Well, we addressed Iain's DGE at our ped visit and she decided to wait for now as there is not much out there that she has found works. She maintains that prevacid should be doing something for him in that respect and I guess she is right as he has never intaked as well prior to the med. As he is on so much now anyway she also did not want to add another med and I do agree as I throw him to the ground and med him enough as it is. We are going to keep an eye on his intake, supplement like mad to see if we can bring him up in terms of calories and need for increase intake as a result to hopefully get him to increase eating on his own.

Really, I do not know. I am willing to try other things first but was wondering if she is right about prevacid helping?

I've never heard of that. I'd just assume that his intake is better because he's not in pain after eating (due to the Prevacid, that is).

I agree with Becky.

That is what I thought, too. Maybe it is because I said no to Reglan. I will address this with her again once we complete the changes we agreed to and see if it makes a difference.

Prevacid is not used as a DGE med but for the symptoms of reflux. I do have to agree with the others about his intake has increased due to lack of pain.

My son has severe DGE and the meds that are out there for it that are used most of the time at this point are reglan, zelnorm,domperidone,propulsid(these two are not approved, have to approval from the FDA for their use), and the other that is used is erthomycin(sp). The docs also use periactin as a appetite stimulant with alot of dge kids.

I do know this because my son has seen two motility specialist that have gone over the protocal on dge meds. I do wish you luck and hope that things continue to go well.

Melanie

Emma's NP at our ped's office believes that Prevacid (or any other PPI) actually causes DGE symptoms because it reduces acid and allows the food to sit in the stomach longer than "normal".

That's just her interpretation. It makes sense to me, though.

Sorry. Not much help. :oops:

Thanks Melanie. I am just worried that we will do the things she wants us to do and find out six months or a year later he should have had some DGE meds. We know he has it thanks to the milk test. I just feel like:banghead: over this at times.

We will artificially bring his weight up via supplementation. What drives me crazy is that I do not think he will be able to maintain it. He is not going to eat three meals a day as they all think he should.

Anyway, I will put this on the backburner for now and be a good patient's Mother and try the suggestions out. However, I do have my own timeline for addressing this again with the doctor.

That is good Leigh. I agree about later if he does go on it, you will be wishing you would have tried it sooner. I see both sides. I just think that if it may be possibility that it will help, than why not try it now and see? If his tummy is moving faster he may eat more and take care of 2 problems in one.

Exactly what I thought, Erin. I am frustrated presently as we have come so far so very slowly it seems. He is a million times better than he was but I would not mind a few leaps ahead, you know?!

I see the ped again in a month and will talk to her about it again.

Totally understood, Leigh :smt047 I'm frustrated too for you, I guess we just have a hard time being patient because it is our own. I bet if it was her child she would go ahead and try the DGE meds, probably would have already!

I dunno, Leigh. That just doesn't sound quite right to me. Eh, what do I know? But Ian is on prevacid and still had to take something for the DGE. In fact... now that I think of it, that was one of the sure signs that he wasn't ready to come off his meds. When we stopped the prevacid, he got horrid diarrhea and diaper rash and was always pooping. Once we got him medicated again, he went back to 1-2 times a day poops.

I agree with everyone, prevacid does not help with DGE. I have heard the theory that prevacid may contribute to it worsening because of such low acid in the stomach but I don't know how true it is or isn't. I would push for it if you really think he needs it. What doesn't make sense to me is her idea to not try any because she hasn't seen overwhelming success with any of them. It does work for some kids or they wouldn't ever be used....what if your kid was one of the kids it worked for? If it didn't work and he went off of it, you wouldn't be much worse off than now. It sounds like to me that you have nothing to lose in trying it, only things to gain. You can always bring it up to her with that perspective.

I have to agree with Melanie and Carla about prevacid not being used for DGE and that Iain is probably eating more because of the reduced pain. We've had success with domperidone, and since it's approved here, it might be something that you want to look into. As for periactin, my personal experience is that doctors here in Canada only see it as an antihistamine and that they're just now hearing "rumours" about it working as an appetite stimulant. I've been told by a renowned (sp?) ped. that there is no scientific evidence that periactin works in that manner, but my experience here on these boards tells me otherwise.

I'd certainly be pushing for something like domperidone though. As we all know, not every med. works for every kid, but you won't know if it works unless you try it.

Sorry I missed this post earlier. I don't tend to check out this forum too often, as it's still a pretty sensitive area.