Zantac Question

[Mrs Little]

Hiya All.

Will try to keep this brief.

My son has recently started on Zantac ( about 1 week ago). He is responding well to it, but because we left it so late to start he has a lot of healing to do- possible ulcers and irritated skin?

We are finding that the worst time is in the morning before his 7am feed. His last feed is anywhere between 9-10pm. His stomach seems to produce a lot of acid over night. So he wakes anywhere from 4.30am to 7.00am grunting and groaning because of the pain. I have often gone in thinking he's hungry, but his little eyes are trying to stay closed...he often trys to fall alseep between the acid attacks.

I am aware that when you first start zantac it can take up to 2 weeks to have a full affect. But when using it in the meantime, it takes about 20 mintues to help with the feed that follows. We have seen this happening with day feeds when we give him his zantac dose.....he wont take the bottle till his had his 20 minutes after the zantac.

How early can i give him his first morning dose?....if he wakes at 4.30....can i give it to him then, so he can go back to sleep?...or should zantac always be followed with a feed?

I hope this makes sense.

Mrs little & Son.

[Nathans mun]

Hi Mrs Little
Were you told to try Mylanta? I was told that I could use 1ml of mylanta when necessary to calm Nathan but you might want to check first with the chemist or your doctor.
I also was never really told that I had to feed after the Zantac.
Do you have his bed elevated? I found that putting a pillow under the cot matress to elevate Nathans head had also helped.
Sorry I cant give you a definate answer :o but these ideas may help, its hard to see them in pain & trying to sleep.
(Hugs)

Karen

[lucyp]

Hi we started on Zantac too. It did not work for us - but I hope it works for you! We usually gave it to him a little bit before his bottle - or on first waking.

The suggestion of elevating the cot worked very well for us - infact we had 2 phone books under each leg of the cot - and that made a really big difference to his sleeps. The cot is acutally still elevated!! ( one under each leg now!)

Good luck:)

[Caitlin's Mum]

Hi Mrs Little,

I don't always give a feed after giving the Zantac - I just give it when I remember (I'm a bit forgetful!!) I give about 1.5mls of Mylanta if he is really unsettled when trying to go to sleep and this seems to work. I'd give it to your bub when he wakes in the morning and see what happens. Hope it helps.:)

[Mrs Little]

thanks girls.

I have tried everything....we have been booked in to a gastro entoroligist (sp?).

We are seeing our GP tomorrow......i would like to see if we can increase the dosage....


My days are full of screaming and arching backs...till he falls alseep and wakes again crying because he's hungry...but then wont eat then either.....it's becoming quite emotionally draining....watching my son cry and sucking his dummy so hard because he's hungry...yet not taking the formula.

I am beinning to wonder if it's something else stopping him from eating....but i'm running out of ideas....i'm beginning to worry for his health as he's not eating enough.

Mrs Little & Son.

[Lunar]

Mrs Little,
you need to give it time to work. Elevation helped alot with us too. You can give Zantac anytime as long as you don't exceed the prescribed dose and the doses are the right time apart. I would wait till you see the doctor before giving him anything else. Don't be too concerned, just give it time to work and if it doesn't then you can try something else.
I know what it's like with a reflux baby, DD had it for what seemed forever and she was also lactose intolerant. She would cry all the time and woud sick up everywhere. Her nappy bag was filled with around 15 bibs and at least 4 changes of clothes (and 1 for me lol) and that was only for an outing of a few hours.
Hope your bubba gets some relief soon.
Good luck!

[Caitlin's Mum]

Hi again, I think I've suggested before to try changing to lactose free formula. My son has reflux and is also lactose intolerant and was always screaming in pain with a sore tummy. As soon as I changed to the lactose free formula he was a happier baby. Maybe you could give it a try. If your baby is not lactose intolerant the formula certainly won't do any harm, it still has all the good stuff in it. It's a lot gentler on their little tummies. Good luck.

[Mrs Little]

Thanks girls for your reply.

We have had our son tested for lactose intolerance and it came back negative...so i haven't changed formula.

We have been using the Zantac for nearly 2 weeks....i thought that was long enough...? My son has silent reflux...if thats what it is....because he doesn't really chuck up......

Whats difficult to understand though is that he doesn't fight every feed....i thought reflux was always there?

Mrs Little & Son.

[dylansmummy]

Hi Mrs Little,

Our son was on Zantac for months and months, it was a life saver. It does take time to work and as he grew we had to increase the dose as we went. The doc prescribed it before a feed for us too. We had the cot elevated which helped a great deal also.

Time does heal and it does get better. I don't know how old your little one is but the first 6 months of our sons life were very very hard. After that things got easier and just got better and better.. We have recently discovered he has an intolerance to wheat - so there may be other food allergies playing a part.

All the best

[Tizi]

Zantac doesn't always work for everyone.
It didn't work very well for us so our peadiatrician put bubs on Losec which works a little differently to Zantac. We found it to work much much better so maybe that might be the way to go for you too.

[andrewsmum]

Zantac didnt really work for my DS either, and neither did the Mylanta.

In the end we stopped giving it to him and he eventually grew out of it (at about 8 months old). IT was really difficult and he was always chucking up (the pediatrician called it 'possetting' but it was three or four cloth nappies soaked with the stuff every feed????

As the others have said - raise the cot and your son may be able to sleep better, even though he's in pain.

best of luck with the gastroenterologist - they may be able to help.

