Reflux / Dairy Intolerance (or Both) Babies

[calledout]

My son's pediatrician suspects that he has a dairy intolerance and / or reflux or both.  She advised eliminating dairy and prescribed zantac.  She said that I could start by my eliminating dairy alone (I'm nursing), or with the zantac alone, or both at the same time. My hope / preference is that the dairy elimination alone will do the trick b/c medication for a 4-week old scares me.  If the zantac is inevitablly the only thing that will help, I don't war to put it off.  Anyone dealt with this before?     

[keyslover]

I cut out dairy while nursing and that helped. We didn't' need meds. I hope it works for you.

[callalily]

Yes, my preemie had severe reflux and dairy intolerance. We had to do Prilosec when he was 6 weeks as he was not gaining weight die to the reflux. A dairy free formula plus the Prilosec did the trick. He grew out of the dairy intolerance around 1 or so. He is still medicated for reflux and we see a pedi gastro.

[no0b]

My CW had similar issues. He was on reflux meds for a bit since his symptoms were so bad. He is doing much better now that dairy has been cut out.

[Deleted]

DS had severe MSPI and reflux. I formula fed and we had him on Prilosec until about 18 months

[MrsDarcy]

My daughter started Zantac at two weeks, then a week later we switched her to Prevacid. She's doing much better on the Prevacid. Her reflux was the screaming/pain with nursing, not just spitting up.

[bag]

My son got diagnosed with reflux at 1 month. He was put on Prevacid and a new formula. It took a bit of time to notice a difference (we had to up his Prevacid dosage to twice a day) but once we got the right combination of formula/medication it made a world of difference.

As for the medication, I was reluctant about it as well but was desperate for some relief for both of us. He took it really well and there were never any side effects or difficulties from the medication.

He was on it until around 9-10 months when he started eating a lot more solids.

Good luck, I hope you can figure out a solution!

[lissaholly]

Yep. We did it all. I was dairy free from about 4 weeks old to about a year. DD#1 was on Zantac for about 2 weeks at about 3 weeks then Prilosec until about 8 months I think. It helped, it was not a miracle cure. She also was a comfort nurser so, she probably aggravated it. The really random plus side is that she has no problems taking medicine. I have never given her a medicine she will refuse yet( 6 years). Good luck!

[cuddlyevil]

DS#2 had reflux, we used zantac--it didn't help entirely as he also had laryngomalacia and one usually presents with the other. DS#2 ended up having to have a supraglottoplasty due to the laryngomalacia because it caused him to be a failure to thrive baby. A month after the surgery, he was take off the zantac and hasn't needed it since.

[calledout]

Sept 16, 2014 10:09:10 GMT -5 lissaholly said:

She also was a comfort nurser so, she probably aggravated it. 

This is ds, too. He's enormous and nursing constantly (nursing / screaming at the breast, then trying to nurse some more) , probably for comfort.  Pedi said that she she's rapid weight gain in a lot of reflux babies for this exact reason.

[redheadk]

We did Zantac (which doesn't do much for most) and Prevacid (high dosage). She didn't have any signs of having issues with dairy so I never cut that, just straight Severe Reflux for which we saw a pedi GI, dealt with a borderline FTT diagnosis thanks to weight gain issues associated with infant GERD.

One note about the reflux meds: They are not just for discomfort. The constant reflux of stomach meds is damaging to the esophagus and that is what hurts. Meds are not just for pain management, they are to prevent more severe damage to the esophagus.

[calledout]

Sept 16, 2014 10:12:14 GMT -5 jillianashley6 said:

I'm not for overmedicating, but for something like this...if it stops the hurting in their bellies, why would you not want to try it?

I hear ya.  I just suspect that there will be some trial and error here.  Is it dairy? Is it reflux?  Is it both?  If I do both (elimination + meds) the next step will be to stop one or the other (introduce dairy and / or stop the zantac) to see if that does anything.  I just want to get it "right" the first time without the need to do anything further.  Not even sure if that's possible under the circumstances.  Maybe the best thing is to throw the book at it just to get some relief and go from there.

[calledout]

Sept 16, 2014 9:59:29 GMT -5 @savestheday said:

DS had severe MSPI and reflux. I formula fed and we had him on Prilosec until about 18 months

Did you go straight to both (Prilosec and formula)?  Or did you start with one and progress from there?  How did you determine off the bat that he had MPSI and reflux?

DS has symptoms of both, and since reflux is a symptom of MPSI, it seems like the issue is that it's hard to tell if eliminating the dairy will also eliminate the reflux, or if he has reflux issues independent of the MPSI.  At least that's my understanding.  

[spwspw]

We went through something similar around 4 weeks. I first cut out all obvious sources of dairy (but not hidden sources), but it didn't seem to help. When he was 6 weeks, we made the decision to try Zantac, and at the same time I cut out all dairy. I probably should've done one or the other to pinpoint what the problem was, but he was miserable and I was desperate. He improved almost immediately, so I'm sure it was the Zantac more than the dairy. Around 3.5 months, his reflux flared and he stopped eating. Knowing I didn't have the discipline to do a total elimination diet, I switched him to Alimentum and he got put on Prevacid. It was never perfect and he never was a great eater with formula, but better than without the meds. He was finally able to get off meds around 12 months, and eats like a champ now.

ETA: He has problems with dairy or soy now.  Not sure if he ever did, since we never methodically tried eliminating either dairy or soy without a simultaneous change in medication.

