I'm baaaaack!

[hellbennt]

my son stopped breathing – it was ‘officially’ called apnea & he was sent home on a monitor.

it’s scary!!!

For him, it took the maximum doses of PPI (& zantac!) for this to stop happening…

I think, for him, that what happens is that it HURTS & their bodies try to swallow everything back down & they choke, etc- if it does NOT hurt (neutralized by the meds like zantac or less acid production from a PPI) then perhaps they are more ‘relaxed’ and don’t fight it and yes, they’re still refluxing, but not in pain & the reflux just ‘does it’s thing’ going up & down the esophogus…don’t quote me on this, lol! but it’s not unheard of for a silent refluxer (swallowing reflux back down, a non-spitter) to become a spitter, once on the proper meds…

I also WORE my babies practically 24/7…

babywearing SAVED US!

https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1044&PN=1

http://www.thebabywearer.com/forum

please, when you get a chance, can you

go to the top of this page, click on Settings and please then click on Edit Profile, then scroll down to

Signature & put:

baby (name if you want or nickname), age (can put month & yr of birth), meds, doses & forms of meds, breastfed or formula fed

thanks!

[Anonymous]

This is all very interesting about the digestive enzymes. I don’t understand how they could make an effective product that can only survive in a different ph level? Who knows the ph level of their stomach anyway? I have no problem buying the enzymes you used, I was just desperate to get things started and didn’t wanna wait for a mail order.

What type of results did you see with your kids and how long did it take? I’m assuming less gas and bloating, more regular bowl movements? There’s no doubt this kid isn’t pooping enough. 1 MAYBE 2 times in 24 hrs -not enough. I wonder how much the precipitates the reflux?

Also, I’m using biogaia for probiotics. I keep it refrigerated although it says it can be stored up to 77 degrees. It’s liquid and made for infants -we saw a big difference with DD with the product, but I’m open to suggestions.

[Anonymous]

Yes, he is definitely a hand held baby -we’ve made good use of the front carriers so far. If I just weren’t so darned tired I’d put him in it sooner, but all I wanna do is lie down. We also have the RES-Q wedge from DD which I hate to use again, but it looks like we might have to. Although I agree that it seems careless to give PPI’s that shut down acid production that we need, it’s hard to imagine that only probiotics and enzymes helping this baby. Having been down this road before, I’d rather start with PPI’s in addition to everything else, and try to cut them out a little later down the road. Now I just gotta figure out the proper dosage for the prevacid -don’t trust the peds.

[hellbennt]

from here:

“A breastfed baby should have six to eight wet diapers a day until around six weeks of age; and five to six wet diapers a day thereafter; and two or more good-sized bowel movements every day for the first 6-8 weeks.

At around the age of six weeks, the stooling pattern of a breastfed baby may change. It is not uncommon for the breastfed baby to skip days between bowel movements. Some babies skip every other day, some go every two or three days, some once every 5 – 7 days, and some babies hold out for up to 11 or 12 days at a time – then have quite a FULL diaper when they DO go!

There is absolutely no reason to intervene and try methods commonly used to “induce” a bowel movement (such as prune or other types of juices, water, glycerin suppositories, or using rectal stimulation). If artificial stimulation is done too often, the baby’s system can become dependant upon this stimulation to “go”, and no longer is able to have a normal bowel movement on their own.

In most cases, as long as baby is not acting ill (lethargic, crying in pain, etc.), the tummy is soft, not rigid or distended, skipping days between stools is not cause for alarm, however, mother should not hesitate to ask her health care provider to check her baby to be sure there is no physical problem.”

[hellbennt]

oh! if you do start giving the prevacid, stop the gripe water…

Gripe water: https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=3438

[Anonymous]

Thank you for that info. Yes, if he had a happy tummy I would think nothing of it. But, all he does is grunt, groan, cry and try to push out a BM. His tummy can be heard gurgling from across the room and it’s always hard. He’ll often do some serious straining to let out what sounds like a blow out, and it’s just a tiny skid mark. even the pediatrician agreed he is full of gas. I’m currently going dairy and caffeine free to see if there’s any difference. However, I have always had tummy issues my whole life, and so does DD, so I think some good flora might go a long way.

