Relapse??

[Anonymous]

It’s been going so well, and I had myself convinced we were done with the whole reflux thing…until this morning. We’d gotten Dagney down to 2 doses/day of Axid. She was there for 1 month with nothing going on—no symptoms or anything. She’s been getting pickier with her foods, though, but I just attributed that to being 18 months old. (Now, of course, I’m second guessing all of that too…) So, yesterday (per doc’s orders) we cut her down to just her bedtime dose. Yesterday seemed ok, but she had only skipped the one dose. Today, though, she just started crying and when we asked her what hurt her, she stuck her hand to her mouth–like many people here on the board have described before. I’d gotten so confident that reflux hadn’t even occurred to me at first, I looked in and didn’t see any teeth popping, and she kept it up, then it hit me–that darn GERD. So, I gave her the dose of Axid that we had cut out and within maybe 20 minutes or so, she seemed ok. She actually spit out some of the dose too, so didn’t even get the whole thing. Then she ate lunch and now she’s asleep. I really hate having her on meds, but as my dh points out, some people just need it, he’s been on Prilosec for years.

Now, my question to you ladies is, did I do the right thing? Should I have tried Mylanta first to see if that helped? It seems to me the Axid helped, so there’s our answer, but, of course, I’m second guessing. Any input/info/suggestions would be appreciated!!

[Anonymous]

Sorry to hear. It’s so hard to know what’s right. I think you did the right thing.

[Anonymous]

I totally think you did the right thing. Axid is so “mild” compared to where she has been in the med department and if that is all she needs be thankful. Best of Luck.

[Anonymous]

If your intuition told you to do it… then I’m sure it was the best thing to do!! Always trust your instinct…. 🙂

[Anonymous]

I am sure you did the right thing!

landen has been putting his hands in his mouth, practically down his throat and the past 2 weeks hardly eating anything! i’ve been telling myself it is teething, but he’s been “getting” molars (swollen gums) for MONTHS now!! now i am almost convinced it is intolerances since he is eating more foods or perhaps the rice milk flaring reflux for him. he’s been getting pepcid complete @ night and mylanta here and there. i know how depressing it is to have that “oh NO” feeling after you’ve weaned them!

[Anonymous]

Oh shoot, Denise. I’m sorry to hear this. But I also think you did the right thing. It could very well be that she does have some teeth coming in. I know Ben’s take FOREVER to show, but he is cranky with his hands in his mouth for a long time before that. If it makes you feel any better, Ben is still on 8 mgs of Zegerid. We never did the Axid/Zantac stuff, so I think he’ll be on the PPI, until he’s totally ready to be off meds.. but I’m still thinking that’s at least a month away.

I’ve noticed to that he will be fine for days/weeks even, and then have a really bad, refluxy day out of nowhere. I still can’t figure it out. Who knows. He has now realized where I keep the Tums though, and he will go stand by the closet door and ask for “mums.” Some of the time, I think it’s just because they taste good, and they’re like candy to him.. but other times, I think it’s because he really needs one. OH well. They’re full of calcium, so I don’t mind giving them to him.

[Anonymous]

Thanks, ladies, your support really means a lot to me.

I’m afraid Dagney’s having a worse hit of reflux than we thought initially, and now I’m not sure what to do. I was hoping to get some input from you since I can’t call the GI till Monday. Dagney’s been abnormally cranky all week, and we’ve heard her reflux several times/day, plus make a few of those throat clearing noises. She’ll be fine, then all of a sudden get really cranky, and scream, and a few times she’s even pointed to her mouth, but I can’t really get a good answer out of her of what, if anything, is bothering her. We’ve had her on the 2 doses of Axid/day now again since Sunday, but I don’t know if we should go back to 3/day, or even to the Prevacid. When she was on the Prevacid, she NEVER refluxed. We never heard the reflux, and she never made the throat clearing noises. Now, she’s doing it several times/day. I’m also wondering if all these food “pickyness” is from reflux too, since it all started right around when we took her last dose of Prevacid away.

What would you all do/suggest? Do you have any ideas even of how I should present this to the GI doc? I never get to talk to the doc, it’s always the nurse, so I need to be strong/sure of what I tell her if I want to get anything changed. ANY input would be really appreciated. I just feel so down about this now, we thought we had it beat, she was happy and never would reflux or act in pain, and now it seems like we’ve gone backwords. I know it’s not the worst that could be happening, but it’s just very disappointing. Thanks in advance.

