Ranitidine and Reflux Woes!

[livelyredjellybean]

My almost 6 week old DD has been suffering with major discomfort for a few weeks now. She arches her back, spits up after every feed, only seems comfy when upright (and being bounced - exhausting!), extended screaming and crying fits whenever she was awake. Throughout she has put on weight but her feed length is shortening and she is waking up more frequently.

Initially we thought it was Colic and used Infacol. This didn't really make much difference. She is burped after every feed and passes wind well.

We then moved on to Gaviscon. The only differences this made was it reduced the spitting up and seemed to delay the screaming fits after feeds, but they still came! Indeed they continued to get worse and it became (and continues to become) more difficult to settle her.

We saw the GP again who switched her to ranitidine on Friday. After 1 dose, she had an amazingly peaceful night! Saturday day time also went well. She was however constipated so I gave her a little water. I stupidly gave her her evening dose of ranitidine far too close and since then, she has returned to it seemigly making little difference to her.

Has anyone else experienced an initial improvement followed by it worsening again on ranitidine? How long does it usually take to have an effect? Having an extremely low day and feeling like I am utterly failing my little girl.

Thanks for reading x

My dd had reflux as a baby (she's now nearly 12!) and was on ranitidine. One thing I remember about it is that the dose needed is very weight dependant and a small gain can make it ineffective- I know that's unlikely given you've only just started her on it but did tell gp work out the dose on her current weight? I also think it has to have time to 'build up' in their system do might take a little time to see full effect.

My little boy suffered terrible reflux. We saw a dietician as they were concerned it was an allergy but turns out it wasn't, we were prescribed carobel which can be mixed with formula or expressed breast milk to thicken it which prevented the vomiting. This made a massive difference in itself but the real change came when I hassled for an appointment with a paediatrician and we got omeprazole for him. I had to hassle and not complain constantly and I hotness my HV to push it from her side too. Changed him within 2 days, he started sleeping through and was just so much happier, I didn't need to change his outfit 3 times a day too from all the vomit. The paed I saw said that the ranitinde isn't normally enough unfortunately. Also the carobel is completely natural so doesn't cause any constipation, which we also had probs with when he had gaviscon to start with!

Sorry for all the typos, using my phone and my son isn't trying to pull it out my hands

Thanks for your replies.

She was weighed right before the GP worked out her dose, so it SHOULD be right...!

Gp told us that due to being on ranitidine we would be referred to a paediatrician; wait and see when we will hear from them.

Interestingly she is spitting up MORE now on the ranitidine than she was before.