I was hoping to see a difference quickly, but we are on our 5th day, and still no big difference. Avery's reflux (silent) is worse now than it ever has been.

It's so hard when your baby's in pain and you're waiting for the meds to take effect!! :banghead:

If I remember correctly, it took awhile before we started to see results with Prevacid.

A few questions for you:
1. Has Avery been on any other meds before Prevacid, or is this the first med that's been tried?

2. When are you giving the meds?
3. Does Avery tend to be worse at any particular time of day? (For instance, if you're giving the Prevacid in the morning, do you notice more problems in the evening, when it's wearing off?)

:hug: Hang in there...this is tough. Feel free to vent--this is a great place for support!

Hi I responded to your post about feeding therapy. If she has only been on medication for 5 days I would give the medication a chance to work before seeking the feeding therapist. It may take a few weeks until she is eating more regularlly and she "forgets" that eating can be painful while the acid stops production and her esophagus heals from previous acid exposure. Hopefully the medication will give her the relief from pain she needs. IF she does not seem to be better in the comming weeks do consider all the questions Mary asked and do not hesitiate to talk to your doctor if you don't think the medication is giving her effective relief.

Take care

My 3mos old son started Prevacid 8 days ago. I too think its only become worse. I kept him on the Zantac hoping that both with give him some relief but its hard to tell because he also has a cold. I'm going to give it another week because of the cold but we went from waking up once per night to every two hours. Does your baby get bad gas & abdominal pain with Prevacid? Is it safe to give any kind meds for his cold with the Prevacid & Zantac?

Thanks for your responses. To answer Mary’s questions:

Avery has been on other medications before now. She started on Zantac, which didn’t seem to do a lot for her. Her ped recommended Prevacid then, and we tried it for a couple of days, but I thought she had trouble with it—she screamed nonstop, so I stopped it on my own. Looking back, I think the problem was we stopped the Zantac and then started the Prevacid, so there was a time when nothing really was in her system to help her. We then started Pepcid. She seemed to do well with the Pepcid until recently, we tried increasing her dosage twice, but no real difference. So her GI doc wanted her to try the Prevacid again. We are to take the Pepcid too until Friday, when we are supposed to stop that.

We give the Prevacid twice a day (1/2 of a solutab) once in the AM and once in the PM, they are about 12 hours apart.

Avery really doesn’t seem to be in pain, just has a lot of gagging, swallowing, hiccups and wet burps. She is a silent refluxer so we don’t have the spit up. She has also had congestion since the first of December without any relief—I thought from a cold, but now that I read more, I see that that can be an affect of the reflux. Avery is also a pretty good sleeper—we have to wake her up twice a night to get a couple of feedings in—she normally doesn’t wake on her own during the night, sometimes she will get up once. I, on the otherhand, get very little sleep, as I am constantly listening for her to choke! (She sleeps in her bassinet in our room still). Avery’s biggest problem is her lack of interest in eating. (I posted about this in the feeding issues thread). She is on Alimentum mixed to be 27 calories/ounce. She will usually take the dream feeds ok, and the bottle at bed time she normally takes ok. The rest of the daytime feeds are a different story. She will not usually willingly take the bottle on her own—we have to be very persuasive—singing, walking around, dangling toys, etc. and then she may take 2-3 ounces, rarely 4 ounces. I partly wonder if the taste of the formula is playing a part—it is horrid tasting stuff. GI doc wants us to experiment with some other formulas as no one was certain she had a milk protein problem. We go to the Ped today for her 4 month check up, so I am going to talk further to him about the formula.

Leonor—The first time we tried the Prevacid (see paragraphs above), I thought Avery was having stomach problems, but she seems to be doing ok this time around. Just doesn’t seem to be working is all. I think most peds recommend not taking cold medicine much before 6 months of age. But I found the cool mist vaporizer to work pretty good for Avery when she has a cold. We tried the saline drops and suctioning too, but that didn’t seem to help a huge amount, and she HATED it. I hope your little guy feels better soon. I know it is hard when they don’t feel well.

Sorry for the novel! I really appreciate all of your posts and opinions.

It took almost a week for Em's Prevacid to kick in. She was on Axid at the time, and it took a few days before the Prevacid was running through her system to see a change.

Let us know what the doctor says about the formula.

It sounds like you have a good plan as far as trying other formulas to rule out a milk protein problem. They can be nasty tasting especially if your are concentrating the formula. You may want to ask your doctor about ways you might be able to flavor it.

Also you might want to ask your doctor about thickening her formula with cereal or other thickeners. It sometimes helps to keep the reflux material from reaching the level of the larynx where she might choke or gag. Be sure to ask about it before trying as some infants who gag and choke may have a greater chance of aspirating (having it go into the lungs) and aspirating thickened liquids can have greater consequences.

If she is choking or gaging while trying to swallow during feedings you might want to consider a swallow study to make sure she does not have any swallowing issues which would increase her risk of aspirating.

Give the Prevacid another chance though ... even though PPIs like it do not necessarily reduce refluxing, reducing the acid production can keep the LES from opening as often therefore less refluxing may occur. Great idea to keep her on the Pepcid while making the switch as sometimes when you go off a medication cold turkey (especially PPIs) you may get acid rebound which would increase reflux episodes.

Hope my own novel here helps.

I agree w/ the other posters--continue to give the Prevacid a chance for a little while longer. Also, what type of Prevacid is Avery taking (suspension, solutab, etc.)? We ended up switching to Prilosec b/c the solutab has milk solids as a filler (Bethany has MSPI and this did a number on her!).

First and foremost, keep your GI posted as to what's going on. If you aren't totally sleep deprived, try to keep a loose log of Avery's feeding/sleeping/choking episodes. This will help give a more clear picture of what's going on. Just so you know, my GI never looked at my logs; however, it made it so much easier for me to give specific info at appointments!

:hug: :hug: {{{BIG HUGS}}} I really hope the Prevacid starts working!

Mary I beleive that Prilosec capsules have lactose which is irritating to some with milk protein intolerence. Is she taking the suspension? If not just something for you to keep in mind. Prevacid capsules do not have lactose.

Thanks again for all the replies. I really appreciate all your support! It is hard going through all of this and no one seems to understand. Not that I am glad you all have to go through it, but it is nice that there are some understanding "ears" out there. Her Ped appt. today went well. He still doesn't want to do a swallow study, but I guess that is ok. We are going to try some different formulas, like I mentioned. He said to give the PRevacid another week before deciding if it was helping or not--also to continue the Pepcid during that time. He suggested some Reglan, which I have always been opposed to before. I am supposed to call him next week and let him know if we want to add that. I am on the fence about that drug. He thought a trip to a feeding specialist would be premature at this point, and I agree.

Pam--thanks for the link in your post to me on the other thread--it was very informative information. It also helped me to feel comforatable in putting off this type of appointment.

Oh, I forgot, Mary--Avery is on the solutabs (she was started on the granules, but we had a terrible time getting her to take them. She would wretch and gag and cough, the solutabs are going down better anyway). Interesting about the milk base being in them. We have supspected a milk protein sensitivity, but nothing was confirmed. Hopefully that will not be an issure for her--especially since the formula the Drs are wanting us to try is milk-based--Enfamil Gentlease

I dont have anything new to add other than what the ladies have offered. I just wanted to say hi. I don't think that I have welcomed you to the boards yet! So welcome!
By the way, my son was on the powder packets for months and was switched to the solutabs...they're SO much easier! You can even pop them in the mouth and let it dissolve there! Zac loves it like that!

thanks for the welcome, Sara. It is nice having all you that are experienced with this out there!