Coming off reflux meds

[TheZee]

Hello. My dd is 8 months old and has reflux with some food intolerances (dairy and soya) and slow weight gain. She was put on domperidone and omeprazole (losec mups) when we got to see the paediatrician at 4.5 months. She started solids at the same time. Since then her reflux has been loads better - hardly ever being sick, and her weight gain has steadily started improving. At the last appointment with the paediatrician a month ago he said to slowly take her off the meds, which we have gradually done. She has started spitting up more regularly, only small amounts but 5-10 times a day, and has started arching her back when being fed. Her appetite seems to have decreased too, but she does also have a cold at the moment. I just wondered what others experiences of coming off the meds was - particularly the omeprazole? I did read somewhere that things can get a bit worse immediately after coming off them, so I don't want to react too early and put her back on them. Thanks in advance.

I have no direct experience but from what I have heard coming off the omperazole can cause problems because they suddenly have much more acid than they're used to to deal with. colds can exacerbate the reflux too so maybe it's just bad timing. If you don't get any replies that help here (which I am sure you will) you could try the forums here

Thanks jacanne I will stick it out a bit longer and hopefully she'll be ok. I hadn't come across that site before, very useful.

Hello again, just bumping to see if anyone else has gone through this. Have decided to put her back on the omeprazole after 10 days with nothing as she's definitely in some pain. Quite disappointed she still needs it, but I guess we'll be able to try again in the future.

Hi, we tried taking DS off omeprazole at 6.5 months and we didn't manage. We tried again at just over 8 months old and we was perfectly fine. I agree that colds can make reflux worse so maybe not the best timing. I'd say try again in 6 weeks or so. How much omeprazole is your DD on?

Hi, thanks for replying duende. She was on 10mg of the losec MUPS, half in the morning and half in the afternoon. I've actually held off putting her back on them as she seems to have settled again (apart from some exorcist style vomitting the other night that i think was caused by her overfeeding). But its difficult to know as I am back at work so her dad and the childminder may be interpreting things differently from me when they say she's been fine in the day... I also think that for some reason my breastmilk may make it worse - when she's not with me she has a very minimal amount of Nutramigen and water instead to drink. This stuff is going to be so much easier when she can talk and tell me what's what! Good to know that even if I need to put her back on now she may be ok to come off later. I'm glad to hear your DS is better now.

TheZee, my DS was also cow milk protein intolerant, he has been on nutramigen since 4 months old. (He's now tolerating dairy well but we haven't been able to wean him off nutramigen yet.)

With him, there was no mistaking reflux for something else - he would absolutely scream the house down for hours on end and would not feed. I was shell shocked for months. Mumsnet saved us as it was the lovely ladies here who "diagnosed" DS and made me push and push our GP until we got a referral to the paed.

Anyway, glad your DD is better, I will be keeping my fingers crossed for you.