When to wean from Zantac?

[ChubbaBubba]

My son was diagnosed with reflux when he was a few weeks old. His paediatrician prescribed zantac and he has been taking it 3 times a day. It has worked a treat, with most of the pain symptoms disappearing within days of starting the medicine. The paediatrician said that when he was six months old we could try and wean him off it. He said it was a matter of reducing the amount he was having and didn’t seem to think we would need to go back to see him.

Now that my boy is six months old we have dropped down to two lots of zantac per day and were going to wait a week and see how he goes. Then we were going to try and drop it down to one lot per day.

I am worried about what the effects of reducing the zantac could be, and if it is dangerous for us to wean him off it ourselves without taking him back to the Dr. Also, if we reduce the amount of zantac he is having, and his symptoms come back, should we just keep going, or go back to the prescribed amount?

Thanks for your help

[RISA]

Hi,
It is great to hear how successful you were in controlling your son's reflux, but please don’t feel that you cannot go back to your paediatrician or your local doctor if you have concerns. That is, after all, what they are there for. I am not aware of any problems with weaning babies off Zantac, and don’t think it would be dangerous, but as a reflux parent myself, I can’t specifically help with medication concerns like that. It would be best if you spoke with your doctor or pharmacist about those concerns. I can’t see that it would be dangerous to wean him off his medication though, given that the paediatrician was happy for you to wean your son off Zantac without specific medical guidance.

How does your son seem to be coping with the smaller dose of Zantac already? Do you have any particular concerns, or are you just worried about that eventuality? It is good that you are aware of the possibility of reflux continuing to be an issue despite him reaching 6 months of age; while most children will be able to be successfully weaned off their medication at that age, there are some who won’t be. They may need to continue with medication for a while longer.

Any time we tried weaning our son off his reflux medications when he was younger, we kept in touch with the doctors, and learnt not to continue weaning once we started seeing signs the reflux was getting worse. (We also discovered if we ignored those signs, it took us longer to get control of the reflux back).

Please continue to trust your instincts, and if you are concerned, or have any queries, speak with your son’s doctors. As a parent, you want to do the best for your child, so seek medical guidance at those times.

I hope that helps
Glenda