mucous can look like: snot, jelly, cottage cheese, stringy like the inside of a banana

*foul-smelling poop

*stinky, foul-smelling painful gas

*straining and grunting to poop and, when baby finally does poop, it’s soft

the TED (Dr. Sear’s Total Elimination Diet) takes two weeks and then you start adding foods in to see what you CAN eat.

Research all you can! You are your baby’s best advocate!

I have a LOT MORE to say and most of it’s here,

in a link called ‘groupie intro.‘

it’s looong but TRULY will help you-

read through it, refer back to it, scroll through it/skim through it.

You’ll find yourself coming back to it!
https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=853

[Anonymous]

I posted on this question on the other site but will post on here too. Are you still using the probiotics? What kind are/were they? If you are not still using them, I recommend that you start up again. But maybe they quit working. That’s what a lot of people say. If they quit working they probably only had a couple of types of pobiotics in them. When we are low on prbiotics we are not just low on one or 2 kinds but are low on many. I recommend finding a probiotic supplement that has at least 10 strains of probiotics in it.

Also I think your child would benefit from taking digestive enzymes.

The pancreas is what makes digestive enzymes and puts them in our stomach to break down the food we eat. All foods have enzymes in them but anytime a food is cooked or processed it kills the enzymes. With our diets today of mostly cooked and processed foods it’s hard for our pancreas to be able to produce enough enzymes. Without enough enzymes in the stomach to break down the food the only thing our stomach knows to do is produce more acid to try to break it down. Too much acid in the stomach will cause heart burn, acid reflux, indigestion, irritable bowel syndrome, etc.

If a parent has a pancreas that isn’t producing enough enzymes then it is possible that their children can be born with a pancreas that doesn’t work well either. If the mother will take a supplement of enzymes and probiotics while pregnant she will pass these on to her baby and have a baby with a healthy digestive system.

Probiotics are the good, live bacteria that live in our body. One of the things they do is coat and protect our entire digestive tract (and also the ears and nose). When the stomach produces too much acid then it is forced up the esophagus and down the intestines and will kill probiotics. (Antibiotics also kill probiotics.) When the probiotics are depleted then the acid is traveling right up next to the , throat, esophagus and intestines with no protection. This can cause them to get raw, inflamed, and even bleed sometimes.

We take a probiotic/enzyme supplement from Core Health Products and it has helped my children tremendously with their reflux and food intolerances! Happy Mom2012-09-27 10:13:47

[Anonymous]

Martha – thanks for the reply.

Yes, still giving the probiotics, just the BioGaia Baby with one strain in it. It worked great for one week , then the bubbles were back with a vengeance. My pharmacist, who does herbals and probiotics and stiff too suggested upping the dosage, so I went from 5 drops per fay to 4 in morning and 3 in evening. Can’t tell if that helped or not as that’s also when we started wih the Zantac.

I just got the bifido complex probiotics from kirkman, which they recommend for infants. It has seven different strains, but over 15 billion Live CFUs per capsule. That seems like a lot! The pharmacist recommended about 500 million. What would you suggest?

I had not thought of the enzymes and that’s an excellent point. Would you mind sharing which you get from Core health? Is it the Digestive Health stuff? Would they be able to recommend to me what the appropriate amount for a 10wo would be?

[Anonymous]

Laura – I wanted to replay to say thanks for all the hard work you have obviously put into these forums! I have spent the last few weeks reading all of the groupie new people posts and other things you’ve recommended. What a resource this is! Thanks for the time you take in this forum for parents like me trying to put together pieces of the puzzle…

[Anonymous]

Yes, Digestive Health is the name of the product that we use. And yes, you can call Core Health Products about dosing for babies. 800-342-4792 You will talk to Chris. He answers all calls. His wife just had a baby in July so prob the same age as yours. The mom is nursing and I am sure is taking the Digestive Health but don’t know if there has been a need to give it to their baby.

If you are still nursing then you could just take the pills yourself but it will take quite a few to get enough into your milk to help your baby. One mom on this site found that by taking 2 pills with each meal and 1 with snacks it helped her baby a ton. This is because when you take the pills the enzymes make it so your milk is broken down and easy to digest. But I would start with just one pill in the morning and one in the evening and add a pill a day in until baby is comfortable. Spreading them out as much as possible is best.

If you want to give directly to baby you can do that also while your taking them just to get him feeling better faster. But if you want you can give them just to baby without you taking them. I believe that Chris recommends starting babies with 1/4 a pill a day. Then you can add 1/4 pill in every several days. The pills are powder in a capsule form and very easy to open up and dump a little out. They are best spread out as much as possible through out the day.

Please read this page on my blog about possible reactions to probiotics and enzymes. http://help4acidreflux.wordpress.com/side-effects-of-probiotics-and-enzymes/

As far as billions or millions, Digestive Health’s probiotics are low compared to many products. It’s 2.55 billion. This is because of the enzymes in them. When there are enzymes present they break down those probiotics so much that you don’t need so many. Core Health Products’s belief is that “nutrient utilization is more important than nutrient consumption”. So if you are taking a product with high numbers but are unable to break them down and use it, then the high numbers aren’t worth much. But when you take something with lower numbers and are able to break it down all of it and use it, then you are actually getting more out of it than the high number supplement.

Hope that made sense. 🙂

[hellbennt]

peskyred wrote: Laura – I wanted to replay to say thanks for all the hard work you have obviously put into these forums! I have spent the last few weeks reading all of the groupie new people posts and other things you’ve recommended. What a resource this is! Thanks for the time you take in this forum for parents like me trying to put together pieces of the puzzle…

You are SO WELCOME!

by the way…have you listed your doctors – the good & the bad- to help others who find this board after you’ve left?

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

Also: maybe you’d like to post a blurb about your journey/research/trial & error to help others?

thanks!

laura

[Author]

Posts