[Anonymous]

Oh, I would’ve probably done just what you did in buying the enzymes you did. I guess the bottom line is whether they help or not. If you decide to order some Digestive Health they normally ship very quickly. I usually get my orders in about 3 days.

I call and ask questions to Chris at Core Health Products at least once a week, and often it is asking him about other products. So a lot of what I have learned has come from him. But I have also done quite a bit of research on my own. I have not asked yet about the CompleteGest because I am starting to know what to look for. But if you would like me to I can ask about it. Or you would be welcome to call him and ask any question you like too. 800-342-4792.

I know it may seem like CHP is just trying to sell their products but I have been really amazed at how many times I have heard Shan (owner of the company) say this, “My goal in life is to get the message out to people on how to find high quality supplements. It’s not about selling my product. There are many other companies out there that also sell very good products.” And when he says that, I believe him.

I understand too wanting to keep giving the Prevacid. It’s hard to believe something will work until you see it happen. 🙂 And as I said, your child may not benefit as much as mine did from the probioitcs and enzymes.

My children’s reflux was already somewhat under control when we started the probiotics/enzymes because of them drinking alkaline water that counteracted the excess acid that was being made. But there were still many foods that caused the reflux to flare up. And they rarely ever slept all night in their own beds. They did a lot of tossing and turning and sometimes even waking up because they were so uncomfortable. If this happened and I could get them awake enough to drink some alkaline water then they would sleep better.

Shortly after they started taking the Digestive Health, they also started sleeping all night long in their own beds and they slept peacefully! After a couple of months of taking the pills, I started giving them small quantities of the foods they used to couldn’t tolerate. By 4-6 months after starting Digestive Health, they were eating any kinds of food they wanted and still sleeping all night!! 🙂

Many people have found help with just the probiotics and enzymes without the alkaline water. It’s just that the alkaline water will keep the symptoms under control and will speed up the time it takes for the digestive system to repair itself.

Biogaia… again, if they help, that’s what counts. As near as I can tell these have only one strain of probiotic in them though “Lactobacillus reuteri”. And most people that are low on probiotics are low on more than just one kind. And obviously since you have seen results with the Biogaia before, then the probiotics are living long enough to do some good. 🙂

I have created a blog (see signature) with my entire story written out in how I found Core Health Products and how they helped my children.

[Anonymous]

OK now I know better!!! I am NOT smart enough yet to figure out other products. 🙁 I called Chris at Core Health and he looked up CompleteGest also. Here is what he told me…

The enzymes do not need to live PAST the stomach. It is just the probiotics that need to be able to live in the stomach so they can get down to the intestines and help rebuild there. I feel very dumb for making such a statement about the CompleteGest. Chris says as far as the pH levels they can live in they are fine.

He feels that the enzymes that are in there are very good but the enzyme “peptidase” is also very important in helping to “unlock” the major enzymes. And CompleteGest is missing this. Another concern that he had was that there was no co-factors (vitamins and minerals) in there. When taking a supplement that has no co-factors, the ingredients in it will rob the body of vitamins and minerals to make them work to the fullest.

He felt that CompleteGest is not a bad product but if it doesn’t give you the results you want then look for one that has all the same enzymes plus peptidase and vitamins and minerals.

Again…sorry for the incorrect information!! 🙁 A lesson learned for me! 🙂

[Anonymous]

WOW! thank you so much for calling him! I have to say, if he was willing to do research on another product, for another person -he must know his stuff! That kind of sells me on his product -it costs the same anyway! Ordering tonight! Thank you! Also, does it matter when I give it in regards to meals and the prevacid?

[Anonymous]

I don’t think it really matters when you give it. I normally give it before or with food. Some say it works better to give after food. I would probably refrain from giving it at the same time as Prevacid. It is not a good idea to take enzymes at the same time as a time-release medicine because its possible that they would make the medicine go into the system too fast.

If you ever talk to Shan or Chris, I believe you’ll see why I have so much appreciation for them. 🙂

[hellbennt]

any updates?

