prevacid questions

[Anonymous]

Hi ladies. My 7-week old DD has was diagnosed with reflux a few weeks ago. She has been on 1.4 ml of zantac, 2xday. It worked relatively well–not a complete turnaround in the baby, but much better than before med. But all of the symptoms are rearing their heads again, in the last week, including irritability and the pained looks. So I took her to the ped yesterday and we started her on prevacid today, 15mg solutab administered once a day. From my reading on marci-kids, a better dose would be 22.5 mg, divided up three times a day. My ped said we could keep her on the zantac for 48 hours after starting prevacid because prevacid takes a while to kick in. Of course this has generated some questions, so here it goes:

1. Can I divide the 15 mg solutab into two parts so I can give it to her twice a day, instead of just one 15 mg dose a day? Marci-kids indicated prevacid cannot be crushed because the granules are coated. I wonder if cutting it in half with a knife will cause it to be less effective, because it is not scored for cutting. We see the ped again on June 24 and i will ask for the dosage to be upped to 22.5 if we need to.

2. Is it safe to keep her on the zantac longer if we need to, while the prevacid kicks in? I know that zantac should not be given within four hours of prevacid because it can reduce its effectiveness. My plan was to give 7.5 prevacid first thing in morning and then once again around 3 pm and then zantac before bed around 8pm.

Thanks for any info/experience you can tell me about. I appreciate it.

Shan

[Anonymous]

Hi and Welcome.

You are on the right track. Here is what I would do and did do when we were on 15mg/day.

I gave 7.5mg in the a.m. (you have to give on an empty stomach and follow with a feed 30-60 min later) and then we did 7.5mg in the evening at that age, I would give it before the bedtime feeding (helps with sleep) and I would give Zantac in the middle of the day as long as it is 4hrs after or before you are going to give the Prevacid. I would get a pill cutter and use that instead of a knife as the cutting does damage alittle of the med, but only those beads that are cut when you cut it. But it isn’t enough to really make a huge difference. I would give the Zantac for 2wks after you start the prevacid as it can take that long if not longer for the prevacid to kick in. You may also find that you need a higher dose. We were on 30 mg for a long time (from 4 months old until 14 months old) and that is what it took for my little guy to be happy. It seems to be the “magic” dose for many babies. We gave 15mg in a.m and 15mg in p.m just so you know. I hope that helps and i am sure that some other moms will chime in as well. Glad you found us. This place saved my sanity.

[Anonymous]

Beth,

Thanks so much for responding. I appreciate it so much. I am going to do what you did and put the zantac in the middle of the day with the prevacid upon waking up and once again before bed. Here’s another question: How much zantac should I give her? Her max dose right now is about 3ml per day (divided up however we want). Is it ok to give her that much zantac in one dose midday? It seems like a lot because before we got the prevacid we were giving her two zantac doses a day (1.5 ml each). Just wondering how much I should give her in one dose…don’t want to overdo it but want the symptoms alleviated.

By the way, Cooper is adorable and what a cute name. My DS Sean will be 16 months on June 26, so they are close in age (according to your ticker). Isn’t this a fun age? I don’t miss the newborn stage at all, even though Sean was so easy compared to DD. I just love when he runs over to hug me all the time while he’s playing. The giggles are the best too.

Thanks again!

Shan

[Anonymous]

I personally probably would give 1.5ml in the middle of the day of the Zantac and that way if the night goes bad you have another 1.5ml that you can give overnight… Does that make sense? HTH.

[hellbennt]

how much does she weigh? you might be able to increase the zantac dose, as it can be as high as 10mgs per kilo: Zantac dosing- my/other’s question: https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9539&PID=82914#82914

your current dose is the maximum dose if she’s 10lbs

10lbs = 4.5 kilos

4.5 x 10 [mgs] = 45

45/15 = 3mls a day

[Anonymous]

Thank you Beth & Laura for the information!

[Author]

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