Reflux....Does it stop?

terpgirl6
0 Recommendations

Hi everyone! I have a cutie patootie of a little boy who was a 33 wkr and he spent 5 weeks in the NICU. He was diagnosed with reflux a few days before we left the hospital and has been on prilosec ever since. He is now almost 9 months (actual). My doctor just keeps upping his doses with no end in site. Sam spits up occasionally but truly has reflux if we don't allow him to sit upright for at LEAST 30 min. after he eats solid foods. He will spit up and reflux (we call it chewing cud) until his next feeding!

Everything I have read says that reflux, diagnosed as a preemie, should resolve it self by 6 months, give or take. He is passed 6 months both actual and adjusted! Does it ever go away? I feel terrible for him, especially now that he is crawling and moving all over. I feel like it has gotten worse and not better. HELP!

18 replies

N_in_NC

One word - YES!!

Four more words - BE ENCOURAGED, THERE'S HOPE!

Our preemie was also born at 33 weeks. From the moment we brought him home at 35.5 weeks, he started refluxing. It was very aggressive and very severe, and happened ALL day/night long, regardless of whether he had just eaten, or not. He would spit up, sometimes with projectile force, no less than a dozen times a day. The pediatrician put him on a derivative of Zantac (med name escapes me at the moment), but that made him so doped up that he couldn't function or even latch properly. After only a couple of doses, we took him off of all meds (he wasn't in any pain with the reflux) and just dealt with the problem.

Incidentally, his reflux was completely silent. Someone had to be watching him 24/7, or he'd aspirate on his spit up. I had to carry the suction for his nose/mouth with me at all times. For the first 8 months of his life, I sat up in bed with him elevated in my arms, all night long, while he slept and nursed. If I didn't sit up, I'd fall asleep, and it could have been tragic. One time we had turned away for literally only a moment, and he was aspirating. We didn't hear a thing, and we were a foot away! Scary!

So anyways, his reflux lasted roughly 8 months and then it pretty much tapered off completely over the course of a week or so. At 8 months he also weaned himself and I found Enfamil AR w/ Lipil worked to keep the reflux at bay, because it's thickened with rice starch. Eating solids also helped taper his reflux.

Just hang in there, wear a towel over your shoulder, and the reflux will go away eventually.

Best of luck!

Warmly,
Nicki

rissa0205

Our daughter is a 31 weeker and is now 3 1/2 months (1 1/2 adj.). The moment we brought her home from the NICU (she was there 6 wks) she screamed day and night. It seemed the crying started with a feeding...she would never wake up screaming...it seemed to be associated with eating. Her burps sounded like something was going to come up but it never would and she never spit up. She was put on Zantac and we put rice cereal in her formula. It seemed to get worse. We took the rice out and stopped the Zantac and she seemed to be better (smiling and cooing and not crying as much) but for the past month she has been vomiting once to three times a day. Her throwing up started when she got a cold and she still has the dry cough but now I realize it is associated with reflux. She was on NeoSure and we thought that might be bothering her but to make sure she got an upper GI test and the Barium Swallow showed she was refluxing. Her ped. suggested we try Similac Sensitive RS with rice starch and Reglan. She has been on both for 2 days now and it seems we are back to the constant screaming. It seems like the rice is so thick that when it just comes up halfway it doesn't go back down as easily and just sits and burns her throat. But the thinner formula seems to increase the volume of vomit but she seems to be in less pain. Any ideas?

katek

If Prilosec isn't working, have you considered requesting another type of acid blocker?

Our son tried Ranitidine and Famotidine before we ended up giving him Prevacid. Prevacid worked, the others failed. It seems that every child is unique, and some acid blockers work for some kids but not others.

We started giving our son Probiotics a couple weeks ago to balance out the good bacteria in the intestines that the acid blockers sometimes wipe out. Our son's OT says that a lot of her clients who are on acid blockers for prolonged periods of time also take Probiotics. We cleared this through our son's pediatrician who said it was worth a try.

Could your son have a cow's milk sensitivity? Is Enfamil AR cow's milk based?

When our son came home, we discovered that he had both cow's milk and soy allergies. About 50% who are allergic to cow's milk are also allergic to soy. He was affected by me eating dairy and soy, so I had to cut them from my diet. In December/January, he began out pacing my supply, so we had to supplement with formula. Given his sensitive stomach, he was put on Neocate (an elemental formula). Even though Neocate is supposed to be the simplest formula of all, we noticed that when he was given straight Neocate bottles, it aggravated his reflux.

