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February 22, 2008 at 9:37 am #48491

Anonymous
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Hello all! I’m so glad I found this forum! My daughter is almost 7 weeks old and has been miserable pretty much since the day she was born. I tried breastfeeding her but it was just too difficult as she constantly cried and never seemed full. I switched her to the bottle and so far she has been on Isomil and Similac Advance. Most feeding sessions take about an hour to get 2-4 oz. down. Many sessions she will pull off the nipple and scream as if in pain. She will also arch her back. She also never seems to be full even though I feel like we spend all of our hours feeding. She also cries a lot in between feedings. She has a period in the evening from about 7-10 of nonstop crying where nothing except a car ride comforts her. I’ve taken her to see 2 different doctors. The first diagnosed her with reflux and put her on Prevacid. She told me to give it a week for it to work. After one week, it had not worked, so I called and the doctor said to give it another week to work and if it had not, to call again. Again, no results seen; in fact I think she was getting worse. I called again as instructed and the response I got was that if the Prevacid did not work, then she cannot have reflux and to stop the medication. She said if I was still concerned about my daughter’s condition to make another appointment and have her checked out. I did so and ended up seeing another doctor. She was awful. She agreed with the other doctor that our daughter could not have reflux if the Prevacid did not work. I felt like she was insulting me, making me feel like I was not doing a good job of parenting. She diagnosed her with colic and said there was nothing we could do and sent us home. I am so, so frustratred! My daughter is in pure misery and I am not getting any help from the doctors. I am wondering whether I should have given the Prevacid a little bit longer to work or if there is another medication I can try. Both doctors we saw said that Prevacid is a strong medicine and therefore there is no other medicine to try. I also don’t know what to do about the feedings. I don’t know whether to try and switch formulas or what. It is so horrible to watch your baby be hungry but in pain and crying every time she tries to eat. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

February 22, 2008 at 11:15 am #48498

Anonymous
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oh boy, I am sorry you are dealing with this. The arching and fussiness with eating definitely sounds like reflux. I can’t believe they took her off of the Prevacid. The first thing that comes to my mind is that many reflux babies are MSPI (milk soy protein intolerance) so she may need an elemental formula like Nutramigen or Alimentum in addition to the Prevacid to see an improvement. Hopefully some others will chime in too.

Do you have a ped. GI in your area you can see? I would also recommend trying to get her in to see one. They will know more about infant reflux.

Mom2Seth2008-02-22 11:16:14

February 22, 2008 at 11:19 am #48499

Anonymous
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Oh my gosh that is awful that the doctors disregarded you like that. Argh!! Just b/c that particular dose/form of prevacid didn’t work for your daughter doesn’t mean she doesn’t have reflux! There are so many factors that can effect the success of reflux treatment! First of all, what form of prevacid was your DD on? If it was a compounded form, those lose their effectiveness after just a short time and are usually worthless. If it is a solutab or a capsule they have to be given on an empty stomach and followed up with a meal 30 minutes later. Did they tell you that? Otherwise the stomach acid will degrade the medicine making it useless. Lastly…was her dose high enough? Many doctors underdose PPI medicines like prevacid and again, the medicine is pointless! Check out marci-kids.com and look at their dosing calculator for your DD’s weight/age and see what it says. Don’t give up yet!!! If nothing else, find a new doctor who will LISTEN to you! I think colic is a bunch of BS doctors tell you when they don’t know what’s wrong. That’s just my opinion though.

It could also be that she needs a hypoallergenic formula like alimentum or nutramigen. I would try one thing at a time though so you aren’t confused about which treatment helped her.

Hang in there and GOOD LUCK! Keep fighting!

Oh, I wanted to add too that you will see HUGE improvements in her feeding once she is properly treated. So hopefully that obstacle will work itself out as you are able to get her on the right medicine.

amy00132008-02-22 11:21:00

February 22, 2008 at 1:51 pm #48507

Anonymous
Inactive

HI

Prevacid did not work for my lo(ashlynn 8 months now). She has been on Nexium since she was 4 months and boy did I see a change when she started that. She was on 5 different formulas who no improvement till the Nexium.

I remember those yucky days when it would like about 2 hours to feed Ash 2-3 oz. By the time she was done eating and burping it was time to eat again. I hope the things get better for you. This site and all the wonderful girls helped me ,more than the dr.s did.

The only bad thing about Nexium is that you have to wait 30 min. after giving it before you feed the little one. Which at times can be hard because they do not understand the waiting game.

stcwatt2008-02-22 14:35:18

February 22, 2008 at 2:30 pm #48508

Anonymous
Inactive

Hi and Welcome.

Tiffany and Amy have good info on the prevacid. But it may be true that Prevacid alone isn’t the only answer. She may need a hypo formula, Nutramigen worked for us along with a high dose of Prevacid. We started Nutramigen at 8 weeks and prevacid at 10wks and at 13-14 wks is when I saw a happy baby. That was b/c our prevacid dose was too low to begin with. It can take up to 14 days and maybe longer for the prevacid to kick in. But if you want to try other options they are out there. There is Nexium and Zegerid which doesn’t have to be timed around meals. The timing does get easier as they get older and eat on a more predictable schedule, but in the beginning it is tough. She does sound like she is in pain. And we all know what you are going through. We breastfed for 3 weeks and then did soy until 8wks and finally a hypoformula helped us. Best of Luck.

February 22, 2008 at 3:45 pm #48519

Anonymous
Inactive

I’m so sorry about your poor babie misery! I feel your pain. I don’t know what to tell you about the medicine – we’ve tried Prevacid and Zantac and I’m still not convienced either work. I would definately try a new formula though. We like the Good Start with comfort proteins. Good luck!

February 23, 2008 at 4:14 pm #48535

hellbennt
Keymaster

hi & welcome!

I have a LOT to say & (most of) it’s here:

J

Groupie Intro: my intro: https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=853&PN=1&TPN=1

so glad you found us!

~laura

February 24, 2008 at 3:44 pm #48549

Anonymous
Inactive

Thanks to all of you for your responses! It’s been such a blessing to read everyone else’s stories and get advice from others who have been there. We ended up switching her formula and put her on the Dr. Brown’s bottles. Those have made some improvement with her feedings which has been great. Thanks for the info on the Prevacid, Amy. The doctor did not give me any instructions on how/when to give it, so it’s probably been useless for us to even give it! Thanks again everyone!

February 25, 2008 at 12:09 pm #48570

Anonymous
Inactive

From what you’re describing, I would definitely try to get her on a good dose of PPI. I’d check out http://www.marci-kids.com for info on dosing. Then, if you tell us where you’re located, maybe someone can recommend a good doc in your area. The feeding behaviour is not normal. My dd started out the same way. The whole time we were told it was colid, or overactive letdown. Then at 8 weeks she stopped eating. That’s the first time they said reflux. We did various PPIs at low doses, went to many docs, each one telling us that they couldn’t increase her dose at all, and if she wasn’t responding, then there must be something other than reflux. Meanwhile, she developed a terrible feeding aversion because she wasn’t medicated and was in too much pain. I’m not trying to scare you, I just don’t want anyone to go down the same road we did.
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