Reflux meds, dairy free and things are worse??

[summer_rose]

It's been just over a week since I cut out all dairy from mine and DS' diet and since he started on Prilosec. Yesterday he threw up three times and twice so far today. Before he would only spit up every couple of days and the amount was much less. It seemed to be more silent reflux with lots of wet burps. Maybe it's not dairy after all?? Or the meds are making things worse?? Our med prescription is only for two weeks, just to see if it helped. If things were better then I planned to stop the meds at that time and see if things continued to improve with the dairy free diet. Any idea what's going on??

[moonlight mom]

What other ingredients are in the meds? My dd got worse with reflux meds and I figured out she was reacting to the sorbitol that the pharmacy added for taste.
I stopped all reflux meds. I think Pat (or someone else on this forum) might have some good info on the dangers of reflux meds.

[elanorh]

My reflux memory is rusty, but I know that there was only one PPI form which was dairy-free; could that be your problem (that there is a dairy derivative in the medication)?

Another option is that this may include a soy allergy, have you increased soy consumption to replace your dairy?

[kjbrown92]

Either reflux meds or whatever you're eating more of now (usually soy but could be anything).

[summer_rose]

Hmmm, well I'm thinking it must be the meds then. I might be eating a *little* more soy but I've mostly just eliminated things. I was definitely eating WAY more dairy than the little increase in soy. I'll call the pharmacist. The bottle just says Omeprazole and the dosage on it. He gets it once in the morning and once at night and he's only throwing up in the morning and once in the afternoon yesterday.

ETA: Just got off the phone with the pharmacist. She said to discontinue use. I told her about the suspected dairy allergy/intolerance and she said that lactose was most likely used as a filler along with sodium bicarbonate.

[kjbrown92]

What HAVE you been eating?

[summer_rose]

Originally Posted by kjbrown92

What HAVE you been eating?

I've been eating:

Lots of fresh veggies, fruit, salad
Salad dressing (dairy free)
Steak
Tuna
Chicken
Turkey
Bakery fresh bread and buns (dairy free obviously)
Bagels
Pitas
Wraps
Frozen Fruit Bars
Bruschetta
Rice
Rice Milk (haven't been brave enough to try it yet )
Sweet Potato Fries
Oatmeal
Crackers
Fleishmans Margarine (extra soy)
Dairy Free Coffe Creamer (extra soy)

I've eliminated:

Cow's Milk (once a day)
Cheese (probably 2 servings a day)
Yogurt
Sour Cream
Chocolate
Ice Cream
Baked Goods/Treats
Anything with sauce that has dairy in it
Salad dressing containing dairy
Butter
Hazelnut Coffee Creamer

I'm sure I'm missing a few things... DS eats pretty much what I do and I've also eliminated formula (one bottle a day) and Hyland's Teething Tablets (now using Camilia).

[kjbrown92]

Most "non-dairy" creamers have dairy in them... are you sure it's dairy free? or is it a soy based one?
If the tuna is canned, most of it has soy protein in it so that may be more soy.
You're eating a lot of gluten, it looks like. That's the #2 intolerance.
What is the salad dressing? An oil & vinegar based homemade one?

[kjbrown92]

The inactive ingredients in your acid reducer are:
glyceryl monostearate, hydroxypropyl cellulose, hypromellose, magnesium stearate, methacrylic acid copolymer C, polysorbate, sugar spheres, talc, and triethyl citrate, and also inactive granules. The inactive granules are composed of the following ingredients: citric acid, crospovidone, dextrose, hydroxypropyl cellulose, iron oxide and xantham gum.

So you do have corn in many forms in there in case corn is the problem. The top 4 intolerances are dairy, gluten, soy, corn (at least that we've found on this forum, and I'm willing to bet money on are the top 4 across the board at least in this country).

Isn't Fleischmann's Margarine mostly corn too?

[summer_rose]

When the pharmacist said that lactose was a "filler", would that be in addition to the inactive ingredients?? (Sorry, probably a dumb question).

The coffee creamer IS dairy free, it's soy based but I use very little and it tastes like s#%& anyway : The salad dressing is oil and vinegar based.

Everything that I'm eating (including tuna) is stuff I've always ate...so that's why I think it has to be the meds... because suddenly he's much worse.

He's throwing up more but he's hardly stuffed up today for the first time that I can remember...

Aaaaand....I haven't wanted to jinx anything but he slept better last night than he ever has!! I don't think it's due to the dairy elim though. I took him to the chiropractor AND we ditched the paci which I'm pretty sure was a huge sleep association that caused him to wake frequently.

[provocativa]

I would say eliminate the other top allergens from your diet, start infant probiotics, start major mama probiotics, and work from there.

[RandiFlowers]

Originally Posted by summer_rose

It's been just over a week since I cut out all dairy from mine and DS' diet and since he started on Prilosec. Yesterday he threw up three times and twice so far today. Before he would only spit up every couple of days and the amount was much less. It seemed to be more silent reflux with lots of wet burps.

Gaahhh! When did you sneak into my baby book and steal my diary!

The meds they gave our DS made things worse. Every time. Plus, we were stuck arguing with "country doctors" about whether or not such a thing as dairy protein allergy even existed. (Double GAAHHH!)

We found that it could take a few days for all traces of dairy to get out of my system (& milk), and once we eliminated the dairy & soy, he became the happy little baby we used to know.

I've lost many of my notes on diet, but I recall that so many different things had one form or another of dairy that it was tough to get rid of it all.

I ultimately wound up with a diet of turkey, rice, avocado & some simple fruits like banana and apples. Sticking to that diet for a week got things back to normal and then we'd add in food a bit at a time.

Once I was "clear" I was careful to maintain supplies of "dairy-free" milk so that if something slipped in accidentally, and DS reacted, we could bring out the "dairy-free" supply and get him back to normal right away.

The doctors insistence on the medicine to address the symptom (reflux), rather than focusing on determining the cause drove me nuts.

But once we got all those meds out of his system and cleared the dairy out of mine, all was well.

Google "hidden dairy" and "go dairy free" for a couple good starting points.

Keep at it -- you'll really enjoy having a baby again who can eat and then crawl around right away without losing his meal.