Constipation

[Anonymous]

My son has been on Prevacid Solutab for 2 weeks. Since he started taking the medicine he has been constipated. He is only 9 weeks old. Has anyone else had this issue? We are giving him supositories, but he is not going on his own. Karla2006-7-2 6:2:22

[hellbennt]

what formula is he on? breastfed? have you ruled out mspi?

hmm…

prevacid can make a baby constipated or give them loose stools, but this goes away at about 2wks as the system gets used to it…

try some mylanta cherry supreme? give at least 2 hrs seperate from the prevacid- aside from helping with reflux, it has a side effect of loose stools if you give too much (can’t overdose or anything, not to worry!) try 2.5ml syringe 2 or 3x a day…see if that helps?

please look at, read & bookmark this: https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=853&am p;am p;PN=1&TPN=1 – it’s my welcome/intro and it will help you

glad you found us! eveyone here is amazingly wonderful!

~laura

[Anonymous]

I’m sorry that I don’t have a answer for you, but I have often suspected that Prevacid may be causing some of the consitpation issues we are having with Myles. Did his problem start right at the same time that he started the Prevacid? With Myles I am not really sure if it started at the same time as the Prevacid. My memory is a little foggy….probably the lack of sleep and constant stress of that time period.

I recently emailed Joel and this is what he said in response to my question:

2. Is constipation a common (or even uncommon) side
effect of Prevacid?

The two most common side effects for all drugs are diarrhea and
constipation, and this is true for Prevacid as well. This does not
necessarily mean that the constipation is the direct result of the
Prevacid,
only that constipation is often reported by users of the drug.

It is true that many side effects do pass after the body adjusts to a new medication, but my son’s constipation has been ongoing…I just don’t know if it’s caused by prevacid or not.

Is your son any cereal? Breast fed or formula fed?

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the replies! To answer your questions…

My son is breastfeeding. However, I do suppplement with Enfamil LIPL. I asked my doctor about changing formulas, and he said don’t change yet. I also tried the Enfamil GentleEase, but the baby does not like that formula. No cereal yet.

He is not the best breastfeeder. He seems to like the bottle much better (pumped or formula). My oldest son seemed to have an easier time nursing.

I am not sure if mspi is an issue???? i stopped eating dairy when he was a coulpe of weeks old (before I was supplementing with formula). It did not seem to make a difference.

The constipation started within 4 days of starting the Prevacid. We actually started taking Zantac a few days before the Prevacid, but it tasted terrible. So we switched to Prevacid.

The child passes gas all day and night. You would think he would not be constipated.

Maybe I just need to wake a few more days.

Karla2006-7-2 15:43:23

[Anonymous]

Hi again,

A few more thoughts….

When my son was first born he filled his pants after almost every feeding. (My girls did, too). Later he began to poop much less, but he probably wasn’t actually constipated. I talked to his doctor at his two month check up and she said that newborns poop ALOT because of their immature digestive system, but as they grow and their digestion improves they poop a lot less. She also said that it is normal for breast fed babies to move their bowels only twice per week. So, maybe he’s not actually constipated? If his stool consists of little round balls, or is very hard, then that would be considered consitpation.

Yes, I would stick with the Prevacid for at least the two weeks to see if it works. What were his symptoms that lead to him being put on Prevacid?

Myles used to pass gass constantly, too. I was constantly checking his pants thinking he needed a diaper chage. He outgrew that at around 4 or 5 months.

From what I’ve read it’s quite common for babies who are both breast fed and bottle fed to perfer the bottle. You may want to nurse him more and bottle feed him less if you want to continue nursing, so that his preference for the bottle doesn’t become even stronger.

[hellbennt]

can you get to a LLL meeting? or a local lactation consulatant?

http://www.kellymom.com is an excellent breastfeeding resource

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the website. It has lots of good info.

[Anonymous]

My son got extremely gassy and constipated while on Prevacid packets. He was on for a little over a month and it just got worse. As soon as we switched meds it was better.

[Anonymous]

Zach was on Prevacid and he seemed constipated as well but I truly
think it was exactly what Christine said……..his digestive tract was
maturing, therefore not going as often. He was very gassy
too, but once we started him on Alimentum formula the gas
disappeared.

[Anonymous]

I took my son off of the Prevacid on Thursday to see if it was causing him not to poop. (Christine, you are right. It is not constipation because his stools are not hard. He just gets very uncomfortable after not pooping for 2 to 3 days.) So, he has been off the meds for 3 days and he I had to give him another supository last night. I am so confused. I was hoping that he would start pooping and that his reflux did really not exist. However, he was uncomfortable last night and today. I guess I will have to start the Prevacid again before I get a chance to see if he can poop on his own.

Our pediatrian did get us an appointment with a pediatric Gastro Doctor, but the doctor can not see him until July 18.

Karla2006-7-9 23:39:35

[Anonymous]

Karla,

My son has the same poop issue and I worry about it constantly. What I’ve been doing (and his doctor said it’s fine) is using a thermometer to help him poop every other day if he doesn’t do it on his own.

With Myles, the problem is that he strains and strains but only passes a tiny amount of stool. I know there’s tons more in there because when I use the thermometer he passes a whole lot more. It is usually soft but after a day or two it gets a little harder. If I wasn’t using the thermometer to help him go I think it would get very hard.

I have some theories about what Myles’ problem may be, but I don’t really know. My first theory is that it is related to the Prevacid, so I won’t know if that’s the case until he is off of it for a while. My second theory is that he has low motility of the digestive tract. I talked to his doctors about that and they said it’s possible and that sometimes it gets better as they get older and are more mobile, but that some children with low motility have long term constipation problems. My last (and hopefully wrong) theory is that he may have some other horrible gi abnormality like Hirschsrpungs Disease.

For now, I am reducing his Prevacid because his reflux vomiting has stopped (for over a month now) and I am very anxious to see if taking him off Prevacid will help. I will let you know when he’s completely off Prevacid if it helps or not. (I am weaning him off versus stopping it all at once).

A while back I posted a question about constipation and got some suggestions from the moms here. One said sugar water, one said warm water, one said brown sugar. Well, I didn’t have any regular sugar but did have some brown sugar in the house. I tried 1 1/2 ounces of warm water with 1 teaspoon of brown sugar. (He loved it!!). Well, he passed a great big soft poop that day. I was thrilled and I have tried it several times since. It does not work everytime but it does work about 1/2 the times I give it to him.

I think it’s a good idea you are taking him to the gi. I will have to take Myles if his bowel problem does not improve once he’s off Prevacid.

I hope your visit with the gi goes well and he can give you some answers and solutions. Would you please post after your gi visit? I will be really interested to hear what he has to say.

These babies can just drive us nuts with worry I hope we both find out what the problem is and get is solved soon.

Christine

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