Omeprazole - 6 months old

[FromWalesAndBackAgain]

My son will soon be turning 6 months, and has been on omeprazole since being around 3 months for suspected silent reflux. He has been settled for about 2 months now - still not an excellent night time sleeper but calmer feeds, seems to not be in pain when he does wake in the night and easier to settle.

I am concerned about keeping him on a drug, not technically made for babies, for longer than he needs to be. I spoke to the GP about weaning him off before I start weaning him onto solid foods, so we are currently reducing his medication by 2mg every 5 days (he was on 10mg - we are currently giving him 6mg).

He is getting more unsettled at night, thrashing around more during feeds and being a bit more miserable in the day (though not to the levels it originally was) but I don’t know if this is because:

a) he is not ready to be weaned and we should give him his full 10mg dose again
b) this is the process of weaning babies of omeprazole and we need to ride this phase out (I have read that your stomach can over produce acid when weaning off the meds which can cause discomfort for a couple of weeks)
c) actually this fussiness and lack of sleep is down to something else (he is in a stormy week on his development and I think he is starting to teeth).

Anyone have any experience of weaning a baby off omeprazole and what it was like for you?

many thanks

My dc has been in Omeprazole for 6 years now. If they need it just keep them on it until the reflux is resolved.
Reflux is agony.

I would keep him on it. Once he starts teething it can really aggravate his reflux (it definitely did for my daughter).

You are giving him medication that stops his pain and that's worth remembering

I would also keep him on it but get it reviewed by the GP on a regular basis. I have been on omeprazole for 15 years when I probably shouldn't have been as there is a link between long term use of proton pump inhibitors and increased risk of osteoporosis and stomach cancer, however this has never been mentioned to me by any GP until I questioned it, then they agreed I need to come off it. It does intensify symptoms when stop or cut down, as you say, or it may be that he is still experiencing the original problem.

Oh I didn’t realise teething can make it worse. It’s so hard as there is no test they can take to say yes it’s 100% silent reflux, so always felt nervous about putting him on it in the first place (most things say omeprazole is an adult drug and not tested to give to children and studies keep coming out with issues on the long term impacts of taking it) - especially if it was something else/just his digestive system taking longer to develop.

a few reflux sources advise that weaning off omeprazole can cause over production of acid in the stomach for several weeks - so it’s hard to know if his symptoms now are due to that or that he still needs the drug for managing reflux symptoms 🤷‍♀️

Hi @FromWalesAndBackAgain could you let me know how your son got on and did he wean off it ok? My child is currently 14 weeks and we keep having to increase her dose when I really want her to be off it soon. I have seen people say weaning on to solids has helped. Thankyou

@Eimz90 sorry you are going through this - are you finding the medication helping? Do you know what dose your son is currently on? I was nervous as the first GP I saw put my son on 2mg - then the second doctor I saw put him on 10mg which was quite a jump - but once we got the dose right for his weight it really did make a difference after about two weeks. What is annoying is omeprazole is that the dose is based on their weight so you feel like you are constantly going back for reviews and upping the dose as they grow so quickly at that age.

I decided to wean my son off omeprazole before starting solids, as I wanted to see what reaction solids was having on him without any drugs. We reduced 2mg a week for 5 weeks and then started introducing solid food at about 6 months and 1 week. The weaning was absolutely fine and his symptoms were so much better once we introduced solids - he also hasn’t had any reactions to foods, he has cows milk etc and no reaction.

