Acid reflux in children?

[princess pooh]

I found out this week that my two year old has acid reflux. I have an appointment with his pediatrician next week but I was wondering what I could do in the meantime to make him more comfortable. Would it help if I raised one end of his crib or gave him a pillow to sleep with? I know there are foods he should avoid but are there any foods that would help? I give him prevacid every morning but he still seems to be suffering with it by bedtime.

Thanks

 

[vester]

I'm not sure about a 2 year old. We had our baby with pretty severe reflux, and ultimately ended upon prilosec... anyway - she grew out of it. We did raise her up, but even though I cant offer a lot of help, I just wanted to say I'm osryr I know what you are going through.....

Vester

 

[NemoMOm]

I had very severe acid reflux, even on medicine I still suffered. Until I switched to an all natural diet. I literally have to make foods from scratch or make sure I know what every ingredient is on an item, but no pre-boxed foods, no canned foods and nothing with added sodium such as ham. (even the baked kind) I give you my word that this actually changed my life. I spent my entire life with it, even as a child, not a burning sensation, but a hot knife repeatedly stabbing me. I have been off meds for 6 years and only have a flare up when I eat something I'm not suppose to, usually at some one's house.

The item that gave me worst pain ever was the Lipton seasonings

 

[balletmom97]

DD13 also has acid reflux, due to NSAIDS prescribed for arthritis. We have been through a lot of different meds, and it seems that OTC Zantac (extra strength) works the best for her.

Keeping the head/chest elevated can help...a little.

The thing that came to mind immediately was that perhaps your 2yo hasn't been on the prevacid long enough? If there is damage due to undiagnosed reflux, it will take some time for the stomach lining to heal. Don't give up on the meds just yet...give them a few more days to see if you can get over the hump.

In the meantime, I would limit anything acidic--oj, tomatoes, etc.. You might also start keeping a food record, so that you can see if there is any correlation between certain foods and pain. Anything you can take the doc will help pinpoint the problem.

Hope your little one is feeling better soon....

 

[littlbugmom]

You can find lists of foods that are "safe" and then lists of those that have a moderate and high likelihood of causing reflux. I tried to stick to the safe and moderate foods when my DS was a baby. You get to know what specific foods trigger your child.

My DS was born with it. It was severe from birth to about 9months and then stayed at moderate for the next couple of years. He stayed on meds until he was 3yrs old. At that point, it was something we could manage with diet alone. He is 5 now and knows what foods will make him "choke", as he calls it. He also knows that a stuffed belly will have the same affect but it's hard for him to judge that.


We no longer raise his bed and honestly, I'm not so sure it ever really helped. He spent most of his time sleeping practically sitting up as an infant but once he was older, the meds helped. The dosage had to be just right and it had to be adjusted as he grew. Without the meds, his reflux bothered him no matter how high the bed was elevated.

Good luck. It's so hard to see them hurting.

 

[Veals_Family]

My DD is 15 months old and was diagnosed with reflux her second day of life. She currently is on Prilosec 10 mg in the morning and 10mg at night....your son may just need a second dose...My DD wouldn't sleep, would scream and throw herself around at night until they added the second dose. At times she would be propped up at night due to her choking, she's in bed with me because of it, and I would put her on a pillow or my arm...

Are you seeing a pediatric GI? They may want to do an endoscopy or a 24 hr impedance probe to check things out....

Check out the PAGER forums and Babycenter....there are several forums about children with reflux.

Good luck!

 

[AJRitz]

Zantac is wonderful, and remarkably safe. The children's liquid Zantac is incredibly vile tasting, so DD started taking Zantac tablets at 18 months and took it every night until she turned 7. We finally had to switch to Prilosec, as the Zantac was losing its effectiveness. But we'll probably try switching back to Zantac in a year or so.

 

[jmartinez1895]

We now have to do Axid, but when our son was a baby we broke his meals into smaller portions. SO instead of a jar of food and a 8oz bottle he would get half a jar and 4 oz and then about an hour and half latter he would get the rest. This seemed to help us some. We also did not let him lie down for about 45 minutes after he ate or drank. As already posted, it take a little while for everything to heal so even if the acid is under controll there will be some pain and discomfort untill verything is better. Then it's a matter of keeping it under control. I hope that you and the doctor are able to find what is best for your child and that this problem is only temporary.

 

[crysplefty]

If you happen to be allowing him to have soft drinks, even once a week, cut them out all together. Soft drinks will make it worse. This is a constant battle I have with MIL and FIL. They even tell our son not to tell us they gave him soft drinks.

 

[princess pooh]

I thought he'd get better immediately after starting the medication so I guess I have to give it more time and let everything heal. I think I remember seeing Tums for children at the pharmacy so I'll ask his doctor about that too. The reflux was causing him to have recurrent croup so it's really important that we get the acid under control.

Thanks for the advice and suggestions

 

[ZeroMyHero]

My YDD has acid reflux and currently takes Prevacid 2X a day. She was diagnosed at 4 months but we suspect she had it since birth and we thought she was just a spitter. After going on meds, it still took a while for her esophagus to heal, and as she gets older we have had to experiment a little with her doses. The pedi and the pharmacist insisted that she should get the entire dose once a day. We split it in half and she responded well, and the pedi saw the improvement and agreed with us on the dosage. You might want to check out the MarciKids website (don't think I can post the link, but Google will get you there). They helped me when YDD was backsliding about a month ago. Good luck and hang in there!

 

[mommytomy3]

I thought he'd get better immediately after starting the medication so I guess I have to give it more time and let everything heal. I think I remember seeing Tums for children at the pharmacy so I'll ask his doctor about that too. The reflux was causing him to have recurrent croup so it's really important that we get the acid under control.

Thanks for the advice and suggestions

My ds has the same kind (LPR) of reflux- caused croup, stridor, breathing problems (gave him a habit cough too ) Prevacid worked wonders for him! I cant remember exactly, I think it took about 2 weeks to notice a difference, but since he started on it, he hasn't needed prednisone once! ...He has been on it 3 years now and the Dr. will try taking him of it when he turns 7 next year .
Good luck!

 

[Iadoreeeyore]

My DS (14 weeks now) was diagnosed at 6 weeks old with acid reflux. From birth to 6 weeks old he only gained 7 oz due to a tremendous amount of spitting up. The MD finally put him in the hospital to monitor his feedings and perform an upper GI. That is when she saw the reflux. She immediately put him on prevacid. It took a few weeks to notice a difference but he is doing much better now so just give it some time. The prevacid helps with the reflux but isn't meant to completely prevent it. Good luck!!

 

[Tinker'n'Fun]

OP, wondering how your son is feeling?

 

[Cinderellabride]

Both my boys had reflux as babies. My first is 2 he outgrew it around a year, and my second is 10 months and has already outgrown it. It was awful especially with my first (with my second we cut through all the trial and error stuff and went straight to what worked for his brother and it worked for him too).

Raising his head to sleep may help.

It sounds like the prevacid is helping, but wearing off before bed. We had that problem too, so what we did (at the drs advice) was cut it in half and give half in the AM and half before bed. Of course don't do this without asking your dr first. Is it a prescription or over the counter. Ours was 30 mg prescription.

Or if it's worse at night, but not bad during the day give it to him at night instead of in the morning.

I would stay away from anything acidic too. I have reflux too as do both of my parents. What affects one of us doesn't really affect another one of us. So try to see if you notice anything that is making it worse.

Another big this is don't let him lay down for 1/2 hr to 1 hr after eats. Laying down right after eating is a huge contributor to it coming right back up into the chest/throat area.

Good luck, and PM me if you want to talk about it.