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Please give advice on Zantac and babies
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Anonymous
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We have a 5 week old that we THINK has reflux, but are not sure. Pediatrician was quick to prescribe Zantac for us, and we would him on it for a few days now. We are not sure we see much difference in fussiness, but there is some.
Question is - was I too quick to put my DS on medication like this? What are side effects or risks that I am taking? Can any parents who decided for/against medicating tell me their thoughts here on risks of Zantac on newborn/infants? I don't want my child to be in pain (though reflux doesn't seem to be HORRIBLE - he is gaining weight) at the same time don't want to put him at undue risk either... THANKS |
Anonymous
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by 6-8 weeks our son was absolutely miserable and his pediatrician prescribed zantac- -we saw no relief and waiting 5 days. We then put him on prevacid and it was a godsend! I still don't know if it was reflux or general newborn intestinal discomfort but no matter what he was a completely different baby once we started the prevacid. FWIW some pediatricians prescribe both. I think our son was on both for about 2-weeks and we weaned him from the zantac. By 6 months, our son was off the prevacid. I think the side effects are minimal, at least from what I remember.
good luck and if you don't see relief in 3-4 days, i wold call your pediatrician. |
Anonymous
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I would keep with it for some time. If your son has erosions due to reflux, those take time to heal. So you won't necessarily see progress for some time.
FWIW DS was gaining weight even as he was spitting up blood. So I would not discount the symptoms simply because of weight gain. Lastly, our experience was also that we saw better results with the switch to prevacid. That said, Zantac is a good medication for adults, so I imagine it should work for babies. And I don't think there is any risk associated with Zantac. They put babies on it all the time and I have never heard of a problem. |
Anonymous
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Doctors today are WAY too quick to prescribe these proton-pump inhiibiitors for infants. Not only do they not work, but they can have very serious side effects for infants, including upper respiratory infections and problems with the absorption of nutrients. See the The Journal of Pediatrics, 2009, April 154:514.
Is your child breast fed? If that hasn't worked and if formula isn't working you might want to try a homemade formula. Google the Weston Price foundation for information on that. No infant five weeks old should be on these powerful prescriptions. |
Anonymous
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Our pediatrician was the opposite with our first DC. She suffered and suffered until she got the Zantac. Like some of the PPs, things got even better when we switched to Prevacid. She was off the meds by 18 months.
DC#2 had reflux even worse and went on the meds right away. I think she went off around 12 months, but I don't remember exactly. Dr. Kerzner (think the first name is Bennie) at Children's is great if you need a specialist referral. He saw both my kids. The drugs really helped both of my kids and they are totally normal in every way now. |
Anonymous
| we have the same experience with prevacid. zantac didn't really too much and apparently the dosage is outgrown quickly. prevacid would be worth a try -- sounds like if it didn't work for your baby then you know it's probably something other than reflux. |
Anonymous
Zantac is NOT a proton pump inhibitor. It is a histamine-2 blocker. |
Anonymous
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i was also hesitant to put my child on zantac but after reading and talking with our doctor (who is not a quick one to prescribe meds), I think zantac is pretty safe with minimal side-effects. My DS ended up staying on it until he was just over a year. We tried to get him off of it several times, but his reflux got worse. Zantac is not supposed to help with the amount and frequency of reflux, just the pain from the acid, but it actually seemed to cut down the frequency with my DS. I assume it was an indirect benefit from reduced acid irritation...
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Anonymous
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Zantac worked brilliantly for us, although it did take some time. I haven't read the journal article PP cites, I agree that (a) the basic description doesn't include Zantac and (b) if your baby does have reflux, left untreated it can lead to respiratory problems of its own because the child will aspirate the stomach acid. Ugh.
OP, you might want to give Zantac a try for a period of time and if reflux remains an issue, consider another drug. |
Anonymous
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Zantac is pretty fast acting. If you don't see improvement in 3-5 days, then you should talk to your pedi about trying something else. Zantac worked for DS from 8 weeks until 10.5 mos when he finally outgrew his reflux. I am not pro-medication by any means, but this made a huge difference in my DS's comfort, temperment and eating.