Hope this helps xx

@FromWalesAndBackAgain aw thanks so so much for your reply!

it’s amazing that your son was able to come off omeprazole before weaning and that it all went so good. My dr has suggested weaning at 17 weeks and I’m not sure as my hv was pretty adamant that I shouldn’t and said about nhs guidelines. The medicine has definitely made an improvement she’s on 7mg and weighs 15 pounds. Her silent reflux seems to still be happening hours after a bottle when her next bottle is due (so 3.5 to 4 hours later) it was a clear acid coming up so I’m unsure if food will help but I’m hopeful. Sounds so silly but when I started to see improvements on the meds I started to reduce the medicine in the hope it was her system developing more but I could start seeing her get so uncomfortable again. She always seems to have a lot of wind and it seems as if that is bringing the acid up too. Do you know what weight your son was when he was put on 10mg as I keep wondering if she should be on more even though i don’t want to have to increase it but if it’s only going to be a short time and to make her more comfortable I would need to. So glad to hear he was good with milk aswell as we were on neocate for a few weeks and I didn’t see much difference- she was put on it because of so much mucus in her nappies but it didn’t really help. Her nappies actually seem to have a lot less mucus on the aptamil but her poop is still so loose and comes out like an explosion of farts and it’s seems so strange that she strains so much to get it out when it is essentially liquid. I can’t really see anything online about acid reflux effecting poop although her cheeks do flare up while drinking aptamil so she maybe has a slight intolerance. My dr doesn’t think it’s an allergy or she would have blood in her poop or be in pain constant. It’s so hard to work out

Thanks for taking the time to reply xx

Hi, I know it’s been a while but I’d like to ask how was your experience with omeprozol? My little girl is 8 months old and on 14 mg omeprozol. I reduced the dose to 10 mg within 10 days and her symptoms are getting worst now. She cries a lot especially at nights and having trouble to sleep. Im thinking to increase it back to 14 mg again. Tbh I’m not sure what to do.

I would speak to your prescribing doctor. The first step for reducing omperazole is to stop adjusting it for weight this means as they get heavier the dosage reduces. Say they were on 10mg and were 4kg that dose is 2.5mg/kg and grow to 5kg the dose is now 2mg/kg and a 6kg 1.6mg/kg. Then you can start reducing the dose so dropping from 10 to 8 in a controlled fashion

My daughter has been in omperazole since 7 weeks she's is now 3.5 and on 40mg a day as well as domperidone once a day and we every time she has a growth spurt she needs her meds reducing. Before trying to reduce the omperazole I would make sure they have had a growth spurt that didn't require the omperazole dose to be increased. Teething and colds can also make reflux worse so I would hold off for a few weeks if you have a bunch of teeth coming through or are in peak cold season!

Thank you for your reply. I will be booking another appointment with GP, but paediatrician who saw her when she was 6.5 months old said that we should stop the omeprozol when she will be 9 months. My mum is also a doctor but from my country (Kazakhstan) and she is a bit old school so she was the one who scared bout the omeprozol that it shouldn’t be given for too long. Apparently, they prrescribed it maximum to 8 weeks there. I also had online consultation with Russian paediatricians who also were against omeprozol from the first place:(
I had to give coz she was so much in pain and it did help her. However, now I have can’t stop thinking that it’s been longer than 8 weeks 😃🤦‍♀️

My mum has endoscopes every 3 months to monitor the damage to her oesophagus caused by uncontrolled really over the last 15 years. There are also risks of doing nothing with reflux

My daughter has seen 3 paediatricians over the last 3 years and none have expressed concerns about her being on omperazole. They have been more concerned about her development which has been delayed at times due to her reflux and also the domperidone that she also takes is only licensed to under 12s and they keep her on as low of a dose as she needs due to side effects.
Whether a medication is safe changes all the time. The medication I took in Pregnancy in 2020 was not classed as suitable for pregnancy until 2018 when a meta data review (where smaller studies are combined and critiqued) found there weren't any risks associated with it. At the other end a few years ago rantitidine was withdrawn from paediatric use due to concerns. We are in a unique position in the UK as the NHS has a data set of 67 million which few medical providers globally have. This was particularly notable during covid when the NHS was often ahead of the game in figuring out which of the possible treatments would be best. The NHS and NICE are both very cautious about paediatric medication. It was never our plan to be still on omperazole at 3. We were told we would be able to stop between 6 and 12 months as 90% of babies outgrow their reflux by 1y unfortunately my daughter was in the 10%. We just have to go with symptoms and ensuring my daughter has a good wellbeing

