Reflux & Meds - what worked for your LO?

[imonlysleeping]

Hey Girls, My LO has had reflux since he was born and we have been stuggling with getting the right meds for him with GP's fobbing us all the time. Finally we've found a GP that actually listens to me and is helpful! Anyway he's been on Gaviscon which constipates him badly even with lactulose, weve tried ranitidine and weaned him off gaviscon and he was much worse with his relux, and he has now been prescribed Domperidone (3 times daily) & Omeprazole (once daily). He is now 17 weeks old. Anyone else tried these meds? are they better than Gaviscon & Ranitidine? Does your LO have one of these or both?? GP said he could make a referral to the paed but he thinks the waiting list will be huge and that there would be no point? What has helped your LO & their reflux??

We had domperidone and ranitidine after gaviscon didn't work. Worked well for us.

Gaviscon worked well for us but he wasn't totally happy until he came off dairy products.

omeprazole worked great for my DS, domperidone didn't make any difference. he has also needed to be dairy free.

We started with gaviscon, domperidone and ranitidine - which helped maybe 75-80%. But after a couple of months the ranitidine stopped being effective by which stage we were under the paeds care. They switched my DS to omeprazole together with the gaviscon and domperidone and combination worked well (didn't stop him chucking up, maybe lessened a bit, but let him be happier and stopped him being inconsolable) until he outgrew reflux.

Thanks girls I'm hoping the new meds will help if not I'll try staying away from dairy and see if that helps xx

My son had gaviscon first, and just as you did, we found it made him terribly constipated. Then (only after being referred to the paediatrician) he started on ranitidine and domperidone, then moved on to omeprazole and domperidone. In retrospect I wish we'd tried the omeprazole earlier but I didn't realise then that the body tends to respond to ranitidine by creating more proton pumps in the stomach, i.e. trying to create more acid. So it is only of use for a limited time - although some babies may have grown out of the reflux during that period and won't need to move onto any other drugs anyway.

It might be worth giving the omeprazole twice or three times a day instead of once, as babies metabolize the drugs faster than adults. Check out the MARCI-kids website as they have done child-specific research on omeprazole and other PPIs. You can also direct your GP or paed to their site to show it's not just some crackpot idea but backed up with real research.

I rather suspect your GP wants to keep the treatment 'in house' as it costs less for the surgery/NHS trust to be treated by a GP than a hospital doctor. However it seems to me it would be worth getting a referral as the paediatrician will be more specialist than your GP and (hopefully) should have seen more babies with reflux. Ideally you would get to see a paediatric gastroenterologist, but I think that's a real postcode lottery. (Certainly in our area children have to have severe 'problems' to be seen by a specialist. But that's a digression...) Once in the hospital system you might get access to a dietitian too. Personally I didn't find the dietitian very useful but as soon as we saw the paediatrician I found it was such a relief to be seen by someone who truly believed how serious my son's reflux was, rather than trying to fob me off all the time.

Many babies with reflux are sensitive to cow's milk and soya protein so it is certainly worth trying to cut one or both out for a few weeks. This had a huge effect on my ds1's colic but sadly never worked for my ds2.

DD was on ranitidine and domperidone. She was also on Enfamil AR a prescription formula, if you bottle feed it might be worth a shot. We did see a paed consultant regularly (fortunately my BUPA covered it)