Reflux - omeprazole questions

[Ellabear2019]

Hi all- hoping some experienced mums can he’ll me out here! First time posting although I’ve gotten a lot of useful info from other threads!
DD is 7 weeks old & EBF. We self diagnosed with colic and silent reflux- at her 6 week check the GP was quite dismissive (she will outgrow) but it has gotten worse over the last week so we went back yesterday to push for meds. We expected to be started on gaviscon, but when I said I was concerned as I had heard it causes constipation the GP then prescribed us a months supply of omeprazole. DD was screaming blue murder in the surgery so we couldn’t hear what the dr was saying, so I took her outside while DH took instructions from the dr. DH didn’t ask if we should continue with infacol and gripe water, which is what we had been using to date. I assume there is no medical concern as they are both herbal essentially, but given omeprazole is quite a strong drug I don’t want to add any stress to her delicate system. So does anyone know?
Also, I wasn’t expecting overnight results but I also wasn’t expecting her to get worse and yesterday afternoon and evening she was passionately crying and looked to be in the most amount of pain. We had an ok night, but I think she was exhausted from the crying, but has now already been starting with the angry crying and acting starving this morning. I want to feed her if she is hungry but everything I have read says to feed little & often so as not to aggravate the reflux. She could be growth spurt/ cluster feeding- how do I know?! Help please!! X

I was prescribed Omeprazole - it causes me constipation, so I try not to take it. Sorry, can't help with effect on a baby.

Just feed her when she wants, DD2 7.5 months is on omeprazole and breastfed. I’ve fed her on demand. Little and often won’t work for a cluster feeding baby and is the way madness lies. Omeprazole should remove all symptoms of reflux and she should be able to be fed as normal.

My son went onto omeprazole at 9 weeks. The dosage needs monitoring as your baby’s weight increases. There is a support group on Facebook if you are on there called ‘babies with reflux and silent reflux’. A lot of people there talk about an ‘acid battle’ where it can get worse before it gets better because the medication initially causes acid production to increase. I’m not so sure really- we found our baby steadily got better over a few weeks and then it got worse and the dosage was increased. It hasn’t been increased for a while now and we are starting to wean at just over 5 months on advice of a paediatrician as we plan to bring him off meds once weaning is going well.

We did continue gripe water initially but then I stopped it as I’m not sure it was really doing much.

The other thing to consider is CMPA and you could cut out dairy in your diet to see this or ask to be referred to a dietician. We don’t think it is CMPA for our son but it does seem to go hand in hand with reflux.

It’s so difficult having a reflux baby but I promise it does get better.

You could have been me 14 years ago my sons reflux was not silent he dribbled vomit constantly and did not settle We had omeprazole and gavisgon he still puked all the time but, symptoms ie screaming vanished he fed beautifully and thrived To be honest he still has the ability to up chuck with little effort it's just one of those things Give the gavisgon and the omeprazole and enjoy the baby then the feeding settles

Breast milk is a natural antacid. I agree feed on demand. I gave my reflux baby a dummy which seemed to help loads especially with the hiccups!

Agree with @BellaNutella88 - if symptoms don’t settle with omeprazole (need to give it a few weeks) then consider a trial of dairy free as may be CMPA.

We found the easiest way to give the omeprazole is to put the whole tablet in a calpol syringe, draw up about 2ml warm water (previously boiled), wait about ten minutes then give a good shake before squirting it into their mouth. It’s the little beads that contain the drug, not the liquid. If any beads left in the syringe then draw up a bit more water and repeat until they are all gone. Other option is to dissolve on a teaspoon to make a paste and use your finger to smear this inside their mouth. Messy but effective. Most doctors and pharmacists have no idea how to administer it and will give you enteral syringes which get clogged up with the beads so are ineffective.

Just to add - we have the liquid version which does seem a lot easier than dissolving a tablet so you could push the GP for that !

@welshweasel thanks super helpful! We have 10mg tabs and need to start with 5mg so were advised to dissolve the tab in 10ml of water then syringe up 5ml of the mixed solution- it seemed to work ok yesterday but I’ll have a close look at how grainy the liquid is today to see if we need to adjust.
I’m really hoping this makes a difference and we don’t have to go down the dairy free trial route- life is already hard enough without having to consider what I eat and drink (and I love coffee and cheese!)... gotta love these babies but they make life tough!

@BellaNutella88 I’ve heard GPs either don’t know the liquid version exists or are reluctant to prescribe it due to cost. Will see how we get on for a week- but anything that will make our life easier/ happier am on board with!

@Ellabear2019 you can’t use the tablets like that - either give the whole tablet (in practice fine for any baby over 3.5kg) or split the tablet in half before you dissolve it. The tablet doesn’t dissolve equally through the water so if you do it the way you’re doing it currently they could end up with any dose from 0-10mg! And 5ml is loads of liquid to get down them. Try it in a calpol syringe with far less water. It’s much easier!

How did you get on OP!! Struggling with my 11 week old baby, just syarting omeprazole but scared about what the future holds. He always seems to be crying and it’s hard to see him in pain :(