We asked our son's GI about goat's milk. He said that we could try it, that some of the parents of his patients had said that it minimized their kids' reflux, but that no scientific studies had been done to support such a contention. We tried it, and it has greatly helped minimize our son's reflux. I have heard that it doesn't work for everyone. Just as kids who have problems with cow's milk are more likely to have problems with soy, kids who have problems with cow's milk are also more at risk for having problems with goat's milk. And goat's milk does contain casein (which is the compound that some people think is the cause of colic in babies drink cow's milk formulas). For my son at least, it seems that goat's milk casein isn't as problematic for him as cow's milk. We do give him Poly-Vi-Sol b/c goat's milk is low in the B vitamins.

As far as reflux being over by 6 months, I hadn't heard that. I can say that my son is 13 months actual (over 9.5 months adjusted) and we still deal with reflux. I'm still pumping milk for him (though I immensely dislike the task) because I know that his reflux is more manageable when he is drinking breast milk. All in all, I do think that things are getting better, but I don't see an end to the medication any time soon. When we miss a dose, he spits up more and his intake decreases.

blueyes856

My son also had reflux. He was put on prolosec. It was a real battle to get him to take it and he finally refused to take it. I don't think that it worked well. The pediatrician then suggested to give him Adult Maalox, .5 tsp. or Mylanta. I got the cherry flavor. He really liked it and would no longer give me a hard time about taking it. And it seemed to work a lot better. Have Hope!! The reflux eventually subsided! Hope this helps!

elizagracesmom

My daughter is a former 26 weeker, now 26 months old. She has been treated for reflux ever since she was in the NICU. Initially she was on Zantac but that provided little relief. She is now on Prevacid and it has helped much more then Zantac. Reflux is painful and while holding the baby upright, thickening the feeds, etc. can help lessen the reflux they don't treat the reflux. Some kids do outgrow reflux as they get older and as the LES strengthens, other kids take much longer to outgrow and some unfortunately don't outgrow it. I would suggest talking to the GI about trying a different kind of medication such as prevacid. Also the consider checking to see if the baby has any allergies to the formula or foods he is eating.

Best of luck,

Anne, mom to Eliza Grace 26w4d 575gr 3/15/06
http://eliza-grace-micro-preemie.blogspot.com/

mertle_honda

Im sorry your LO is having such a hard time with reflux. We were also told that around 6mo actual my son should grow out of the reflux. DIDNT HAPPEN! After exhausting all the different meds and dosage amounts we were sent to see Gastro. This doc ordered an upper GI and found that my son had an extremely severe hiatal hernia which was causing most of our reflux issues. The upper GI is something that I would have your doc order to see exactly how bad the reflux is. As a last resort or if your doc thinks its bad enough and with the sound of how bad your child is aspirating they might want to look into having a Nissen Fundoplication done.
Prior to any surgeries I would talk to your doc about switching meds. Prevacid worked for us for a while and has worked wonders for many others. Also Maalox or Mylanta helps for immediate relief from the acid burn.
Good luck and I hope you get some relief soon

LoveMyBoys

My son is a former 28 weeker and has had reflux problems since the beginning. Zantac did not work for him either and he was put on prevacid which helped much more. he was initially on it 2x per day. he had an upper Gi done and reglan was added, after a couple months we were able to cut back the prevacid to once a day, reglan 3x a day. he also takes miralax daily for slow gut motility. His GI explained to me that the prevacid just reduces the acidity so it doesn't burn when refluxing but you can still reflux, the reglan helps keep stuff from coming up... he also said that while most kids do out grow reflux, not all do - he said many of the adults with reflux were once children with reflux! Good luck to you! I hope you find some relief soon!

rissa0205

Has anybody used Axid for reflux? Zantac doesn't seem to be working and if the Reglan doesn't work either, our ped. suggested Axid. The Zantac seems to cause her more pain. We just started the Reglan and she seems to spit up less as far as volume.

fiestysmom

I was told Axid was a derivative of Zantac (???), but have had little time to look into that. My 25 weeker just turned 6mos yesterday and he was on Axid all of 3-4 days (I took him off of it myself) because it made him spit-up SO MUCH where he had never really been one to spit up just had the burning from his reflux. He has been on Reglan since the hospital and was still on it even with the Axid. I have continued it even though I stopped the Axid and it's still doing an ok job. I am; however, going to ask to try Prevacid at his appt this morning since it seems to be the overwhelming majority that seems to work for most babies instead of a hit and miss on whether it'll work or not.
I know all babies are different, so we just have to keep trying to find what is right for ours.

piglet008

My son also had reflux for 13 mths and after we changed to neocate it significantly improved. We also found out from skin test he is allergic to egg white and soy.. and there's egg white in most of the regular milk... that's why he'll vomit all of it out and also poor weight gain.

