Hi all,
For what it's worth, I wanted to post about what we just went through with DD in hopes that someone else might not go through it, or will recognize what is happening and fix it before it causes permanent damage. The post will be long, but if you ever have a GERD or Reflux issue, you should read this.
In early March, on a Friday night DD starting complaining that she "couldn't swallow the spit," and was wiping her mouth out with a napkin. We cancelled our Friday night date, sent the babysitter home, and took DD to the farmacy (here in Costa Rica, you can go directly to a pharm. and bypass the doc in certain cases). My first thought was strep, and her throat hurt too much to swallow.
Pharm doc said she didn't see evidence of strep in DD's throat. She asked if we had treated for parasites (should be done yearly here). We had not, so we did the de-worming treatment over 5 days. DD continued to complain about not being able to swallow the spit, and gradually stopped eating many different foods, eventually stopping altogether, except for drinking yogurt.
Ped. and I thought it might be helicobacter pylori, which is common here, and can cause reflux. Ped prescribed Zantac. After about 5 days on Zantac, DD started eating again.
First week of April, 2 weeks into the Zantac treatment, DD comes home from school and says "I have two eyes, Mama?" I said yes, and figured that this was something that they were learning about in pre-school. That was on a Tuesday. By the end of the week, DD was sleeping with a mirror, and carrying it everywhere because she had become obsessed with a fear that her eyes were falling out. Her teacher was freaking out, DH and I were freaking out. Here is a 4 year old who is experiencing terror that her eyes are falling out, later it moved to other parts of the body, she worried that her neck was broken, her arms were falling off, her feet were broken, etc.
It was constant throughout the day, probably every minute or two that she would ask and cry, and get distraught. We did not know what to do. So I started researching Zantac side effects (after about a week and a half thinking that she was trying to get attention). Turns out, Zantac can have neurological side effects.
Please see http://www.reflux.org/reflux/webdoc0...m?OpenDocument for an excellent study of the side effects, and difficulty diagnosing them in pediatric cases. In some cases, the effects can be irreversible.
I called the ped here in Costa Rica, and to date, she has never returned my call. Feeling pretty desperate, I called her ped in the U.S., and he said that what DD was experiencing was definitely a reported side effect of Zantac, and to stop it immediately. We stopped the Zantac, and it took a full two weeks before she was totally de-toxed from it, and another two before her terror of being away from me subsided. By the end of May, she was finally back to normal.
This was a frightening episode for us, and DD was in anguish. It was painful. The ped here in Costa Rica never once mentioned that Zantac could have this type of side effect.
I hope that our story is helpful to someone someday, who might misunderstand what is happening in their child, just as we did.
Judi
For what it's worth, I wanted to post about what we just went through with DD in hopes that someone else might not go through it, or will recognize what is happening and fix it before it causes permanent damage. The post will be long, but if you ever have a GERD or Reflux issue, you should read this.
In early March, on a Friday night DD starting complaining that she "couldn't swallow the spit," and was wiping her mouth out with a napkin. We cancelled our Friday night date, sent the babysitter home, and took DD to the farmacy (here in Costa Rica, you can go directly to a pharm. and bypass the doc in certain cases). My first thought was strep, and her throat hurt too much to swallow.
Pharm doc said she didn't see evidence of strep in DD's throat. She asked if we had treated for parasites (should be done yearly here). We had not, so we did the de-worming treatment over 5 days. DD continued to complain about not being able to swallow the spit, and gradually stopped eating many different foods, eventually stopping altogether, except for drinking yogurt.
Ped. and I thought it might be helicobacter pylori, which is common here, and can cause reflux. Ped prescribed Zantac. After about 5 days on Zantac, DD started eating again.
First week of April, 2 weeks into the Zantac treatment, DD comes home from school and says "I have two eyes, Mama?" I said yes, and figured that this was something that they were learning about in pre-school. That was on a Tuesday. By the end of the week, DD was sleeping with a mirror, and carrying it everywhere because she had become obsessed with a fear that her eyes were falling out. Her teacher was freaking out, DH and I were freaking out. Here is a 4 year old who is experiencing terror that her eyes are falling out, later it moved to other parts of the body, she worried that her neck was broken, her arms were falling off, her feet were broken, etc.
It was constant throughout the day, probably every minute or two that she would ask and cry, and get distraught. We did not know what to do. So I started researching Zantac side effects (after about a week and a half thinking that she was trying to get attention). Turns out, Zantac can have neurological side effects.
Please see http://www.reflux.org/reflux/webdoc0...m?OpenDocument for an excellent study of the side effects, and difficulty diagnosing them in pediatric cases. In some cases, the effects can be irreversible.
I called the ped here in Costa Rica, and to date, she has never returned my call. Feeling pretty desperate, I called her ped in the U.S., and he said that what DD was experiencing was definitely a reported side effect of Zantac, and to stop it immediately. We stopped the Zantac, and it took a full two weeks before she was totally de-toxed from it, and another two before her terror of being away from me subsided. By the end of May, she was finally back to normal.
This was a frightening episode for us, and DD was in anguish. It was painful. The ped here in Costa Rica never once mentioned that Zantac could have this type of side effect.
I hope that our story is helpful to someone someday, who might misunderstand what is happening in their child, just as we did.
Judi
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Anyhow thanks for the post and link. I hope lots of moms see this!!
