Recurrence of reflux symptoms following antibitoics - anyone's LO had this problem?

[Jen1978]

Hi
My DS is 11 months and on Domperiodone and omeprazole for reflux and has been since 8months, they have been wonder drugs - literally. But DS has recently had erythromycin antibiotics for an ear infection and got terrible diarrhoea whilst on them and now his reflux symptoms are back BIG TIME. He is in agony at night and his breath smells of acid and he keeps forcefully swollowing and making gagging sounds at night, all things he used to do and had stopped doing since starting the reflux meds. Does anyone know if erythromycin is known to interfere with the reflux meds? I think the omeprazole (acid blocking drug) is absorbed by the small intestine so maybe because he had such bad diarrhoea it prevented it from being absored and this is why his symptoms are so bad? He was meant to come off the reflux meds in a week or so when he is one but clearly he is not ready.

Any advice gratefully received.

Similar thing happened with my son when he was 8 months old and had course of strong AB for ear infections. I went back to GP who said that the AB's do affect the stomach lining and temporarily upped his omeprazole dose for a week, he also recommended pro-biotics to help restore the balance to bacteria in the stomach.

It righted itself within 5 days or so and all was well such that DS1 came off all anti-reflux meds at 11 months old.

I'd go back to your GP and tell him and see what he suggests to be honest, but if nothing else has changed it does sound like it could be the AB's. I know that erythromicin can particularly irritate the stomach lining - I'm allergic to it too!

Thanks Debscee that really helps, I think I will up his omeprazole dose for a few days, the paediatrician had said he could have the full tablet if needed in the past but we always got away with giving him just 6mg rather than the full 10mg. He has an appointment with the paed' in a couple of weeks so will see what he says then. Have ordered some probiotic powder anyway so will definitely give him that as well.
Really helps to know that we are not alone, it is just such a shame when he has done so well on the anti reflux meds.

It's good that you already have the option of increasing to 10mg. That's what DS1 was on and was upped to 13mg. Was a while ago now, but DH also remembers it and thinks it wasn't very long after AB's stopped that he got back to normal again.

He may still surprise you and be totally fine when he comes off the meds. It threw us for months after DS1 stopped having meds because we would always (wrongly) assume that every problem was his reflux back again, but it never was. Now it's a distant memory. DS1 is almost 4.

Hope all goes well for you

dd2 has been on Domperidone and Ranitidine since 8 weeks (now 17 months) and tends to get some degree of reflux resurgence with diarrhoea - AB induced or not. If you can increase the dose temporarily, great - we couldn't, but we did give her plenty of probiotic powder in her milk the first time and it helped very fast. (GP recommended it).

Now, we automatically give probiotics whenever she has the runs (nearly always AB induced!) and raise the head of her cot even higher than normal. HTH, and also hope your LO is better soon