Feistylioness78

Yes my son came off of his relux meds a month after he came home and has no problems since. My other son has it now though.

tpcdad

Prevacid worked for our 27 weeker - try dividing the same dose - 1/2 a.m. and 1/2 p.m. DD is 18 months actual and our Pedi said her reflux could last until age 2 when she is upright the majority of the day.

ronsmith

Our daughter developed reflux after we had her at home and had to transition from breast milk to formula. We went to a gastro doctor where she was put on prevacid. It helped, however what we found most effective was getting her adjusted at a Chiropractor. After the first visit, she had no reflux for 12 hours. Which was a huge success for her. I took her daily for about 2 weeks and then reduced the visits to 2 or 3 times a week. We now go about once every 2 weeks, because I am such a strong believer in the chiropractor. Another turning point in our daughter's reflux was going from baby food to whole food. There were certain baby foods (and cold milk) that seemed to trigger reflux. Once she started eating all whole food, no more reflux. On another note, Shout has been the best stain remover spray I've found. I hope this was helpful.

terpgirl6

Thanks for everyones input! We were actually at the docs yesterday b/c he has had a cough at night that is waking him up and periodically during the day....turns out it is reflux related. We are on the way to the GI's in the next couple of weeks and have adjusted his meds...we'll see!

Thanks again

wittsendmommy

Hey Katek-Im a desperate mommy at this point. My son is 6 weeks old & we believe he has a cows milk allergy, possible soy allergy and reflux. He screams with every feeding and we have been through 5-6 different formulas including Alimentum and now Neocate. He is scheduled for an EGD and 24hr reflux study in 2 weeks (if I make it that long!) and he has tried the zantac, reglan, prevacid, rice cereal. Reglan made him worse, zantac did nothing, maalox did nothing, prevacid make him really gassy & refuses to eat after it. I bought goats milk to try but havent tried it yet. My GI doctor said NOT to try it since there are other things that work better but Im ready to try it out. I worry about the lack of vitamins with it. Did your doctor approve it & how did you administer the poly-vi-sol? Was it given at every feeding or at different times during the day or just once a day? What did your doc recommend? How long have you had your baby on goats milk? Please reply-I am so desperate for sleep and for my son to stop screaming & arching his back in pain. I go back to work in 2 weeks and Im terrified to leave him with a daycare when I can hardly manage him as his mother!!!

katek

Hi wittsendmommy,

I can relate to the lack of sleep. Neither my husband nor I got more than 3 hours sleep per day (often less) for the first 2 months that our son was home b/c our son had insomnia, was on oxygen, and had many issues.

How old is your son in terms of adjusted age?

I'm not a medical doctor, but I can give you my impressions from what I've read, what other people have posted, and what we went through with our son.

5-6 formulas is a lot of different formulas to have gone through if you son is only 6 weeks old. When you find the right formula for your child, chances are that it won't create an overnight cure. Some people say that the act of switching diets abruptly in itself can make baby very uncomfortable. The digestive system isn't used to switches. I suspect that it could take a couple weeks before you see a difference after trying any given formula.

When babies are born early and their digestive systems are immature, it takes awhile before digestion is easy for them. Our son was uncomfortable a lot. For some kids, crying and gas are unfortunately "normal."

What type of reflux symptoms does baby have (in addition to back arching)? Frequent projectile vomit? Lots of mini-spit ups? Bottle refusals?

Is there any chance that you could pump breast milk at this point for your son? I ask b/c formula is very hard on their digestive systems. It hangs out in the stomach longer than does breast milk. The casein proteins often curdle if using a cow's milk formula. Formula contains A LOT more iron than does breast milk. That's because the iron in formula isn't as readily absorbed as the iron in breast milk. The iron in the breast milk is almost completely absorbed by baby. Unfortunately, iron often irritates the stomach and can constipate babies. But for baby to get the amount of iron he needs, the formula makers have to put a lot of iron in the formula, knowing that much of it won't get absorbed.

Why was your son taking rice cereal? I ask b/c rice cereal often constipates babies, which then makes the whole feeding process uncomfortable.

Regarding Reglan, it might take a couple weeks for baby to settle down after having Reglan. My son was prescribed Reglan. It made him an insomniac for several weeks. He was on it about 7 weeks total. 2 weeks in NICU and 5 weeks at home until we realized that it was making him irritable and giving him insomnia, meaning that he only slept 1-3 hours per day (not a typo; he only slept in naps of 15 minutes or less here and there). We forgot a dose when we were at my parents' house, which is how we discovered that Reglan was the cause of his insomnia. Long story short, I don't think that the Reglan was truly out of his system for a couple weeks after we stopped giving it, but we did notice positive effects immediately. After 3 weeks of being off Reglan, our son was able to sleep 3-4 hours straight at night. That was a huge relief.

