Anyone Heard of this for Reflux in Infants?

[brittone2]

Yes, it was debunked, and the American Academy of Pediatrics is in fact very much against it. However, a lot of GI docs are still doing it. That was the second course of treatment for DD2's reflux and I have a friend who has a son who has the same thing and they were told to thicken his bottles with Oatmeal. It helps it from coming up so easy, but doesn't solve the problem at all. We decided to wean her from the rice after finding the right med and having her switch (reluctantly) from breastmilk to Nutramigen.

Thanks for clarifying. I found this link from one of the previous links and it mentions there may be more respiratory reflux issues, etc. in infants w/ thickened feeds. Maybe less regurgitation, but as you said, it isn't really "fixing" the problem...just may stop so much from coming back up.

http://depts.washington.edu/growing/Feed/GER.htm

[kbud]

DD2, my little over achiever, has had severe reflux (silent variety) since early infancy. Neither Zantac nor Axid (in the same class of drugs) helped us much at all. We did better with Prevacid (a PPI), but not great. We have had the greatest success with Zegerid (Prilosec, another PPI), but had to buffer it with Tums Cherry Supreme and gas drops to help her keep it down. From what I recall, Reglan is more controversial due to side effects. I found the following sites to be very helpful:

www.infantreflux.org (you will find tremendous information on the site and message boards; Laura (hellbennt) is a moderator)
http://www.marci-kids.com/ (great information for infants with reflux; my pedi GI personally knew one of the doctors which was great; consulting via email, they assisted us with Zegerid dosage and buffering)

I actually do not know how we would have survived without these resources.

I cannot say enough about those 2 sites! I would not have survived without them!

I say see a pediatric GI.

My dd #1 was on prilosec and Reglan. She had pretty bad silent reflux but also projectile vomit at times. Reglan can cause neurological side effects in infants. I was told it would be obvious if she were having troubles with it, she'd be shaking. The side effects go away when the medication is stopped. She never had any obvious signs and was on the Reglan for 6-9 months. It did help her reflux. Once we stopped it though it was odd she was just a much happier kid. It was like maybe the Reglan was making her feel "off".

Your dr sounds way off on the current reflux treatments. Thickening doesn't really help. Switching to formula almost always makes it worse. In fact, bf is best for reflux babies.

Zantac doesn't usually help much at all. A ppi (prevacid or prilosec) are best. Neither though will stop the reflux just stop the stomach from producing acid.

Is he a happy spitter? Is he gaining weight? does he seem uncomfortable or waking consistently (I mean like hourly, I know babies wake a lot)? If he's happy, healthy, and gaining weight sometimes nothing needs to be done.

I'd for sure head to infantreflux.org. Go to the forums. They are a wealth of knowledge. I really don't know what I would have done without the knowledge I found there.

Good luck.

[KpbS]

We decided to wean her from the rice after finding the right med and having her switch (reluctantly) from breastmilk to Nutramigen.

Very similar to our experience.