Ranitidine for Reflux

[Julezboo]

DS3 is 5 months old now. He was born 5 weeks early weighing 7lb 3, quickly dropped to 5lb 8 within 14 days and we have had slow weight gain since!

He was diagnosed with a cmpi at 11 weeks and silent reflux. I assume it was silent because he wasnt vomiting! He has never been a sicky baby tbh.

He had a follow up appt at clinic on wed last week. Hes been miserable and they said he should be having 2 sachets of gaviscon per feed but cant because 2 sachets needs to be mixed with 8oz bottles. He only takes 5-6oz each feed max!

So they switched him to ranitidine and since then hes been vomiting all his feeds back every time :(

He's still only gaining 2-3ozs a week in weight and weighs 16lbs now at 5 months. I am worried hes going to start dropping weight!

Did anyone else experience this with ranitidine, should he be on something else to stop the feeds coming back up?

Hes on nutramigen as well if that makes any difference!

Can't help re ranitidine cos cutting out dairy did work for DS but just to say that as long as he's gaining it's fine apparently. If it's any consolation DS weighed 18lbs at 9.5 months despite being born above the 75th centile due to his reflux. Could you ask to try a different formula? Nutramigen still can cause reactions in a small number of children (according to DS's dietician). Wrt to gaviscon it can cause constipation at that dosage anyway so I wouldn't worry about giving him half or less. I gave up on it with DS cos he was in agony with blocked guts. I ought to get DS weighed actually now that he's nearly 12mths!

My dd is on 7oz bottles and has two gaviscon in that. The dosage is to do with the baby's weight, not the volume of milk I think. That's what my gp said anyway and my dd was much better on two sachets. We did that at five months old and we avoided ranitidine.

If it's any consolation it took DD a year to get to 16lbs.

It doesn't sound like the ranitidine is working out for you. I have heard of others, so hopefully this will bump it up the you and someone with more knowledge can come along.

Have you checked out the reflux support thread?

You can make up the gaviscon with 2ml of boiled water into a paste, add another 3ml and syringe it in. It makes a big difference. Also ask to see a paediatrician who can prescribe more effective treatments. The ranitidine is an antacid which will help make vomiting less uncomfortable but I think you need to ask about domperidone and omeprazole which are wonder drugs IMO.

Ilovegregory is right Btw, gaviscon is dosed on baby weight, not milk. All this is on the packet insert incidentally.

Remember that bf babies can have Gaviscon too and obviously you can't mix it with that much milk for them. I used to mix the sachets with just enough water to be able to syringe it in. Perhaps speak to a pharmacist? If there is any issues about the volume of milk then ask what they would do for a bf baby. I think maybe you've just had some poor advice on making up the gaviscon, but get some medical advice first before changing anything of course.

It's.on.the.packet.
Just read the insert - there's instructions for what to do with breast and bottle fed babies. And then syringe it in.

Should've said, DS is bf and I made it up with water and syringed it in but 2 sachets was far too much for his poor little guts!

Same here (silent reflux), gaviscon was just too difficult to administer over and over again, several times in the night etc to a screaming baby by any method. So we are on ranitidine too but not having the effects you said. There are alternatives: my paed said if ranitidine doesn't work he would try Domperidone or Omprezole, or even both. It's worth asking for advice. I also found giving up milk helped (and then 2 months later dd was diagnosed with milk allergy).