If you end up using any reflux medication long-term, be aware that dosages need to be adjusted as baby grows. I always knew when we needed to talk to his pedi about changing the dosage because the crying, spit-up, back arching - all the symptoms - would come back. Once the dosage was adjusted for his weight gain, he would be fine again. |
Anonymous
I have to completely disagree with your statement that an infant should not be on medication. We went that no medication route, DW tried eliminating everything in her diet that could cause a problem for our EBF baby, and by eight weeks he was spitting up blood on a daily basis. He had to get an emergency endoscopy, and they found erosions in his esophagus and near his duodenum. We could see the pictures of the bleeding spots. And I bet that plenty of babies are having the same issues, but the blood is not making it back up to their spit-up. Not treating this is inhumane. I think that it's fine having a person philosophy that is more reserved on the use of medication, but you can't make blanket judgements. Lastly on the paper, it will (and should) take more than one paper to overturn the PPI treatment protocol favored by pediatric gastroenterologists everywhere. The change between Zantac and PPI's is remarkable. |
Anonymous
Amen! (Second poster) For the first poster above, I wholeheartedly agree on being more reserved with medication. Not OP, but I'm another mom of a baby with suspected reflux. We are still (11 weeks in) doing the elimination diets, etc, to make absolutely sure there is nothing we can do naturally to fix this before we medicate (I sure as hell would not substitute my perfectly digestible breastmilk, which actually DOES reduce respiratory infections, with formula, homemade or not! I don't think formula is terrible or anything, but why would anyone suggest such a bad idea?). Anyway, as an adult who has suffered from GERD for the past 10 years, I can tell you personally how much it hurts. I also have the distinct pleasure of endosopys every other year to make sure the years and years I let it go untreated have not caused barrett's esophagus, a cancerous condition. Now, true enough, most babies reflux are not as serious as PPs, above, but you can bet they hurt. Oh, and the acid seeps up into the sinuses and causes a number of sinus infections for the sufferer, every year. I'm a complete and utter holistically-minded person, who uses medication only when truly needed, but the message above is completely bunk. PS. Zantac is not a PPI. |
Anonymous
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One more thought. OP, it's possible that your child personally does not have reflux. If you aren't sure and aren't comfortable with the medication, it is definitely OK to say let's try to approach the situation naturally. If the Zantac does not work, you may want to consider other options as simple as keeping baby upright for 20 minutes after feedings, shorter, more frequent feedings, diet issues, and (most importantly, IMHO, making sure baby is getting enough of the richer, (less acidic) hindmilk from the breast, if you are breastfeeding. If you are formula feeding, I believe there are special formulas to help deal with reflux.
Good luck to you! Im the mom who has been trying to figure out "is it reflux?" for almost 3 months. It's not easy! |
Anonymous
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Not inclined to read all the posts, but it REALLY made a difference with DC! I would highly recommend it! |
Anonymous
| OP, try to see a ped GI ASAP. We waited a bit foolishly thinking that it would resolve itself and that the meds would work perfectly overnight. Didn't happen. Our ped started with Prevacid which generally seems to be considered stronger stuff, but we didn't see much improvement. A month or so later we went to the ped GI, who prescribed a maxx regimen including Prevacid, Zantac, and Mylanta as needed. Very quickly things improved and the baby was so so much more comfortable. We quickly weaned himoff the Zantac and Mylanta, and are slowly now at 9m downscaling the Prevacid. I'm not med happy either (like all the PPs) but I also don't believe a baby should be tortured every time he eats simply because I think I know better than all the doctors who prescribe this stuff. My son also had no weight gain problems - this is actually very common as some kids eat to try to soothe the pain of the reflux, while others develop a real aversion to eating. Either way, no fun and deserves to be treated. But a ped GI (like Dr. Pluta at Capital Medical Group) is definitely worth the trip. |