Anyone ever use Gripe Water for their babies?

[blessedby3]

I have a 7 month old DD that has reflux and is on Zantac, Previcid and Hypo formula. She has not slept a night through since she was born and we are very tired parents. She used to wake up and scream and you could tell she was in a lot of pain. Now, she doesnt wake up completely, but she cries out in her sleep 5-6 times a night. An aquaintance gave me a sample bottle of Gripe Water to try with her. I gave her a tsp. last night and she did seem to sleep a bit better. Only crying out twice instead of her normal 5-6 times during the night. Has anyone used this before and what are your thoughts on it? Im not sure if it did any help, or if this was just a fluke night that went a bit better than usual. Thanks for any input you can give

 

[polineedyan]

i have no idea what gripe water is, but our dd has reflux, too. I was diagnosed with reflux, and an eroded esophagus a year ago. She has always been bloaty and burps ALL the time. she is two now. No matter what I tell dr, she says its normal and passes it off. I am curious as to how you convinced your dr to prescribe zantac, etc. Mine doesnt seem to even suggest it..

 

[MomNeedsVacay]

I have a 7 month old DD that has reflux and is on Zantac, Previcid and Hypo formula. She has not slept a night through since she was born and we are very tired parents. She used to wake up and scream and you could tell she was in a lot of pain. Now, she doesnt wake up completely, but she cries out in her sleep 5-6 times a night. An aquaintance gave me a sample bottle of Gripe Water to try with her. I gave her a tsp. last night and she did seem to sleep a bit better. Only crying out twice instead of her normal 5-6 times during the night. Has anyone used this before and what are your thoughts on it? Im not sure if it did any help, or if this was just a fluke night that went a bit better than usual. Thanks for any input you can give

I'm sorry you're dealing with this. My babies never were affected either way by Gripe Water. THey were on Zantac and then Prevacid.... THe only thing that helped with the reflux and fussiness was changing what I ate b/c my baby was breast fed...Is your baby BFing?
What do you do when she cries at night?

 

[luvmylittleboy2003]

We used Gripe Water for our ds for colic and it worked wonders - we swore by the stuff . Good luck - I know its hard!!

 

[blessedby3]

I started out nursing and then she weaned herself at 4 months (actually started during our Disney trip in Jan ). She would scream when I tried to nurse her and I had to offer her formula to get her to eat. I figured it had some to do with what I was eating and tried to cut out some foods that I thought may be contributing to this. She started out on Similac Advance, then the dr. suggested Gentle Lactose Free. That didnt change things either and we then tried Soy. Still nothing and the Dr. said the dreaded hypoallergenic (very expensive, double the price of regular) formula. She has done a bit better with that so we have stuck with it.

Polineedyan- we were diagnosed with the reflux by my regular ped. at 2 weeks. He started her on Zantac which stopped the spitting, but we still had pain and crying when the acid came back up but not out. He then switched her to Previcid at around 1 1/2 months and it helped for just a bit and things got worse again. A dr. we saw on a weekend "sick" visit suggested giving her Reglan. That was a nightmare. It kept her AWAKE and she was still crying during the night. What a bad few days. We took her off of that and requested a visit to the Ped. GI doctor. The ped. got us in quickly and he suggested the combo of Previcid in the am and Zantac in the pm. This has helped us quite a bit, but she still has very restless sleep patterns. Your diagnosis is exactly the reason I want my DD on meds to help control the reflux. I was told by many people that the reflux coming back up the esophagus would eat it away as she got older and she would have worse problems as an adult. I would maybe get a second opinion or see a ped. GI for some help.

 

[blessedby3]

Where do you buy the stuff if the sample does seem to work for us over the next couple of days? I just have a small bottle and I dont remember seeing this stuff in the stores anywhere in the baby dept.

Do you remember, lovemylittleboy, how much you gave him? It says on my bottle that a baby 6mos and older should get 2 tsp. That seems like a lot and I just gave her 1 tsp last night.

 

[disney or bust]

Where do you buy the stuff if the sample does seem to work for us over the next couple of days? I just have a small bottle and I dont remember seeing this stuff in the stores anywhere in the baby dept.

Do you remember, lovemylittleboy, how much you gave him? It says on my bottle that a baby 6mos and older should get 2 tsp. That seems like a lot and I just gave her 1 tsp last night.

Gripe Water can usually be found at CVS ---and the dosage is correct. Good Luck!

 

[luvmylittleboy2003]

Where do you buy the stuff if the sample does seem to work for us over the next couple of days? I just have a small bottle and I dont remember seeing this stuff in the stores anywhere in the baby dept.

Do you remember, lovemylittleboy, how much you gave him? It says on my bottle that a baby 6mos and older should get 2 tsp. That seems like a lot and I just gave her 1 tsp last night.

We bought ours at Rainbow Blossom.

We always gave him what the dosing said to give. Then at night - during fussy spells and in-between dosings, if he woke up - we would dip his pacci in it and give it to him and off to sleep he would go.

 

[blessedby3]

thanks

 

[Ephany]

We sell Gripe Water at the pharmacy I work at, however it's not on the shelves with the baby items. You have to ask for it at the pharmacy counter because we only order a couple of boxes at a time. If you can't find it, you should be able to ask your pharmacist to special order it for you. Good luck.

