[penstamon]

How long did you have your LOs on meds? How did you wean from the meds and how did you know they were ready? If you did not use meds, what did you do?

DS has silent reflux which was discovered due to his inability to sleep past 20-45 minute stretches. He was put on a lower dose of Zantac a month ago and we do not want him on it long, neither does his ped. It seems to be interfering with his digestion of solid foods. We have had great success with a chiro and CST recently, so DH and I started to wean him (giving him 1/2 dose 2x day). It was obviously too early because the poor thing was up screaming all last night with reflux and can't nap today for the same reason. We have tried elevated sleeping positions, elimination diet, gripe water, etc. to no avail. Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated!

 

[pixiekisses]

Have you tried Gaviscon with him?

 

[Kailey's mom]

How long did you have your LOs on meds? How did you wean from the meds and how did you know they were ready? If you did not use meds, what did you do?
QUOTE]

DD was on meds, it took forever to get the "right" combo. Zantac did nothing, prevacid helped. Carafate was amazing and helped. I wish I would have known what was really wrong with her when she was an infant, she wasn't diagnosed until she was 2.5

Turns out, reflux was just a symptom. She has eosinophilic colitis. After eliminating all foods, she's able to be off her meds. Eosinophilic Esophagitis is something most GI's like to rule out when an infant is presenting with persistant acid reflux. Has your dd had an endoscopy?

 

[mamakims]

My ds had reflux and was on zantac. It seemed to work for a little while but stopped after about 2 months. He was on it for about 6 months but what worked best for us was Iberogast which is all natural and you can get it over the counter. Our pediatrician had never heard of it but approved of all the ingredients and said it wouldn't hurt but wasn't sure it would work.
Also we were told to add probiotics to his diet which helped a bit too.

 

[Kiwiontheloose]

Our 8mth old DD is on Losec (Omeprazole) for her reflux. Its apparently more effective than gavascon and zantac. Anyway, we have tried weaning her off to no avail either. Our specialist said that every 3 months we should try lowering the dose, and if it doesn't work, wait another 3 months.
We had the same prob- waking every 20-40mins - not fun!

 

[sbgrace]

Zantac will stop working for a true reflux baby (and yours is based on your description) as the body builds tolerance. For that reason it's easier to wean off as the baby naturally starts to build tolerance in time. It's also not going to work long if the baby truly needs it. I don't know why your doctor would think a baby would need zantac and then not need it a month later? I'd be more inclined to add in digestive enzymes and probiotics to help with digestion while continuing to treat the reflux. If you don't have to increase doses as he grows you'll know he's weaning off.

My son that was on zantac just outgrew it, we never increased his dose, and then we just stopped when I wasn't seeing evidence of it anymore. It was not a big deal. But his reflux wasn't severe like his brothers. His brother ended up vomitting blood from damage and had swallowing aversions for years. I so wish we had treated aggressively from the start. But after the throat erosion thing he was placed on a PPI (Prilosec and then Zegerid). He was on them from three months until he was 3.5. We tried weaning several times but would get to one dose (of three) and always fail at trying to drop the second and go through horrible pain to get things back at three doses. PPI's are harder to wean off as the body produces excess acid when you pull them. Zantac shouldn't do that. The best way to wean is supposed to be switching to zantac for one dose at a time until it's all zantac and then stepping down I think. At 3.5 he was hospitalized for an emergency and I didn't have his Zegerid and hated the idea of giving it to him in the hospital where he might pick up who knows what so I didn't ok it for his meds there. He did fine. He's six now and never had another dose. I guess he was just ready.

 

[penstamon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sbgrace Zantac will stop working for a true reflux baby (and yours is based on your description) as the body builds tolerance. For that reason it's easier to wean off as the baby naturally starts to build tolerance in time. It's also not going to work long if the baby truly needs it. I don't know why your doctor would think a baby would need zantac and then not need it a month later? I'd be more inclined to add in digestive enzymes and probiotics to help with digestion while continuing to treat the reflux. If you don't have to increase doses as he grows you'll know he's weaning off.

Thanks for the replies mamas!

The current hypothesis behind DS's reflux is that he was born with torticollis, which subsequently has put pressure on his vagus nerve and also slightly torqued his esophagus and the pyloric sphincter in his stomach- thus causing reflux. We are treating the torticollis with chiro and CST and have seen great improvement in his sleep, his reflux, and his torticollis over the past month. The ped did not expect he would need meds- "just to get over the hump", so DH and I had taken it upon ourselves to wean him recently. I was reading that kids can become dependent on zantac (or any of the reflux drugs) causing hyperacidity during weaning, especially if it is done too quickly. So this may be what we are experiencing. DS now has a dry cough- I think because his esophagus was burned during the wean. We go to the ped in a few days, so hopefully she will give us more insight. He has been on the same dose of zantac since the start (over a month ago), and as I said it is a lower dose for his weight and he has gained around 1.5 lbs since he started it, so this all contributed to our thinking that we could wean. We obviously need to have a better plan to wean in the future!

He is on an infant probiotic, but I am interested about the digestive enzymes. I haven't found anything for infants. What do you use for your children? I will also look into the iberogast. Anything to not use meds!!