[mervyng]

You should be finding out why there is the problem not suppressing the symptoms. Acid in the tummy is there for a very good reason, to suppress it alters the whole bacterial flora further down. Thy a change of milk as cowmilk intolerance is the most common cause of this. Soy, oat milk etc See <www.acnem.org> for a list of docs in your area to see. Merv

[Miss Tazar]

Hi
Our DD is on Zantac and this has helped tremendously with her silent yet painful reflux.
I don't think it matters whether you give it before or after a feed, it is more important to try and space the doses according to your prescription (ours is 1ml every 12 hours)
Our DD still grunted and groaned with the Zantac so we also changed formula and this helped for us (we changed from Nan HA to S26 Gold)
In addition, we also thickened her feeds with Guarcol, which you can get from the chemist, and this helped keep the food down as well.
Finally, we are seeing results, but it did take 2 weeks for the Zantac to make a difference.
Also, if you decide to try a different formula our paed said to try it for 2 weeks before changing again because bubs take a while to adjust to the new formula
Please PM me if you would like more info, keep trying things, eventually through a process of elimination you will find what works best for your bub. I get the most tremendous buzz out of our DD now and our life has changed from the terror and screaming to contented gurgling and we love it, hang in there.

[Mrs Little]

Thanks Merv for your concern.

I have been taking my son to see a naturopath for a while now...and she can't do anything for his reflux as good as zantac can. She is treating him for a leaky gut...which is the when there isn't enough flora in his bowels- which is what u mentioned. It's working great.

Also....reflux is simply caused by the weak muscle over the top of the stomach that stops the food from returning up bubs throat. I have had bubs checked for everything...there is no reason for his reflux other than what i mentioned above.

Cows milk intolerance would be evident if he showed some kind of rash or irriation. He does not have this.

We have been using zantac now for a month...and it's great. No more screaming...however i do think he needs to have some thickener added to his formula. He still finds it difficult when going to sleep ( bed is on a slight incline too!) or even just keeping it down after a feed (even when held upright after feed).....we see his little eyes go red and his hiccups start. Poor thing. This then means his next feed he takes less. Will be seeing the GP about that this week.

Thanks Roxi for your reply. I too have finally found someone who could verify the dosage and the way to give zantac. It should be 8 hours apart ( or evenly spread depending on the amount of dosages you give a day- we give 3). I had a nurse determine with a very scientific calculation (which was too difficult for me to keep up with :) ) how much he should be given. He is on the right dosage.

I don't want to go changing formula again...i've done that twice and it didn't make a difference...but i would like to give- adding a thickiner to our current formula- a go.

Thanks everyone.

Mrs Little & Son.

[jakeys mum]

My son was diagnosed with reflux at 6 weeks. He would often throw up through his nose aswell as his mouth. Nights were broken up with bad sleeps and endless crying. he is now 9 months old.

i'll tell you the things that worked for us.

Prop the back legs of the cot with a book under each, even a slight angle can bring relief and keep things down where they should be.

When he was little we invested in one of those battery operated swings which he slept in during the day on his bad days. cost us $200 new but was the best money i ever spent. the lay back enough to make sleep comfortable but upright enough for peace. i know you can pick them up cheaper 2nd hand.

Infant gaviscon and mylanta etc.. were not a lot of help in the long term but were beneficial if things suddenly flared up badly. we gave zantac twice a day increasing the dose as he grew at our doctors instructions. i often gave doses in the middle of the night if things were flaring up and often without following with food immediatly. We also were instructed that it was okay to use panadol once he was old enoughif night time flare up occured. but not as a regular thing.

Look out for hiccups they are a warning sign that things are not staying down where they belong. get in then and tou can avoid the big flare ups.

Dummies work like chewing gum for adults by producing saliva, which is the bodies natural defence against the acid. this is a medical fact and actual medical essays have been written giving evidence on there help with reflux babies. My son wouldnt take one at first but we put breast milk on it for a while and soon it was working.

We switched to formula at 3.5 months and found that reflux formulas and thoickners caused constipation and hassles with sucking so we used regular infant formula with no worse effects than breast milk but many find that thickners help a lot.

Now for the good news. at 9 months my little one only needs his zantac when he's teething, which for some reason stimulates the old problems. ive been told this is normal and can also occur after immunisations and sickness. He sleeps like an angel at night and we have lowered the cot to normal.

Finally i want to tell you that you are not alone. The early days are the hardest but once you find the things that work for you and your little one you will never look back.

hope this helps. Jane

["whatmorewashing?"]

Jane

Thanks for your thread. Can I ask, when you noticed the hiccups what did you do to avoid the big flare up? Mylanta or Zantac? or something else?

whatmorewashing?

[jakeys mum]

i used mylanta.

since he would take a dummy by the time i worked this out i would give him that as well. I know a lot of people dont like dummies, i personally wasn't going to use one. i found that it did really help i wish i could remember where i read the med. research essay on them for reflux but it was a while ago. my little man now only uses his for reflux and doesn't look for it otherwise but if you chose not to use one i understand

[KatherineIV]

My little man was perscribed Losec (Perscription only.. not over the counter) at a week old due to severe reflux... breastfeeding was a nightmare... to be honest we paid over $30 for this medication and I couldn't bring myself to feed him pills at such a young age... the box still sits in our medicine cainet (never opened)...

We tried Mylanta and others but nothing seemed to work... we also tried the basics including elevating his cot. trying to angle him better when breastfeeding... but my milk supplies were a HUGE issue and between his relfux,my lack of supply and the fact he weight stopped increasing we stopped breastfeeding alltogether at four weeks as a recommendation of my lactation consultant, doctor and Clinic nurse.

I never used Zantac and therefore don't know anything about it... I wish breastfeeding had been a little easier for us... I feel as though my son missed out due to a number of reasons.

I think it's a personal decision... I did alot of reasearch on all the itmes recommended to me...

If you find one that you are comfortable with and it works for you ... go for it..

Hope I have been somewhat helpful