Oh yes that’s my another concern that reflux is delaying her to meet all the milestones she should be already sitting up already by now but she can’t, every time I try to sit her up she arches her back and cries so I pick her up. I may have to give the medication until at least she can start walking. Coz that’s when they should be up right most of the time. I have read so many quotes in here and now I’m more relax coz lots of people are having omeprozol for longer than even a year.
I hope your girl will grow out of it very soon. It’s so heartbreaking when you see your baby crying and in discomfort.

My daughter was 18 weeks before she smiled for the first time. This was a week after being put on the highest dose of omperazole and I went dairy and soya free!
She did get a lot better during the day once she could sit up and walk but overnight worse than ever. She's had a pillow since 10 months and now when it's bad she has 4!

I’m finding that incline position does not help her. in fact its making it worse, and when I keep her on my arms, she still refluxing in up right position. GP, HV and paediatrician said that she will grow out of it.
do you give your little girl smaller portions of meal? I thought that smaller portions would help to reduce the acid production,
I’m hoping it will help as I started giving her small portions now.

When she was little I couldn't move her and she had to be fed lying down and then not moved an inch if I tried to move her upright she started refluxing immediately. I breastfed and I did so lying down feeds and coslept for naps and overnight.

She doesn't eat a great deal and can go through periods of eating very little - struggling to get her to have one meal over 2 days! She didn't engage with weaning until 13 months and was 20 months before we could stop formula as prior to this she didn't eat enough to sustain herself. For us food has made every little difference positive or negative.

@Eimz90 I have no experience of omperazole in babies but I was given it during chemo as I was getting reflux and the effect on my poo was just as you describe with your baby - it was awful. I stopped taking it and my digestion was back to normal after a couple of days. Maybe your doctor could give your baby some other medicine for the reflux?

Omg, this is exactly what I’m doing. I can only breastfeed her lying down because she is not comfortable in any other position. For this reason I cannot go out much to meet friends etc. and HV was concerned about my wellbeing and mental health 🤦‍♀️
I’ve explained her everything but she still think that I should be able to go out and breastfeed her.
I also sleep in the same bed during naps and night sleep. She doenst like to be on a baby career too. I’m just hoping that she will outgrow of it. I’m literally counting every day until she turns to 1 year old instead of enjoying the time with her. I understand that I shouldn’t but I can’t help.
Hope your girl will be better soon too.

Thought I'd add to this with my dd's (now 14yrs old) tale...

She was a (non-silent!) Refluxer which turned out to be an early sign of her hypermobility (ligament issues). She was on omeprezole and domperidone from a few weeks old until she was 2 as I recall.

She was a slow developer- walked at 21months, didn't speak until 2yrs. But none of that stopped her. Infact she has a really strong stomach now. Can eat spicer food than most kids her age and has a great palette!

I remember it is scary and the towels and changes of clothes we went through... but things will come good. Keep believing in them!

I'm interested in the hyper mobility and reflux. I'm slightly hyper mobile and my sister is very hyper mobile. My daughter has severe reflux which still requires a lot of medication at 3. I've not noticed any hyper mobility but I haven't looked either. She walked at an average time but was cruising early. Her speech didn't develop until 2 and we had delays around 4.months before we started adequate reflux treatment

Just putting my two pence in here, reflux in general is caused by what we're eating. It's very common in babies for them to have it when they're on formula, try goats milk formula (when age appropriate) instead as this doesn't upset the stomach. If they have reflux and you're solely breastfeeding then it's most likely the position/not being burped enough.

I don't know if you're sponsored by Big Goat, but there really isn't any evidence for such a claim, and rather odd to resurrect such an old thread to make it.

My child was on ranitidine (no longer available) until 2.5 years. If they need it, they need it. Don't wean him off too early.