Can Reflux Cause This?

[Anonymous]

When Joshua was around 3 months old, our pediatrician told us he probably had mild reflux (just from some symptoms we described). We would make sure he was sitting up after eating, etc. and he didn’t seem to have too many problems. Around 6 months, sometimes when sleeping, he started having breathing episodes. They sounded like when a child cries hard then trys to catch their breath. These would last anywhere from minutes to hours. Of course this concerned us so we took him to his pediatrician who referred us to a pulmonary/sleep specialist (fortunately we video taped one of the episodes).

We were given a pulse oximeter for Joshua to wear whenever he was sleeping so we could monitor his O2 stats if he had a breathing episode. Even during the episodes his O2 was at 98-100%.

Next he had a sleep study which was inconclusive. Following that, he was on an apnea monitor – which again was inconclusive. 2 more sleep studies were attempted but more or less ended up in disaster when they attempted to start CPAP.

At that point, since it appeared he was growing/developing normally, the specialist decided to end testing and just observe/examine him every 3 months.

We went back yesterday – Joshua is now 15 months old – everything looked fine. We again questioned the Dr. who admitted he wasn’t sure what was causing the breathing episodes – Central Apnea, Obstructive Apnea – even Reflux. He agreed to put Joshua on Ranitidine Syrup (Zantac) – 1 ML twice a day.

Could these breathing episodes be related to Reflux? Anyone every heard of a child breathing like this before?

Thanks in advance.

[hellbennt]

Welcome!

I’m not sure but I *think* at this point I’d want an endoscopy? to see what is going on in there? I would think that in addition to letting you know if the esophogus is red and irritated (from untreated acid reflux), it would let you know if there are any structural issues…

the zantac will not hurt, so try it out. also: try it out at the highest dose:

Zantac dosing- my/other’s question (has axid & pepcid dose, too): https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9539&PID=82914#82914

let us know what you wind up doing!

~laura

[Anonymous]

JMHO here but that dose is REALLY REALLY low. Jedd started on Zantac at around 12 weeks old and he was taking more than that. He was an itty bitty too.

You could also do a swallow study to see how things are when swallowing occurs.

YES you are not imagining things. GERD can cause breathing issues.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the replies. We’ve been at a loss for the last 9 months. We thought we had a cause for the breathing episodes – if he was around anyone who smokes. Not that anyone smoked around him but we have friends that smoke and we were thinking that anytime Joshua was around them, he would have these episodes – just from the smoke smell on them and clothes. For several months, we have made sure he wasn’t around any smokers – still, on occasion, he would have have episodes.

The othe night, he didn’t want to sleep and we attempted to let him cry it out. After about a 1/2 hour of crying, we took him out of his crib. He ended up having a breathing episode – on and off all night. It didn’t make sense.

The next night, he drank a sippy cup with rice cereal and fell asleep. After 15-20 minutes, he started coughing – then spit up. Last night, he did the samething – but we put him in bed with us and elevated his upper back and head and he was fine.

Also – for quite a while now, he wakes up in the middle of the night crying, etc. This is why we are thinking reflux.

What is a normal dosage of Ranitidine? He is 23 pounds. The Ranitidine is 15MG/ML. Says to give 1 ML 2x daily.

Thank you again.

[Anonymous]

Hopefully Laura will correct me if I do the math wrong and even tell me if I do it right. But the max dose is 10mg/kg…

So you take his weight 23lbs which is 10.5kg

Then you multiply that by 10 which is 10.5 x 10 =105mg/day.

With the dose being 15mg/ml he can have up to 7ml/day and he is only getting 2 so he is only getting 30mg of his potential 105mg/day.. so there is tons of room for improvement.

What I might do is give maybe 1.5ml 3x/day which is only 4.5ml of his 7 and then if there isn’t any improvement maybe do 2ml, 2ml and 3ml if nights seem to be the worst. Hopefully Laura will check my math… it isn’t my strong point, but I think this is right… And then if this doesn’t work at the max dose then I would push for another med like prevacid/nexium/zegerid, they are stronger and most of us have had better success with them.

[hellbennt]

You’re too funny Beth! thanks for answering! I don’t mean to be the only one answering around here

yes it’s 7mls a day- you can divide it up however seems best

2 or 3 dosees- you’ll have to experiment-

you might want the ‘highest’ dose at night, since sleeping seems to be the problem? or before nap, too- so maybe 2 doses? 3mls an hour before nap and then 4mls before bed? you’ll have to just ‘play’ with it…

[Anonymous]

Again, I want to thank everyone for their answers and advice, especially with the dosage. We started Joshua on the Ranitidine this morning so hopefully, we will see an end to his breathing episodes.

Thank you again!!! It is so great to be able to get answers.

[hellbennt]

please keep us posted!

[Author]

Posts