Hi Ladies... Can anyone tell me why reflux babies usually fight with constipation? My Reid has never had a nice soft poop since he was born.
He sometimes goes days without even doing so. Should I expect a change now that he's on Zantac? And just for the record- we're going into our fifth day on Zantac and I already notice a change in him. So we're very excited and not getting our hopes up all at the same time.

Hope your doing well!

Hi Steffi -- I noticed that Daniel's poops got much softer when we switched him to Prevacid. Last summer he was very constipated, and we chalked it up to the fact that he simply didn't drink enough to keep things soft and moving along. Also, we think D has delayed gastric emptying, and our ST theorizes that it's all related -- food is slow to move out of the stomach, hangs up in the bowels too long, etc., so why would he want to eat??? (When D was on antibiotics and having bad diarrhea, he actually swallowed some food! Hmmm.....)

I'm not really sure why some GERDlings are constipated and others are not. Like Becky, I would guess that it has something to do with how little they drink, but also what they eat and what meds. they are on. Evan has never (thankfully!) had problems with constipation. Now that he's medicated and feeling better most of the time, I'm able to ensure that he gets lots of fluids (watered down juices and milk), as well as lots of fruit purees on top of as healthy a diet as he can handle each day.

I hope that you see continued improvement with the Zantac!

Children with delayed gastric emptying and slow motility have constipation problems as the the longer the waste stays in the intestines the more water is absorbed back by the body. Hence, the constipation.

Leigh

I'm totally guessing here, but the amount of fluids taken in would/should have a big impact on bm's. Even with adults, if too little fluid is taken in, especially over a period of several days, there just isn't enough to flush the system (so to speak). Increasing water consumption, along with fiber, is necessary. With GERDlings, you can't really do that. They may not be eating more and more solids (thus deficient in fiber) and they are often not consuming enough fluid. THe meds many GERDlings are on also affect the system.

I've noticed that before Ian was on Prevacid, his poops were nasty runny messes. Now that he's been on it for awhile, they are definitely different... more together, kwim?