Already a member? Sign in
What - Inspire is a place where you can connect with people who share your health concerns and find information and advice in groups sponsored by organizations you know and trust.
Why - As a member you can use Inspire to let friends and family know how you're doing, contact others who share your health concerns, receive personalized updates and information about participating in surveys and clinical trials, and more.
How - Joining Inspire is completely free and usually takes less than a minute. Join now!
Has anyone's child been on lactulose? They are giving it to her because her chronic constipation. I know its main use is for treating the effects of liver disease but from what I've drawn from research, this unnatural sugar is not readily absorbed and helps with the bowel movements. They also put her on prevacid instead of zantac but instead of vomiting less...she's doing it more. Any other good drugs beside zantac and prevacid?
MiraLax Axid Zantac Prevacid Botulism Constipation Pain Lactulose Ranitidine
Just wondering how long has your child been on Prevacid? It can take a couple weeks to work.
In any case, because the vomiting is worse, you should definitely call/talk with your baby's doctor.
By the way, have you recently changed formulas or the calorie concentration? Sometimes a new formula or higher calorie mixture is harder for baby to handle.
If you haven't changed, have you considered doing so? Some formulas work better for some individuals with reflux or constipation problems. We used Similac Neosure, but I've heard of people having good results with Nestle Good Start or with Neocate.
My son (born at 29 weeks together with his sister), was on ranitidine (the generic version of Zantac) for a while. It helped a little, but it seemed to cause him abdominal discomfort.
Unfortunately, we didn't have a great GI (for example, we'd drive almost an hour for our appointment, and he wouldn't show up and we'd just see a nurse). So we didn't try anything besides the ranitidine for about six months. Eventually, we found a new GI doctor (this time almost two hours away) and discontinued the ranitidine.
When it comes to constipation, I can give you more information. Our son also was prescribed lactulose (also known as enulose) for his severe constipation. He'd go days without a bowel movement, his abdomen would be hard and he'd be very fussy both day and night.
The constipation would then aggravate his reflux, and the backup in our son's system also caused him to lose his appetite. As soon as he'd have a really good BM or two, he'd be a much happier baby.
Note: Some doctors do NOT recommend corn syrup -- Karo is one brand name -- for young babies. The reason is the American Academy of Pediatrics has reported that corn syrup makers can't ensure that their product is free of Clostridium botulinum bacteria, which can cause infant botulism. (Also do NOT give honey to a baby.)
The enulose syrup was fine, although sometimes I think it caused a little gas. Most of the time, I've tried to manage his constipation (still here at 20 months adjusted) through diet.
When he was taking only formula, we gave him 1 to 2 ounces of prune juice or pear juice each day (starting at 2 months adjusted. He was g-tube fed, so I'd just pour it in through his tube.
As he got older and started taking baby cereal and purees (about 9 months adjusted), I would keep giving him the juices. I also added sweet potato, pear puree, prune puree, and baby oatmeal (because rice is binding). I avoided bananas and cooked carrots, because those also are binding.
As soon as he could take more foods by mouth, I gave him sweet potatoes that I baked myself. Those work like a charm. I bake them soft because he doesn't like when the middle is still a little hard (I don't either). The home-baked sweet potatoes worked better for us than the prepackaged baby food sweet potatoes.
I also have given our son Benefiber mixed into his cereal, but generally I try to make sure he gets enough vegetables and/or fruit to keep things moving.
Getting the abdominal muscles moving can help, as well. Hold your baby's feet / ankles while she's lying down and pedal her legs in a bicycling motion.
Sometimes a warm (not too hot) bath can help the muscles relax.
Infant massage also can help with constipation. Unfortunately, I forgot precisely what we did. But maybe you can google it or ask your ped about it.
If your baby hasn't had a BM in days and is feeling pain, call your doctor's office. One time, one of my son's doctors gave him a suppository.
Finally, I know a couple mothers who got prescriptions for Miralax for their babies, and they said it worked well. If the constipation continues to be a problem for you, you might ask about that.
We still deal with constipation, but now that our food options are broader, it's a little easier to stay on top of it. Our only issue lately is that we're weaning our son off his g-tube, so he's taking in a little less liquid and we're noticing a return to constipation. (No BM for about 48 hours now.)
Good luck.
Micayla had the same problem on prevacid. i think its because it takes awhile to work so we quit taking it cuz her reflux got so bad. they put her on axid and it works great! its a liquid and she gets it twice daily
she was also on lactalose for constipation. it worked great but i hated giving it to her all the time so we started experimenting with juice and fruit and giving her apple prune juice seems to help a lot. we put a lil bit in each of her bottles for a day or so and it helps her to go.
My daughter has been on Mirilax for constipation since about 6 months old. It is very mild and doesn't cause any discomfort. Our GI says that there are no increased risks if we use it long term so we give it to her every day. Approx 2 tsp 2x per day. We adjust it as needed to make sure she has 2 soft movements per day. She has also been on and off Prevacid for a couple of years. We haven't seen any increased vimoiting with the Prevacid.
Add to the discussion