My son is killin me

Have you tried giving him his Prevacid at night? If he’s only getting Prevacid twice a day, it may work better to give it to him morning and night, and give the Zantac at mid-day.

My thinking on that is this….my middle child did what Ryan is doing every night of her life until she outgrew her reflux. She was up every 40 -60 minutes every single night. She was only on Zantac. I didn’t know anything about PPI’s back then and I assumed my doctor knew what whe was doing when she put Ellie on Zantac, but it obviously wasn’t working. At 8 or 8 1/2 months of age I put Ellie down for the night and she slept all night, and has ever since (except for waking due to nightmares later around age 18 months). So, clearly her night waking was from pain, and not behavioral.

My feeling is that even a “spoiled” baby who needs to be rocked or cuddled or fed to sleep would probably sleep more than an hour at a time, no matter how much the waking was behavioral. If he’s waking that much I’d really suspect that his reflux pain is bothering him.

Also, the fact that he goes to sleep fine, and alone, really points to pain being what wakes him. If he’s fine with going to bed alone, he’d probably self soothe most of the time he awoke at night, and he probably wouldn’t wake as much as he is, if something wasn’t bothering him.

I’m sorry, this probably isn’t what you want to hear, but that is my opinion because I went through it with Ellie. She went to bed alone with no problem but would not stay asleep, until she outgrew her reflux…then we never had a problem again.

Will your doctor consider letting Ryan take Preavacid at the marci-kids level, which for him would probably about the same as my son – 10 mg / 3 x’s per day? Are you giving it to him on an empty stomach and following it up with a meal 30 minutes later?

I hope you can solve this problem soon. I know how horrible it is. I thought I’d lose my mind from the sleep deprivation.

ndrose2006-5-15 9:33:39

That’s funny about the two nights without Zantac. Maybe the Zantac is bothering him for some reason.

You can’t give him Prevacid at 7 and then wait until 9 to feed him because the medicine only works if you feed them 30 minutes after administering it. If you gave it to him at 7 would he be able to stay awake until 7:30 and then have a bottle? Maybe you’d have to give him dinner a little earlier. Since he wouldn’t be getting Prevacid before dinner, you could give him dinner at 4 or 4:30 so he’d be hungry enough to drink a bottle at 7:30. Might that work for him?

Maybe you could convince your doctor to up his dose by printing the information from marci-kids and bring it or fax it to her. That’s how I convinced mine to up Myles’ dose to their recommendations and it really did help him alot. (We’re having problems bottle feeding now, but I don’t think it’s related to reflux pain…it seems to be something else…and he does sleep wonderfully so I know he’s not in any pain).

Here’s the website for PPI dosing in case you don’t have it. http://www.marci-kids.com/ 7.5 mg 2 x’s per day is a pretty low dose.

Have you ever tried the Mylanta Cherry Supreme? Maybe giving him a dose of that when he wakes up in the night will help.

Happy Mother’s Day! We moms deserve a gold medal for taking such good care of our little refluxing infants!

I agree with all that christine wrote. I’d give prevacid in the evening…maybe try some zantac mixed with a little mylanta for one of the night wakings- or just try the mylanta-

give 2mls and see if that helps- you can always increase it- the way you know it’s too much if if it results in loose stools…

The meds actually work no matter when you give them and when they eat, they just work their best if you do the 2 hr after eating 30 mins before. ( I called the number on the prevacid website and asked them this, as well as asking my pharmicist, and my sister’s mother in law who works in a ped GI office)as long as the meds are in them they will work, but will work BETTER if you try to follow those rules.

I agree with what the other ladies have said. Although, I have to add to what Jill wrote about the meds working no matter when you give them. I agree with that, however, we found that Kaelyn needed a higher dose of prevacid because we were never able to give it to her on an empty stomach. Just something to keep in mind.

If you are the primary caregiver, it makes sense that Ryan responds more quickly to you at night. However, I would keep sending dh in to help him. One, it will help build their relationship. Over time, he’ll respond just as quickly to dh as he does to you. Maybe have dh give him the Mylanta mixture that Laura suggested. It may help him feel better and he’ll associate that with dh. Or, dh could give him the night time feeding that you mentioned. Two, it will give you a chance to sleep, which we all know is really key to surviving this nightmare. When I went back to work, dh and I started switching off nights with Kaelyn. His first few nights with her were a little rough because he really wasn’t used to dealing with her by himself, but it ended up really being good for all of us. I truly believe that they have a better relationship because of it, and I actually managed to get a decent night’s sleep for the first time in months!

That’s terrific news! I hope it helps him sleep better.

I’d give him what’s left of the solutab at mid-day instead of tossing it.

Keep us posted.