No Ranitidine! What's an alternative?!

[DontBiteTheBoobThatFeedsYou]

That's not Omeprazole?? That makes his reflux worse.

12 month old DS still suffers with reflux and Ranitadine is a life saver. He wakes every 10-15 mins otherwise. All night long. It's horrific.

Omeprazole massively made it worse.

Gaviscon did nothing.

Help!

My doctor changed me on to cimetidine - he said it's basically the parent of ranitidine and was available before it. So far seems to be working similarly to ranitidine

The amount of babies on PPIs is terrifying from this thread, alone 😳

Babies need their gut flora and need their acid to keep that in check, PPIs long term can cause so many long term problems. Unless prem or somehow underdeveloped physically, reflux is almost always diet relate. Prescribing PPIs is the shittest way ever to deal with it in infants. Scary as.

Andys I find the tone of your message insulting. Most parents with children on reflux medication are at their wits end with continuous vomiting, refusal to feed and failure of their infant to thrive and don't need you calling out their choices as shitty. They are doing their best.

I agree that changes to diet can help (my first was allergic to all dairy and soya - and blimey was that a trial to get support and help for) and he was on reflux medication until this was sorted but in some cases, reflux medication is all that seems to work and Drs give very/no help in supporting a parent to help their child go dairy free.

In the case of my eight month old son, he has a congenital airway disorder that causes reflux. He's already had one operation and may face more. He needs these medicines to ensure he actually drinks milk and gains weight.

Not just dairy - my son was also dairy soya snd gluten. Remove ALL allergens for three weeks and then challenge one at a time. You can't expect him to take medicine for this his whole life you need to work out what the issue is. Which takes time and patience/ go to your GP and get support.

I’m on lanzoprazole due to the shortage
My DD had omeprazole when she was a baby but ranitidine was better

I believe the stock should be slowly coming back now, it was all recalled but is making a comeback slowly

Most children do not need to take it for life, they seem to grow out of it. It’s also to do with their posture, once they are more upright and sturdy it helps with the reflux. Babies are all saggy and floppy!

Andys have a

You can't expect him to take medicine for this his whole life you need to work out what the issue is. Which takes time and patience....

My ds will almost certainly be on medication for life, and his gastroenterologist and paed are now discussing an operation.

We have had plenty of time and patience, as ds is 9 and last year was diagnosed with a rare genetic condition. His severe reflux and gastro issues are part of this condition.

What is with the dogma on this thread? Some relux/gerd can be improved or eliminated with diet modification, but some cannot due to other factors too much production of gastrin, pyloric valve dysfunction, motility issues, gastroparesis, thyroid problems, a ton more. You may be able to resolve some but not all. Constsnt acid regurgitation can cause pre-cancerous changes in the oesophagus, so taking the medicine is a necessary evil. I sincerely doubt anyone wants to give it to their children or take it themselves. It's a case of pillar and post.

As for doctors..some are knowledgeable others are absolutely clueless and will hand over the meds and knowledge and interest stops at that.

However I would advise everyone with reflux to consult an integrative gastroenterologist privately if they can. Or a decent alternative practictioner for a rounded perspective IG is a particularly good thing to do if you can afford to.

My third was on ranitidine for a number of months. I have huge guilt about it.

At the time, she wasn’t sleeping for more than ten minutes at a time, couldn’t lie flat and spent every day screaming. With two other children to care for and no family help it nearly destroyed me.

Ranitidine did help and then I worked out she was reacting to onions, garlic, tomato, wheat and dairy and anything spicy, through my milk. I had her probiotics, kept breastfeeding whilst living off the blandest diet ever and gave her slippery elm powder to soothe things.

We limped on and I gradually reduced the medicine and I kept breastfeeding her for 2.5 years.

I have so much guilt about the medicine but I think I might have collapsed without it to get me over that patch

Do you anyone in the States? What I take is famotidine. It is another H2 blocker and is quite benign to take. Sadly I can't find it in the UK, but it is readily available in the USA from stores like Walmart, Sam's Club, Walgreens and most drugstore chains and supermarkets. If you know someone over there, order it and have it mailed to them and they can send it to you and avoid expensive shipping costs. It's about $20 for 200 tablets and shipping is usually $14. That's about £28 for 6 months supply. I have had GORD for over twenty years and this stuff keeps me virtually heartburn free. Good luck.

Famotidine, another H2 blocker and just as effective as ranitidine, can be purchased through eBay.co.uk. Make sure to order the ones that are shipped from UK. Some come from USA and are expensive to ship.