Can someone recommend things that I can do for my son with severe reflux?

Question

His doctor finally realized my son had severe reflux when he had an episode where mucus got lodged in his throat and he was not able to breathe. His grandmom got his airway open, but we had to take him to the hospital for observation. He was just put on Zantac last week. I have not noticed any decrease in the amount of times that he throws up so I put him on a soy formula (similac isomil) and still not seeing any difference. We think he might even be throwing up more on some days. I just don't know what to do. He has only gained a pound in two months and I'm scared that he will start to lose weight or that there might be more going on than reflux. I do all the things that were asked, sitting him up during feedings and afterwords for awhile and all that. Any other recommendation or medicines that I could ask the doctor about. He usually doesn't cry when he throws up, but he does that a lot and is starting to throw up the gerber #1 fruits that we feed him to keep stuff down.

Answer 1

We've gone through a lot of the same things with Zachary, who is now 14+ months old.  I understand the fear of watching your child trying to breathe - and choking on food/mucus coming back up.  That look is awful and I'm so sorry you're having to go through it!

Ask your doctor about a medicine called Axid - it works a lot like Zantac, but it tastes like bubble gum (instead of Mint, like Zantac) and doesn't have any alcohol in it (like Zantac).  Zachary doesn't swallow as much air when we're giving him the meds because he doesn't fight it.  Zachary has also been diagnosed with delayed gastric emptying...  Basically, with DGE, food just stays in his tummy too long, so there's always a lot to come up.  The med he takes for this helps the food to move through his system faster, and it's made a dramatic difference. (Reglan - the information that you'll read about this drug will scare you... it took us awhile to give it to him, but the results are wonderful.  A gastro specialist at a children's hospital prescribed it).  One other thing to think about - your little guy might be more prone to ear infections this winter because of the reflux - Zachary had a ton of them (we were talking ear tubes) until we got the reflux under control last January - now, he's only had one since.

It sounds like you're doing all the right things... keeping him upright during and after feedings (which will get much harder as he gets older).  Our gastro specialist told us to put rice cereal in the bottles, because the thicker the food, the less likely it will come up.  That really helped, too....Also, you might want to limit the amount of food that your little one has at one time... at 4 months, we were limited to 4 oz. at a time, which also helped.  

As for the soy fomula, our little guy is it as well, but not because of the reflux - the cow's milk made him really gassy.  We tried some of the special formulas for reflux but they didn't help the reflux and they made him gassy if they were milk-based, so we went back to soy formula.

Ask your doctor to schedule an upper GI test for your little guy - the test will not be fun for you and the barium your little one needs to drink won't be fun for him, but he won't remember it - and it will tell you what's going on.  Zachary has had two of them, and they were very helpful.

Just hang in there... it does get better as he gets older, because the food options get better!  And hopefully, your little guy will grow out of it.  Just make sure you never leave the house without changes of clothes for both of you!  Good luck!

Answer 2

My son has it bad too, his doctor put him on baby previcid. He gets it 2 times a day and it helps a lot. He gets half a tablet dissolved in 1/2 teaspoon water. Its strawberry flavored and he likes it. If I don't give it to him he chokes a lot.  

Answer 3

My son had the same issue. Now at 7 months it is getting much better. Our doctor put him on Prevacid, half a pill each day morning and night. This did not seem to decrease the amount of reflux at first, but he did not appear to be in pain any longer. When he had a scary episode of shaking while eating we went ahead and took him in for a barium xray test to find out if there was anything else going on. The test did not show anything serious aside from severe reflux. However, they gave us another medicine to try to decrease the amount of spit up, which was a liquid called Bethanechol. He was supposed to take this four times a day before eating. On top of that they suggested a thickening gel called "simplythick" which we could add to his breast milk or formula in order to thicken it. The idea is that if it is thicker it will not come up so easily. I did not end up using it, but it is an option. The ingredients are water, xanthum gum, citric acid, sodium benzoate, and potassium sorbate. We did try the Bethanechol for awhile but I was not totally comfortable giving our baby that much medicine. But to answer your question, there are other options out there. In the end, I think the passing of time and age, his ability to sit up on his own, has done the most good. Good luck!

Answer 4

I would defiantly go on to an AR (anti reflux) formula like S26 AR of karicare AR. My son got given Lo-sec what helped pretty well. he threw up all the time but did gain weight. I would go to a different health care provider to get more info and help with this if I were you.  

Answer 5

my son was diagnosed with reflux at 6 weeks and put on Zantac.  The meds will not stop the spit up but take the acid out so it no longer hurts.  You could try spoon feeding him a little rice cereal before each bottle or use the formula that is already thickened ( Enfamil AR )  My son is now 6 months and is doing much better, he isn't spitting up near as much and putting on some weight.  I nurse, thank god, because I can't fathom how bad it would have been if he was on formula.  

Answer 6

Sounds like your having a tough time of it!  

My son had reflux when he was a baby. He is now 8yrs old and has grown out of it.  We had him on Zantac (there are other meds out there, can't remember what they were, so long ago) and I also had him on a thickened formula especially for babies with reflux, which he seems to cope well with.  Once bub goes on to solids and less milk things should start to settle down.  I also suffered reflux as a baby and still do to some degree, especially when pregnant!  The reason for reflux is because the spentar (flap of skin that is located at top of our stomach) doesn't close properly and allows gasteric juices to come back up. This causes heart burn etc...  I remember my sons Pead saying he would grow out of it around the age of 1.  Which he did.

I had my cot raised slighly at one end so my son never lied flat while asleep.  As this can cause heart burn which is not pleasant!

I remember he would be sick after I bathed him, I would just get all his clothes on and he would be sick, this would probably happen  3 to 4  times before he would stop.  I remember worrying that he wasn't getting enough to eat, sometimes when they are sick it looks alot more then it actually is.   My advice would be to see a good peadiatrican (baby doctor) just to get him checked out and put your mind at ease in regards to everything you are doing.  But from what you are saying you are doing everything right.  Keep him away from fruits that are acidity as this won't help with reflux. I hope this is of some help to you. I wish you all the best and hope your sons reflux settles down. :0)

Answer 7

I had a very similar episode with my son when he was a baby, it's scary. You are doing all the right things. Not propping his bottle etc... I can recommend that you stop him in the feeding process more often to burp him, that helps. As for medications, not that I know of. The key is to watch him all the time. It sucks but it has to be done, always lay him on his side, not his stomach or back. Watch, watch, watch... He will eventually grow out of it, usually by 6-7 months.

Answer 8

I know how desperate you must be feeling. Three of my four children suffered from pretty bad reflux. They were all premature. With medication they all grew out of it after about 7 months of age. They were all put on a medications, a combination of Zantac and Motilium. I also put the head-side of their cots slightly up. You can use a beam or even put a couple of books under the legs of the bed. I also started to use AR formula which keeps the milk down.

Be careful with acidy fruit. I always felt that banana stayed down pretty well....