ok to tell the doctor what you'd like them to prescribe?

[KleineMaus]

DS2 has reflux which is just getting progressively worse. He was prescribed ranitidine a couple of weeks ago and it did absolutely nothing, in fact the reflux has just got much worse (gone from being up with him every 3 hours at night to pretty much every hour!) Went to the doctor today, really hoping she'd prescribe losec, which I've read lots about, and all she did was increase the dose of the ranitidine. I'm such a wimp, I just didn't feel I could ask for losec. From what I've seen of the doctors in the practice, none of them know much about reflux. One told me I should just let DS sleep in his car seat(!)
I asked the GP today what the next step would be if the ranitidine still doesn't work and she suggested trying bricanyl, which is for asthma. He doesn't have asthma!!! He spends half his time swallowing stuff back down, doing painful sounding burps, having violent hiccups, can't lie on his back, the only time he's ever slept for any decent length of time has been upright in his car seat. Surely it's reflux. She also suggested that DS1 might have put something really small in DS2's mouth at some point, as I mentioned that his breath smells really bad!!! To give her her due, she has referred him to the hospital, but that might take ages and I'm starting to feel a bit desperate. Would it be really bad to tell her how to do her job and ask her to prescribe losec?

I think asking would be fine.
Try bringing it up in a non confrontational way, perhaps mention an article that you have read

i ask my doctor to prescribe certain thing in ds isn't well. They're very good about it, if they think its not the best treatment they'l tell me why.

you need the losec mups which are soluble tablets so that the dose can be tailored to his weight. The doc needs to take a bit more notice IMO of the fact that the ranitidine isnt working. Too much acid on his oesophagus is not good long term and can cause persitent coughs and ulceration. I would definitely ask.

I am sorry, I know nothing about reflux but to answer your question in the thread title - I often suggest certain prescription options to the GP. ds has recurrent health issues that require antibiotics and some work and some don't. I know from experience which is which so always say so and I've never had a problem. Similarly, when breastfeeding I had thrush - asked for fluclonazole and got given it after the GP looked it up. I think it's about how you ask and the reasons you give. I think it must be v tough to be a GP - how can you possibly know every detail of every drug?

Of course you can ask!

Sometimes patients ask me for things that would have never crossed my mind to prescribe - either because they are so horrid to take most people don't want them or more normally because they aren't really appropriate for that particular patient for some reason - if they don't ask, I can't guess what they want and so can't explain my thinking and neither of us is happy. I try and guess some of the common things people might want or worry about but then I run the risk of looking like a weirdo going "its not cancer" every 5minutes

Personally I'm quite a fan of losec as a reflux treatment in babies but there are side effects and its worth talking them through with your doctor. Interestingly a lot of children who don't respond to anti-reflux meds do respond to asthma treatments so your GP isn't completely barking but yes losec is probably worth trying before that with those particular symptoms.

COI: GP