Reflux - coming off meds

[happylittlebear]

DS has been on ranitidine since 3 months 0.5ml 3x a day. He is now 6.5 months and eating well.

We were always told that eating would be the biggest factor in helping his reflux and on gp advice i started weaning at 4 months, although this has helped massively with his reflux he is still being sick after milk and at random points during the day. :(

Can anyone else with refluxers give me some advice as to our next steps? I have appt with gp next week to discuss things and would like to be prepared as to what i should ask and what are our options....

Should he be coming off the ranitidine now? Should i be asking for a referral to paeds if he is still being sick now he is eating 3 meals a day?
How long did your lo's reflux go on for?

[sparkle101]

Am watching this with interest as I am in a very similar situation. How much does your DS weigh as mine is 14lb and on 0.8ml 3 x day. We have an appt at hospital in a couple of weeks with paeds for the reflux so will post back when I have been.

Remind yourself of the list of symptoms and check what he still suffers from and grade whether they are getting better. That's the only advice I can think of I'm afraid.

[happylittlebear]

Thanks for the advice.
He weighs 19lb 6, I did ask about upping the dose a while ago as he got bigger but gp said he was at max dose and prescriped domperidone alongside it. I found that made it worse and he had terrible stomach cramps so we stopped it.
He has a vomiting bug at the moment so even more sick than normal :(

[angel1976]

My DS2 is now almost 15 months and he's on 2.5ml x 2 a day. He's tiny as well, just over 9kgs (about 20lbs) at the moment, bottom of the chart...

My DS2 wasn't diagnosed till he was 10 months old so our experience was that he didn't stop throwing up milk till 7 months old and he threw up solids as well till he was about 10/11 months old.

We are seeing a consultant that specialised in paediatric chest issues and his opinion is to wait till spring (basically, to get over the whole winter bugs) and then to wean DS2 off the meds. To be honest, I think it's only now that he seems to be getting over all the reflux symptoms.

[lobsters]

From memory I think DD came off Domperidone when she was about 8 months, we tried earlier, but she just started vomiting again and being uncomfortable. She was off ranitidine at about 10 months that was cold turkey, but her dose was tiny (0.27ml from memory), the doc said not increasing the dose as she got older was one way of weaning her off it.

She was never able to move onto normal formula, (she was on Enfamil), but we moved onto cow's milk at 12 months and that was fine

[twinterror]

Hi my dd was on ranitidine and when we took off it reflux started again, then tried again a copule of months later and it was fine - so don't be disheartened if does not work first time.. I cannot remember whether the dosage was reduced (or whether that was another of her medications) or whether it just stopped - I think it was reduced gradually

goodluck

[happylittlebear]

Thanks for all the replies, good to hear that it did go on a bit longer for others too.
I was getting worried because gp and hv kept telling me "once he is eating it will all stop" and it hasn't :(
He is doing so well though, he is a big boy and growing well so hasn't really affected him too much.
Hopefully my gp will have some suggestions this week.

[larrygrylls]

Hi,

The dosage is 1-3mg/kg 3 times daily and the normal concentration (always check) is 15mg/ml. For a 9kg baby, the max dosage will thus be 27mg 3x daily, equivalent to 1.8ml three times per day. I think you need to get your gp to check the dosage or get seen by a paediatrician.

They don't really stop vomiting until they are more upright and even then it is a slow process, so 10 months to a year is more normal.

As for weaning off it, you reduce by one dose per day per week (i.e first week, just do morning and evening dose, second week, just morning dose). If vomiting/discomfort increases, you just add the does back in.

[angel1976]

larrygrylls The concentration for our Ranitidine is 10mg/ml so we should be within the limits. Anyway, the plan is to start weaning DS2 off it soon. He seems so much better! :)

[larrygrylls]

Angel,

9kgs is not so small at 15 months. I think our 19 month old weighs 10kgs, and we are chuffed he is doing so well. He suffered terribly from reflux as a baby and went down to the 0.4th centile. He is still skinny but eats quite well and has tons of energy.

Your dosage sounds pretty reasonable. You can always try to wean him off it (reducing 1 dose per day per week). If there are any problems, you can add the doses back in again. I think we took our son off it at about 10 months but he was pukey for a while, so maybe we were a little too early.

[angel1976]

Thanks for that larryhrylls. It just feels like he is so tiny as all the other babies/toddlers I see are way bigger than him. There's a 5-month-old baby at the playgroup we go to who is bigger than him! I checked the dosage and you are right, it's 150mg in 100ml. I've started reducing his dosage though... Gone down to 2ml x 2. Th plan is to do that for a month and in March to go down to one dose so that by spring (as recommended) he would be on nothing... Fingers crossed! My DS2 sounds like yours, he's tiny, but does put it away sometimes and has lots of energy.

[Stac2011]

my dd went on ranitadine at 3mths with carobel milk thickeners, we started solids at 17wks. We stopped ranitadine at 5 and a half months but kept using the carobel. She will be 7mths on sunday and we stopped the carobel last week, everythings been fine. We were told if she looks acidy to give her some ranitadine as it will help like heartburn tablets for adults. It differs in every child all you can do is a try and see how you get on, good luck