 

[i12go2wdw]

We used gripe "happy" water for our first 3 kids and them they stopped selling it for our 4th. It is a miracle concotion that is mostly dill if I remember correctly. My kids used to suck it out of the dropper because they knew it brought instant relief. Those 3 kids slept so well, never up through the night after 6 weeks, wwe only used it when they seemed to be having tummy issues (knees up, crying when we knew they were not hungry or wet) We may have used one bottle on each child and they didn't seem to need it once they were over a year. We figured it was harmless if used correctly and better than tylenol at that age.

 

[Cdnmommy]

I used gripe water for both of my children, however for my dd I found something that worked even better. I think it was called "Oval" and was in a container with a dropper...this was fabulous! It's more concentrated that grip water and I highly recommend this. Good luck getting some sleep and helping to ease your little one's pain.

 

[PrincessPeyton]

My daughter was considered "colickly" by her doctors although I don't know if I would say it was that extreme, we just had to watch what times we would feed her and we would give her the Gripe Water. She didn't sleep through that night until she was over 8 months old and we swear by this stuff. We got it at Babies 'R' Us. She was young when we gave it to here and the box does warn about possible allergic reactions, so we talked to her doctor before giving it to her.
My sister still uses the Gripe Water occassionally for my neice, who is 2 1/2, who has some belly problems. It helps her as well!
Good Luck! And make sure you take care of yourself too!

 

[homedad]

we had same issues with our now 7 yo, doc wanted to put him on zantac and reglan. My chiro suggested gripe water and would bring it over from Canada and it worked great. Couldn't seem to find it here, friends from europe say it widely used over there.

 

[cdrn1]

We were at wit's end with DGS; he had reflux and was (BF) very sensitive to things his mother ate. We had good results from the gripewater, though not total resolution. Through trial and error his mother found that he couldn't tolerate dairy or eggs. (He outgrew it around his first b'day.) We ordered it from Drugstore.com but our Walgreen's has since started carrying it. It did help quite a lot.

 

[thegroovypad]

Love, love, love the gripe water. Just be careful which one you buy/use. One of the gripe waters is all natural and has only the ingredients it is supposed to have. The rest of the gripe waters are knock-offs and contain unknowns. I was told this by my pediatrician. I can't remember the name of the one you *should* use but I do know its in a blue box with a silhouette of a woman on the box. There is green on the box somewhere also. Maybe gripe water is written in green? Anyway, I think it works wonderful and I still give it to my 18 month old when she's teething and my 6 month old has just started teething so he's taking it again also. Its pretty expensive. Around 22 dollars a bottle I think.

 

[Julk]

I've used gripe water with all three of my kids. (my youngest is 6 months). I've even tried it myself and it tastes like black licorice. I have always bought it off the babycenter website and it was around $10-$12. I think it says on the box that once you open it, it's only good for a month and then it starts to lose it's strength. So I usually buy a few at a time.

 

[mithuri]

Hi;
We are from Canada and Gripe Water is widely available in all the pharmacies. (over the counter). My daughter (Age 7) still uses it whenever she has an upset stomach. Unfortunately, Gripe Water is not very popular in US - The last time we visited Pennsylvania, we couldn't find in any of the pharmacies. You may wish to check online Canadian pharmacies.

 

[polineedyan]

I started out nursing and then she weaned herself at 4 months (actually started during our Disney trip in Jan ). She would scream when I tried to nurse her and I had to offer her formula to get her to eat. I figured it had some to do with what I was eating and tried to cut out some foods that I thought may be contributing to this. She started out on Similac Advance, then the dr. suggested Gentle Lactose Free. That didnt change things either and we then tried Soy. Still nothing and the Dr. said the dreaded hypoallergenic (very expensive, double the price of regular) formula. She has done a bit better with that so we have stuck with it.

Polineedyan- we were diagnosed with the reflux by my regular ped. at 2 weeks. He started her on Zantac which stopped the spitting, but we still had pain and crying when the acid came back up but not out. He then switched her to Previcid at around 1 1/2 months and it helped for just a bit and things got worse again. A dr. we saw on a weekend "sick" visit suggested giving her Reglan. That was a nightmare. It kept her AWAKE and she was still crying during the night. What a bad few days. We took her off of that and requested a visit to the Ped. GI doctor. The ped. got us in quickly and he suggested the combo of Previcid in the am and Zantac in the pm. This has helped us quite a bit, but she still has very restless sleep patterns. Your diagnosis is exactly the reason I want my DD on meds to help control the reflux. I was told by many people that the reflux coming back up the esophagus would eat it away as she got older and she would have worse problems as an adult. I would maybe get a second opinion or see a ped. GI for some help.

I appreciate your response. Our dd had colic, when none of the others did. Now, she's nearly 3 and still fights the bloating and gas. She rarely makes an entire night thru. Our ped, as I said, just gives us the "shell grow out of it." She vomits when she cries, and you can just hear her little tummy. Again, "an attention getter.."hmmm.. So, like I said, I have the eroded esophagus, and the pre cancerous condition, barrett's esophagus. Im only 34 and my dr said my esophagus looked like that of a 60 yr old. And, it IS a genetic predisposition..And STILL, the ped says, "aww..fergit about it.." BTW, I had no idea I had any reflux at all. I went in for stomach pain, because I thought I had an ulcer. Thats when they saw the esophagus. My stomach's acid had been eating away at it, as well as the other end of the stomach, the duodenum. The comment was that there was way too much acid in my stomach. Had no idea.
So, thanks again for the reply, we'll be looking to get that 2nd opinion.

 

[cdrn1]

One of the gripe waters is all natural and has only the ingredients it is supposed to have. The rest of the gripe waters are knock-offs and contain unknowns. I was told this by my pediatrician. I can't remember the name of the one you *should* use

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