[ellie]

I did both. The Zantac helped within one week. I continued my diet for another week or two and then slowly introduced dairy. She continued to be fine, so we kept her on the medication.

I know you don't like the idea of medicine, and honestly neither did I, but in this case I'm a huge proponent of it. It obviously reduced her pain and discomfort and enabled her to learn how to regulate her eating. She had been comfort nursing all the time before the Zantac.

Good luck, it's tough to have to make these decisions.

[Stingyshark]

We did not use zantac; as she didn't have reflux.

I cut out all dairy, beef & eggs. She never displayed any signs of pain - our only sign that something was amiss was blood (visible) in her stool. She's 8.5mths now; at around 7 mths I started eating eggs on occasion, and drinking regular coffee creamer. I have cheese/butter every now & then. I've had one hamburger. She appears to be doing okay with it. I haven't noticed any blood in her diapers. She also eats a lot of solids. (We EBF).

[cville]

I had to do both for O, who still was skinny for awhile because feeding him more only ever lead to more spit up. Nightmare. He's still super spitty, but now he's nice and fat. I did the dairy elimination around 6 weeks, zantac around then too. And I had to make sure when I was feeding him that his head was higher than his chest/stomach. Hardish to do when nursing (laying down especially, I'd put his upper body on a pillow). That helped too.

For L, I started with the dairy elimination and that was all she needed. She was less spitty, more insane diaper scariness, so perhaps that's why.

[pitterwoo]

I cut obvious dairy at 4 weeks and it helped, but wasn't enough. By 7,weeks I eliminated all dairy and soy. She has MSPI and is very sensitive to even hidden amounts of dairy or soy. I hate the diet restrictions, but seeing her doing great motivates me. (She's 14 weeks now).

[calledout]

Sept 16, 2014 11:57:47 GMT -5 frkls said:

is there any chance that you could have oversupply instead?

Talk to me about this, please:)  I def think oversupply could be a possibility and that I'm interpreting the "fussing at the breast" part as reflux instead of oversupply.  He does have additional symptoms - colicky, frequent / short bursts of nursing, rash on his face, projectile and sour spit-up, generally spitting up after approx 7 out of every 10 feedings, and sort of phlegmy sounding + this frequent sort of "whoop" / gasp sound that the pedi said is reflux-related.  Are these things that can be attributed to over-supply + normal baby stuff?  

ps - I was hoping that you'd also weigh-in from the nursing angle, so thanks for chiming in:)

[papie]

I did not cut dairy but my baby did Take Zantac for 8 weeks and it made a world of difference. It tastes terrible though, so thT was no fun.

[papie]

Oh and I am way too selfish to cut out dairy.
I also had oversupply but the difference this time versus my girls was they were happy sputters whereas Alex cried a lot after spitting up.

[nolasteph]

When my youngest was 3-4wks pedi said it was reflux and rx'd zantac. That didn't fully work and by 6wks I was beside myself. I figured out it could be a dairy sensitivity(allergy?) on my own and brought it up to him - he agreed that it *could* be that and I should give it a try (giving up dairy - as I was BFing). It made an immediate difference. We weaned her from the zantac and noticed no difference without it. I had to steer clear of all dairy, including "hidden" dairy (casein). It sucked for a little while, but I got used to it, and it meant the world to me to see how much happier and comfortable she was. If I ever did accidentally consume dairy (usually the hidden stuff), I would see how uncomfortable she was very quickly, not to mention I would be covered with spit-up and green poops. By 12mos, I tried adding a little dairy in to my own diet and she had no reactions. By 13mos, tried giving her cheese and noticed she was fine with it. Now this kid will drink a gallon of milk within days if I let her (she's three); she's grown out of it. Oh, and we switched pediatricians soon after we  (or rather I) discovered her dairy sensitivity, because he seemed so nonchalant and whatever and here I was a clueless newborn mom with an incredibly unhappy baby (he kept saying it was just colic - I had to be the one to bring up the reflux initially as well).

[calledout]

frkls - I think there could be something to the oversupply possibility.  The "symptoms" seems pretty accurate.  I almost never need to offer both boobs - he has always gotten more than enough from one and even after my boobs will still feel relatively "full."  Certainly can't hurt to try some of the suggestions and see what happens.  Thanks.

[water*drop]

DD was severely MSPI with reflux. I decided to try a diet change before medication, and her reflux actually cleared up completely with the diet change. It came back with even a little slip-up, so that sucked, but it was so awesome to have the symptoms go away. She outgrew it around 17 months.

[rex]

one thing i learned from L's gi is that reflux and intolerance often exist together.

i don't really know which one you should start with, because i would do both and stick with it for the foreseeable future.

[pitterwoo]

Sept 16, 2014 12:45:03 GMT -5 calledout said:

frkls - I think there could be something to the oversupply possibility.  The "symptoms" seems pretty accurate.  I almost never need to offer both boobs - he has always gotten more than enough from one and even after my boobs will still feel relatively "full."  Certainly can't hurt to try some of the suggestions and see what happens.  Thanks.

I had all of these symptoms going on with dd too.  I delayed really going into the elimination diet stuff because I was working on oversupply.  I still almost always only feed one side.  If I could go back I would eliminate everything right away and work on oversupply at the same time.  Then test adding foods back in.  It would have gotten us in the clear almost a month sooner if I had. Not saying your situation is necessarily the same as ours, but it could be more than just one factor.