[Anonymous]

HI! Yes, updates…let’s see. We’re about day 6 or so on prevacid solutabs. Pediatrician wanted to start him on only 7.5 milligrams once per day, but luckily I have a bunch left over from DD, so I didn’t even get into an argument with her, I’m just giving him the dose I want to. We decided to go with Marci Kids suggestions for dosing, so he’s getting 7.5 milligrams three times a day. It’s impossible to get it into him 30 minutes before a meal, but we do the best we can. As of right now, I haven’t seen a difference. I’m still going dairy free, as well as cutting out caffeine, onions, garlic, anything that can be upsetting for GERD. I’m willing to cut out the other big things like wheat and soy, but I can only handle doing two at a time. His poop looks good though -still yellow and seedy. SLIGHTLY mucusy, but nothing worth talking about. If it were green or foul smelling I would suspect a food intolerance, but that doesn’t seem to be our case. However, we are still struggling with his excess gas and general discomfort before bowel movements. I ordered the digestive enzymes that you suggested, but unfortunately he HATES the taste -for some reason the ones from our co-op don’t bother him at all. I’m a little bummed about that because I think it is a superior product, but considering how much I’m having to get him to open for each day, I need him to want to open. I DO think that the enzymes are working in regards to moving the poop along, but aren’t doing much for tummy pain. I heard on this forum that you shouldn’t mix gripe water with prevacid because it will counter act the PPI. but what about gas drops? We just picked some up today and I’m really hoping we can use those. Also, we asked the pediatrician today if we could use any sort of antacid for his really bad episodes -she mentioned that they sometimes recommend mylanta for 4 months plus, but not for as little as 2 weeks -any thoughts on that? How much longer before we should see the prevacid working? is it possible that it wont work? We’re getting an appointment with the GI specialist and I think I’m going to ask them to do a scope test, but how invasive is that? Do they knock them out? How long does it take? Also wondering if he has delayed gastric emptying, any experience with that? I guess things aren’t any worse, but certainly not any better either. It’s so hard when he’s in pain to literally have nothing that we can do for him. And I also don’t understand why sometimes he’s fine and seems happy, and the next minute he’ll be refluxing, and it will go on and on for an hr or two, just out of nowhere -how does that happen? He still has that gurglgy squeaky breathing that has a name….something long that starts with an L, but I’m wondering if that will also go away with proper treatment? Ugggh, so frustrating!

[hellbennt]

hang in there!

it might be that your baby ‘just’ has an immature lower esophogeal sphinctor- it’s the valve/mucscle at the top of the stomach/end of the esophogus- it can just let acid up at any time of day or night, w/ out having anything to do with eating or meals. that’s what it was for my son.

I figured it out because he also had normal poops and would reflux out of no where. I did do the diet (Total Elimination Diet), out of desperation. that’s another way I knew his reflux wasn’t a reaction to something in my diet…but, i did find out that he couldn’t tolerate when I ate tomatoes/tomato products, citrus, eggplant & tuna.

what you eat takes about 3-4 hours to get to your milk, so eat something, wait three/four hours & the feeding after that, wait a bit (30 minutes?) and see if there’s a major reaction w/ your baby. if so, try that food again & see if it happens again. if it does, cut that food out. when I say ‘food’ I mean more like what I described: citrus or tomatoes or cinnamon or something- not milk or soy or beef – not a protein, as these can take 2 weeks to get out of your system & if you’ve been milk free or soy free you don’t want to mess it up…

mylanta is perfectly safe for newborns. the trick is finding the kind w/o any aluminum.

mylanta cherry supreme is the one variety of mylanta that does not contain aluminum. it’s not made anymore! BUT you can find store-brand equivalents. Try: rite-aid brand, cvs brand, walmart, target, Bartell Drug (West coast), Dollar General, w/ the brand names: Geri-Care & Geri-Lanta Supreme, Meijer, etc- just look for one that does not list aluminum in the ingredients. you can give 1ml up to 5 times a day- it’s safe, even for newborns. if you see loose stools back off.

Are YOU taking enzymes? I think this will help, too…for the baby, can you mix the digestive enzymes w/ a little breast milk?

you can use gas drops. mylanta should do the same thing.

oh! make sure to space the mylanta 4hrs from the prevacid.

[Anonymous]

does it matter when we give the gas drops?

[hellbennt]

I don’t think so, but to be safe I’d space them 2hrs from the prevacid

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