Baby just diagnosed with reflux... questions for parents of reflux babies

[peanut4us]

Well, we found out today that our poor darling really was in tons of pain when she ate, it wasn't our imaginations. SO we just started Zantac today. She is supposed to have .5 ml 3 times a day. We gave a dose to her right before bedtime and she was a dream to feed and put down. So we're up for the 2 am feed, and she isn't supposed to have any meds this time, and the poor thing is screaming like before.

So, I just want to make sure that she will feel better at all her feeds after a couple of days, right? How long did it take for your babies to feel better all of the time, not just right after taking the medicine? Also, how long were your babies on the med?

[ginalc]

If your daughter has some damage from the reflux, it may take up to 6 weeks to heal. She may be in pain from the damaged tissue. Yes, you should expect to see some good from the medicine soon, but it's different with every baby. Some are just more sensitive than others.

Giving the medicine as close to every 8 hours as you can will help, too.

Also, ask your Dr. if you can give Tylenol or Ibuprofen to carry her over. If neither of these work, ask for a stronger pain medicine for her - probably prescription - to help until she's feeling better.

[COElizabeth]

I think it took several days before we saw consistent improvement. My ped said to give the Zantac at least a week to build up in the system, and the comment about tissue damage taking weeks to heal sounds entirely reasonable to me, because that happened to my DH as an adult when he had a bout with acid reflux. I hope your baby gets relief all the time soon!

As for weaning off of the Zantac, we tried at 4 months and went back on it. We made the mistake of doing it right after immunizations, so it was hard to tell what James was fussy from, but it seemed like the reflux symptoms were returning. I tried again at a little over 5 months and had no problems, so he hasn't been on it since then. Make sure that when you do stop the medicine, nothing else is going on that could cause confusion (introduction of new food, immunizations, sickness, etc.). Best wishes to you and your little one for painfree eating soon! It's SO much better when your darling is happy after eating!

Elizabeth
Mom to James
9-20-02

[Denyse]

We went through the same thing with Brett. The results will be inconsistent for a few days but after that, things will even out. Brett's been on Zantac for around 5 weeks now (.7ml every 8 hours) and he is doing GREAT. :) HTH

[nigele]

Hi there,

As you can see, all babies are different! My 10 month old didn't have reflux diagnosed until he was five months old even though I noticed there was something wrong at three months. Because he rarely spit up, his pediatrician insisted it was nothing. I had to push and push until we finally had an overnight test to determine that it was, in fact, reflux. (One of his main symptoms was severe nasal congestion.) Anyway, he is on 10 ml. of Zantac twice a day which was fine for a while but lately he has started spitting up and I can tell he is refluxing more often, so we're seeing his ped. today to talk about other medication options.

FYI, we had our test done at Duke and the doctors there assured me that most babies outgrow reflux by their first birthday and many by the time they are nine months old.

HTH.

[Rachels]

Lisa, if you wonder if he's at all milk-sensitive, ask for Prevacid rather than Prilosec. Prilosec has milk in it, we learned the hard way.

It took us about two weeks to notice a difference with Abigail on Zantac. One thing that helped in the meantime was Maalox or Mylanta, which her GI specialist recommended. It coated her esophagus and helped soothe the discomfort. You might ask about that.

-Rachel
Mom to Abigail Rose
5/18/02