New Mom Needs Your Help with Reflux Baby

Hello! Reading these posts has provided so much information, thanks to all! I still have some questions and welcome your advice.

Here is my situation. My son is 10 weeks, and has had episodes of pain for about 6-7 weeks now. During
these episodes, he arches his back, straightens his legs out stiff as a
board, cries out very sharply and loudly, whimpers, his face turns red,
he claws at his face/head or our chest when we hold him, and is
generally inconsolable for the duration of the episode. These episodes last anywhere from 1-2 minutes to 10 or more minutes at a time.

It is not clear if the episodes are triggered by
feedings, as they might occur immediately after feeding, or an hour or
more after a feeding. Usually, he has several episodes
per day, but he also has days when he has no pain at all. He doesn’t
seem to have any episodes when sleeping overnight. He also sounds “gurgly” after a feeding, and seems congested when he wakes up in the am.

I am breastfeeding (pumping milk for bottles). He
does not spit up at all, sleeps well (6 hours at night), and eats well. He’s gaining
weight perfectly, according to his doctor.

The first ped (not our doctor, but in the same practice) said that it sounded like gas (because there was no spitting up). Based
on her recommendations, I eliminated all potentially problematic foods
from my diet (gassy vegetables, dairy products, caffeine, etc) for over
two weeks. We also used Mylicon drops. These changes may have reduced his pain episodes slightly (it is hard to tell), but did not eliminate them.

Our Dr. diagnosed the problem as acid reflux at
his 2 month appt last week (said the back arching was classic reflux),
and prescribed Zantac (.8ml three times a day). He said if there was no
improvement in three days to call him. We called him after 5 days and
said there was not improvement. He prescribed Prevacid Solutabs (7.5 mg twice a day). He said that we should see an improvement in 3-4 days (though I’ve read on here it takes up to two weeks for a difference). It’s been 5 days. The second day he did not have any pain, but the third and fourth day he has again.

I faxed info to the Ped from the MARCI-Kids
website to see if he would increase the dosage of Prevacid (they
recommend 8-10 mg three times a day – almost twice what he’s getting
right now!). The Ped said that he wouldn’t change it,
because the dosage was recommended to him by a Ped GI. He gave me the
number for the Ped GI, if I wanted to treat the reflux more
aggressively.

It just breaks my heart to see my son in so much
pain; I feel helpless and cry a lot. The stress of this is affecting
the whole family. I just want my baby to be pain-free, especially since
I have to go back to work soon and leave him with a sitter.

My questions are this:

1) Is this really reflux, or might it be some other problem, since it does not occur consistently with feedings?

2) Should I make an appt immediately with the Ped GI, or wait two weeks to see if the Prevacid kicks in?

3) If I see the Ped GI, what tests should I have done?

4) Any other advice?

Thanks so much in advance! 🙂

calichica302009-03-20 10:52:11