Regarding Prevacid, were you giving the Prevacid with his bottles or did you give it 1/2 an hour before giving him food? It really needs to be taken on an empty stomach for it to work effectively. Also, if you were doing a lot of diet changes, it might be hard to pinpoint what was and was not working b/c a lot of things were changing at once.

I would be hesitant to give a child goat's milk if the GI has directly told you not to give it, especially b/c your son is still very young. When cow's milk or goat's milk is given to a child too soon, you increase the chances of creating a permanent allergy to the product rather than an allergy that he may grow out of when a bit older. Goat's milk doesn't contain enough B12 and folic acid. It also does not have the added DHA, which breast milk has and formulas contain. DHA is important for brain development. Our son's GI let us try goat's milk, just an oz a day at first, when he was about 8 months adjusted (11.5 months actual). Goat's milk can be tricky for babies who are allergic to cow's milk b/c about half of kids with cow's milk issues also have goat's milk problems. We were fortunate that our son was NOT one of those kids. My son was (and still is) getting breast milk. We only used goat's milk for his supplemental bottles. Plus, he was eating solids at the time, so he was able to get additional B12 from meat and folic acid from some of his other "solids."

Our son was sent home from the NICU on Poly-Vi-Sol, which was given once a day. I would ask your son's pediatrician about the dosing.

Maalox is sometimes used for babies with constipation but not reflux. My impression, however, that it is only given when there is a serious problem. I'm surprised that the doctors suggested Maalox for a 6 week baby. Sometimes newborns don't produce stools for a couple days, which can be normal and is not necessarily constipation. And when they are first learning to produce a stool, a lot of grunting and straining can be involved, which can also be "normal," although quite uncomfortable to watch.

I would definitely work out a detailed game plan with baby's GI and pediatrician. Call on the phone and discuss if an appointment can be made right away. I wouldn't be inclined to give baby anything that a doctor has outright disapproved of, especially when baby is still very young.

If you are having problems getting baby to consume bottles, I would make an appointment with an OT who specializes in feeding habits. There are often bottle techniques that can help. If your son has reflux, for example, I would not feed him in a horizontal position. I would keep him upright and continue to hold upright for at least a half hour after feeding. If baby refuses bottles, I would ask an OT to evaluate and see if son is sucking correctly or needs jaw support.

If you have a good sense that baby has allergies, consider also having a consultation with a pediatric nutritionist. Have nutritionist follow son's case.

Make an appointment with an infant massage therapist. There are massage techniques that can help soothe baby with digestive issues. Plus, empirical studies show that babies who receive massages sleep better than babies who do not receive infant massages. An infant massage therapist can train you on the techniques.

Finally, I highly recommend keep a log of everything that your child consumes and when you give it. Write down dates and times. This will help you stay on track. Make sure that you aren't giving food too soon after Prevacid. Make sure that you aren't switching diet up too quickly. If you make too many changes at once, you won't be able to figure out what has worked and what is still causing problems. For example, let's say that you were giving Neocate but also started a new reflux medication and baby cries and spits up. How would you know if it was the Neocate or the reflux medication?

We have kept a log on everything given to our son (food and medicine), his diaper changes, and massages (to make sure that he was getting them every day for awhile). You can bring these logs to the doctor so that s/he can see what baby has been consuming. You can also write notes in the margin (e.g., "spit up a little 20 minutes after bottle," "only slept 30 minutes," "small amount of blood in stool," or whatever seems pertinent for doctor to know). When we get a bottle, we note how much is in the bottle "11/29 9:30AM ___/ 120 mls" and then fill the blank with however much he ended up consuming from that bottle.

Hope these tips help. I do empathize with lack of sleep. When I hear FT moms complain about only getting 5-7 hours of sleep per night, I inwardly laugh b/c that seemed rather luxurious for me and my husband when my son came home.

For many babies, the reflux symptoms often minimize once babies get bigger and the esophagus is longer. Things get easier on the digestive system after a few months. Grunting also becomes less frequent after awhile. I think our son stopped grunting so much around 2-3 months adjusted. Other moms have commented that preemies tend to grunt a lot more than FT babies.

Once you find the magical combination of things that works for your son, try to stick with it as routinely as possible. Our son's OT told us that babies need routine to thrive.

Best wishes.

BrandonsMummy

DS (32 weeker) is 14 months and still on prevacid for reflux. I too wonder if he will ever outgrow it!

BrandonsMummy

DS (32 weeker) is 14 months and still on prevacid for reflux. I too wonder if he will ever outgrow it!

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