[Anonymous]

Denise.

I would maybe try the axid 3x/day and see what happens. Give it a day or so and if that doesn’t cut it then I would restart the prevacid. Is she cutting any new teeth? I know that can make the reflux flare. I hate the guessing game and you guys had come so far recently. I hope this set back is only temporary.

[Anonymous]

Oh, poor Dagney. And poor mommy. I’m sorry to hear that Dagney is still having problems with reflux. My middle child had a flare up around age 3 and I remember being really down about it. I just gave her tums when she complained, but she was older and not refluxing that badly. I think you did the right thing putting her back on Axid.

Maybe emailing the doc would be easier for you. I often get flustered and forget to say what I want to say when I talk to the nurse on the phone. Lots of docs answer questions via email now, or their nurses do.

I’d probably go right back to the Prevacid since you say her symtoms (fussiness with food) started right after you stopped it.

Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Denise, any chance she has seasonal allergies? Can you tell if she has any drainage or sinus stuff? I know that Claire’s reflux flares every fall and spring, and I’m pretty certain that it is due to the weather/allergies. Maybe that’s what is going on?

Also, is there any new food that you’ve tried recently? Maybe the reflux is acting up because of that?? How long have you been doing the yogurt?

[Anonymous]

You know what, I think she may have allergies. We’d been giving her Claritin in the fall/winter each night and it seemed to help her, and I meant to give her Claritin tonight, but forgot. She was so tired tonight that she was passed out before 7 tonight! (Luckily, the symptoms aren’t affecting her nighttime sleeping!)

I’m going to call the doc tomorrow, I just didn’t get a chance today. Unfortunately, I don’t think they’re very technologically advanced, so I’ve never heard them mention email!! I’m going to ask them what they think we should do, and go from there. I may go the axid 3x/day route first. We hear her refluxing etc a few times/day, but maybe the Axid will do the trick. She’s been on yogurt for a while, for at least a month before we started the Prevacid wean, so I don’t think that’s it. Oh, and there are NO new foods for her–she’s so limited now that we gave her chicken and she started to cry saying she wanted chicken nuggets/chicken fingers, we had to convince her that the grilled chicken was indeed chicken fingers. She’s getting pickier as the days go on!! I was wondering if that was from the reflux, but i’m thinking she may just be a picky little toddler right now!

Thanks again, and I’ll let you know what happens!

[Anonymous]

Well, we went to the Pedi today so he could chekc out a little rash she has, and i left there even more dissapointed!! Dagney’s rash is nothing–it’s right under her nose/mouth, but it’s not impetigo, it’s from her runny nose, though, likely, and it seems that she does have allergies, so we started up on Claritin again. BUT, I told him about her refluxing flare-up, and he suggested we TAKE HER OFF OF ALL DAIRY, SOY, AND TOMATOES!!! He said refluxing is caused by intollerances, and we should find the root of it, and those are the 3 big hitters! WHAT?!! NOOOOOOOOO!!! I don’t think I can do that again, we’ve come so far, to go so far bakwords!! He said to switch her to rice milk. I’m going to give it a few more days, and since we started on the Claritin, hopefully that will help too. I’m in a crazy work schedule this week, so i’m not home 2 days/week like usual, so i’m going to wait for the weekend when i’m with her all day and see how she is then. She’s not refluxing all the time all day, but she had been doing it a few times/day. She is a bit crankier than normal, and now is even pickier with her food, but isn’t that also normal behavior for a 19-month old? UGH!!

I haven’t been able to call hte GI again because of my work schedule, but am thinking of doing that tomorrow. Also, isn’t there a test now they can give for the soy/dairy allergy? Oh, but if it’s just an intollerance, it would’t show up. She doesn’t have any mucusy poo, and isn’t normally in pain when she’s on decent Axid, but then, is that bad, is the reflux pain from food she can’t tollerate? oh boy…

What would you all do??

[Anonymous]

WoW…. I wish I could help, but I’ll leave this one for the ones with more experience! Come ‘on, ladies!

[Anonymous]

OK, welll, I”ve calmed down a little today…we’ve decided to see how she does on the weekend and go from there. I really don’t think we need to eliminate all that stuff, but it’s just so frustrating! Any thoughts/suggestions would be appreciated, though.

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