Best way to give ranitidine?

[scienceteachermum]

Not sure if this should be under health thread but......
DS2 is 10 weeks and has been on ranitidine for reflux for the last 10 days. I was just wondering if people could share their experiences of giving this medicine. At the moment he has 1ml 3 times a day and it tastes vile, he spits a lot of it out and cries so much its awful.
Any advice would be great.

Are you bottle feeding him? If so then can you mix it into his feed? If yuo are breastfeeding then could you express some milk and mix it in with this?

Isn't ranitidine more for the tummy acid? DS2 was given it as his colic seemed really quite painful but after a week we stopped as another ped said it was better for babies to adjust to the acid rather than kill it off. 6 weeks on he seems fine now!

Could you try gaviscon instead?

He is bottle fed now (after 3 bouts of mastitis in 5 weeks!) but doesn't drink much and can't guarantee he'll drink whole feed so would not get full dose, plus it tastes revolting so think it would make milk taste horrible. But yes, I had thought of this, or i could make up a separate bottle with a small amount of milk in and add it to that.....but thats 3 extra bottles a day - am I being selfish?

Take the teat off the bottle and put the teat in babys mouth. then put the ranitidine into the teat - by the time baby realises that it is not the milk he is expecting it is usually too late. then put the teat back on the bottle quickly and give him his milk
this is how the hospital did it with my little ones and it works for a while - they do catch on eventually though. next stage for us was trying to slip the syringe unnoticed into the side of the mouth during a bottle feed. yet again this works for a while but by that stage you may not need to give it anymore
good luck

I would make a smaller bottle that you can guarantee he will drink! How can you be selfish when it's your child's comfort you're talking about?

1ml is so tiny, just syringe it as Fitzy72 suggests.

Thanks for all the tips. I am not being selfish, just trying to find a practical solution! I will try the taking the teat of idea first I think, it might be worth a try until he gets wise to it!

Hope you're doing better now. Don't know which formula you're on but I found Enfamil AR a great formula for my DS as he has reflux too. He loves it - more goes down & generally stays down. Not on display in most chemists but Boots can order it in on a day's notice.

I gave my DD it for reflux too... are you using a syringe?

You're right, it tastes rank - luckily for me DD liked it for some reason!