Reflux or lactose intolerance - Zantac not working

[Mamadothat]

Hi, my 5mth old DS is breast fed. He has reflux, but I am wondering if the cause is a lactose intolerance. He has been on Zantac for 11 weeks and it is not working. Today has been a nightmare, barely eating, burping constantly and thrashing around BUT he has fallen asleep OK, which I don't understand. My HV says that some babies with reflux symptoms can have a lactose intolerance even if their bowel movements seem fine...like my son's. Anybody have similar experience with Zantac/reflux? We started Omeprazole today and will see how that goes.

My DS had silent reflux and only really got upset when I was trying to feed him - as soon as the milk was taken away he would be happy. He ended up getting a food aversion and failure to thrive. Then we saw a great consultant who put him on Omeprazole (Losec). The consultant also said that if he had seen him when he was younger he would have put him onto Neocate - I have heard that cows milk protein intolerance is common in reflux babies. He said Neocate doesn't taste very nice so it is difficult to get older babies to take to it.

Losec was the drug that eventually got my son's reflux under control - took a few weeks for him to realize that milk didn't have to = pain, but then the difference in him was amazing. Losec actually helps heal the damage done by the acid as well as controlling the reflux.

Good luck - I hope it works for your DS.