Omeprazole for reflux experience?

[croft85]

Hello

My 8 week old has bad reflux (sick, lots of discomfort and groaning, arched chest and flings head back a lot, barely sleeps at night, short day sleeps as is woken constantly, hiccups alllll the time, crazy wind, can’t lie flat, you can hear the acid bubbling sometimes - all the reflux symptoms etc etc - poor thing).

I know most babies have some level of reflux (posetting...) but this is worse.

Does anyone have any experience with Omeprazole?

I was hoping things would improve the past few weeks as her digestion improves/strengthens, but she seems to be getting worse and we have been prescribed the drug. I’m sad to put her on such a strong drug, but I can’t carry on watching her in such discomfort. Plus we both get zero sleep. 😑

Can anyone give me any experience of using it that will make me feel better about it?

Thank you
X

It honestly made such a huge difference to my son. He was in so much pain, and he never slept. Omeprazole turned him into a different baby - content, calm, happy. He was still sick A LOT, it didn’t really make any difference to that, but he stopped being in pain pretty much instantly when we had the dose right.

He’s now 6 months and is growing out of it generally - he’s only sick a couple of times a day now. I’m going to gradually start reducing his omeprazole dose to see if I can get him off it completely now that he seems to be so much better. But I am so grateful that it saved him from being in pain in those early months.

I felt the same about using it for my DS, I put it off for a while but I wish we started to sooner. I think he was around 8 weeks too. It did help but it took a while to make a difference. Give it a go and see what happens. He stopped taking it at about 7 months and has been fine. Good luck

Made my son a different baby.

He went from being a very unsettled baby to a very happy one.

To add, his reflux was silent so harder to spot.

He stopped needing it when he went into solids and is now three with no long-lasting issues from it.

I fucking love it. DD had it for 2 months and was a different baby during and after it. She was doing 50+ vomits a day, in pain, started losing weight, legit 2 days on it and she just wasn’t in pain anymore, she was still a bit pukey, maybe 10-15 vomits a day but that was a breeze compared!

Best thing I ever did with DD1. She went from screaming constantly, poor feeder (2/3oz max), none sleeper, generally really miserable to a calm, happy baby. Napped well. Slept better at night although still was often sick so that disturbed us (we added Gaviscon which helped but constipation). Feeding improved 100x, she finally finished bottles & chubbed up.

When DD2 showed very similar symptoms, I didn’t hesitate going to the docs, chatting about my history with DD1 and they agreed Omeprazole was the right option to try. Transformed her as well. This time our GP prescribed Carobel Milk Thickener instead of Gaviscon & it was SO much better! You could adjust the amount you used to suit your baby & find that balance between keeping milk down & not constipating them!

My LO is on Omeprazole since 5 and half weeks old (he's now 11 weeks) I only mentioned to the gp last week that I don't think he's showing significant improvement on it. It has slowed the sneezing down and arching of the back but still hiccuping a lot, coughing and bringing acid up. He said Omeprazole can take 2 months to make a difference sometimes so to persevere with it.
However, because he was only 5 and half Weeks when prescribed it (about 8-9lbs), he's put a lot of weigh on since so where as I was giving him 2.5ml a day - he's now 12lbs 5oz so his dosage has just been put up to 4ml a day and he seems better on this amount. It's just trying to get him to take it every morning is a battle. He hates it so much and I feel so awful for forcing him to have it ☹️☹️

Reflux sometimes is a symptom of cows milk allergy. A consultant told me omeprazole should work instantly so if doesn’t help it may be due to something else like an allergy. We used omeprazole and changed milk to nutramigen and our baby was so much happier. Just worth considering eg changing milk if formula or cutting out dairy if breast feeding. Hope baby feels better soon xx

Thank you SO much everyone. All really helpful and helped me make up my mind xx

Three children with reflux here. Omeprazole was an absolute game changer. Things appeared to get worse with the vomiting at first, but stick with it, because once they have been on the regime for a few weeks it makes such a difference. Two of ours were given Domperidone as well to help with nausea, as our first child wasn’t diagnosed with reflux til he was 3 (had been trying to tell the GP / health visitor etc since he was tiny but it took having another reflux baby to get things moving). Best to nip it in the bud as quickly as possible.... our oldest, who had the late diagnosis, developed a chronic cough because of his untreated reflux and just would not eat at all for years, which was very stressful. Whereas the younger two, who were both on Omeprazole by the time they were weaned had a much easier time of it. Good luck!

I have a 2 month old child that was diagnosed with severe acid reflux he was diagnosed with it when he was 3 weeks old due to oxygen dropped and heart rate dropped too scary he’s now under medication(femotidine) for a month now but now he’s been choking with his acid which is very stressful have him on upper position most of the time but still he’s been having this episodes and been calling his Gi to see what other options we have they already tried changing his formula from similar alimentum to a neocare which didn’t work at all

It made a huge difference to my baby. Really resolved his pain. He was still sick all the time, but it stopped the misery and discomfort.

He’s now 8 months and has been off of the medicine for a few weeks - he just grew out of the reflux eventually, but omeprazole was a lifesaver when he needed it.

My son had very severe reflux and unfortunately for us it didn't really improve until maybe 3, that's unusual though from what I can tell. He actually still has it now at 7 years old but we manage it really well no its v slight. Do you breastfeed? Breastfeeding was great for us as i could cut out dairy which really helped as opposed to formula which is very processed dairy. Also now he's older and his reflux is better he is still very sensitive to certain foods like tomatoes and certain meat so try to avoid those. .I didn't put him on medication as there were health risks and side effects that we weren't comfortable with especially while he was a young baby buy thats a personal decision. Cutting out certain foods made a huge difference while breastfeeding and once he was older.

*young baby

My son is older now and is the most adventures as regards food in our house, he literally eats everything and is a total foodie so no long term effects of reflux. He just needs to be careful with tomato and spicy foods.

It didn't work for my baby. She had awful silent reflux and I really didn't want to put her on medication but got to a point where I couldn't think what else to do. We had to put the dosage up quite quickly because she put on weight fast (breastfeeding for comfort constantly) and she was struggling to take it. She had a terrible gurgling tummy after and would be quite distressed. I noticed in the ingredients that it contains titanium dioxide which she reacts badly to if in a nappy cream. I weaned her off it very slowly and it took about a month to get her completely off it (read about acid battle).

I realised she has cmpa and soy allergy and cutting these did improve things significantly, although not completely by any means. I know a lot of people that have successfully used omeprezole and it's been a life saver for them but thought I'd share my experience. I hope it works for you if that is what you have decided to try.