Weaning off omeprazole at 9months?

[ilovetosleep]

Hi, hope someone has even through similar and can help.

My DS had significant silent reflux and started on ranitidine at 3 months and when that stopped being effective we moved to omeprazole at 6 months, the paed was reluctant to prescribe but it worked. 10mg per day which is a middle ish dose I think. However the paed was more convinced his reflux was a result of intolerances and we both (BF) have been wheat, dairy, soy and egg free since then. Things have improved enormously and he has been more settled than ever bar the sleepless nights.

The paed wanted to wean off omeprazole ASAP because it can worsen allergies, and because things have been going well we were a bit blasé about reducing dose to 5 mg per day. Things were fine for about a week but I think things have been getting gradually worse. He is fighting bf again, wriggling and squirming throughout a feed and struggling to fall asleep feeding which is the only way he knows how! And he's very restless in his sleep.

The thing is I take omeprazole myself and I know that the effects are pretty immediate, so I'm not sure if it's even possible for him to see these effects more than a week after halving the dose? I don't know what to do really, on the one hand we really don't want him to be on the meds but I really don't want to go back to the days of feeding aversion and a baby in agony.

Has anyone been through this, should I up the dose and wait a while or persevere? Everyone around me seems quite keen to get him off the meds.

Thanks in advance.

Bump?

IME you get terrible rebound acid production when trying to wean off Omeprazole. Ds2 was on it from 4-16m. We'd had several previous attempts to get him off it halving the dose and every time after a few days he was terrible. Had some advice from posters on the Little Refluxers forum who had actually done it ( rather than paeds blithely saying just halve the dose) and got him off very gradually over about 8 weeks in increments of 2.5mg, reducing the dose every fortnight from 10mg down to zero. Bit of faffing about cutting up tablets and still a noticeable unsettled period every time,but nothing we couldn't ride out. I know of people who had to do it 1mg at a time.

Thanks for the reply.i don't know what to do now but what you've said makes sense. If it is 'rebound' acid production, will it tail off soon? It's been 2 weeks since we halved the dose. we had a hell of a night last night where he woke and fed every two hours but an hour after each feed he woke crying in pain. But easily settled. Feeds are very stressful with him flailing around everywhere but he doesn't cry, he's just very uncomfortable I think. During the day he is clingier than ever, and this evening he's woken already 3 times with a yelp, and some coughing and congestion. But, if this is a peak and it will improve then I'm loath to increase the dose back up.

He doesn't sleep well at te best of times and barely eats anything in the way of solids. Wend hoped to be able to start some sort of gentle sleep training but there's no way I'm going there if I'm in any doubt he's not in pain.

How long would you give it before going back up to 10mg?

Don't know sorry, DS was so terrible when we halved the dose we put it straight back up. The pattern on smaller increments seemed to be ok for 3-4 days, uncomfortable for 3-4 days, then we'd wait for a week to let things settle before dropping again. If you've done a fortnight and it's still awful I'd go back up, either he's not ready to cope with a lower dose at all, or he can't cope with a 5mg drop in one go.

Hi, I know it’s been long ago but I’m having the same experience with my little one. She has been ok omeprozol since 4 months and she is 8 months old now. We reduced from 14mg to 10 mg and she is having a difficult to sleep now again. I’m just wondering how did you manage? And now long did it take?

Hey there,

Just wondering if you ever got your LO off the Losec? My little boy is nearly 10 months and I'm.anxious to get him off it however its started to effect his sleeping. Which he wasn't great at in the first place. Loads of night waking and I've only reduced his 10 ml to 8 so I'm thinking ill have to go back up again.

Hi, I had to increase the dose back because she could not sleep at all. Her naps were very short and nights were really bad.
I’ll give another try in couple of months. We seeing paediatrician 1st of May and ill ask her how to do it and if there are anything else to give her to ease the process. Because I have googled and read that some antacid could be taken temporary.
I’ll update you here.

Can I ask you, was it just sleep that was affected when you reduced the dosage? Or did you notice your LO was in pain too?
It seems to only be affecting my LOs sleep and questioning myself whether it's the Losec or he's just having an off day.

it was the pain, she kept waking up coz the acid kept coming up. There were few hours when her sleep was very deep and she could rest but only for couple of hours. Her naps were 5-7 minutes.
Now much better since I increased the dose back.

Hi @Jololols and @Saltanats, I’m in the same position here with my 9 month old.
Can you please tell me how your ones are now? Are they off of medication and ok?

Hi, I stopped the medication when she was 11 months old. She was on 14mg and I reduced 2mg every 8 days. After reducing for the first time , she was a bit fussy on the 3rd day and 4th day, then she was fine. I made sure she was ok before I reduced the next dose.
She has been off the medication for 3 months now and she is good.
Hopefully your little one will outgrow of it soon.