Next step?

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Permalink Reply by Jenny Rawling on April 6, 2012 at 8:51

In my experience the only thing that has massively lessened Matthew's reflux is time. Cutting out dairy/soya improved him immensely in terms of tummy pain, horrid poos, poor weight gain and general irritability. It did decrease the reflux (probably because the gut probs made him reflux more?) but he still refluxed significantly well into his second year. I'm fairly sure he is not intolerant to anything else.

I don't know about the omeprazole - we did both things around the same time and Matthew was on the omep for a year. I wonder now if he needed it or if the diet changes alone would have been enough - at the time I was so desperate for things to improve I wanted everything done. On the other hand, I think the meds will not work well if there is an untreated intolerance so I'm not surprised when you last tried it you didn't get good results.

If he tolerated the omep and you are left with reflux that is significant adversely affecting him I think I'd give the meds another try. Or alternatively, would you feel you can carry on as you are until he's 18m/2yrs....?

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Permalink Reply by Jenny B on April 6, 2012 at 12:13

Thank you, That's really interesting Jenny, and makes me wonder if that will be our story too. Lucas is a much happier baby when not eating the wrong foods, or teething, or poorly. It's all been so mixed up recently with everything happening all at once. When he's not reacting though he is a lovely little boy. His reflux only seems bad when it comes to his sleeping. He still struggles in a car seat, though not as much, and his sleeping has improved, but we still have to co sleep with him raised and with him waking and sleep feeding (although now the gaps between waking can be 2-3 hours on a good night). Was Matthew like this even with omeprazole? Or did the medicine work to improve the reflux as well?  I am wondering whether we might see a difference now if we've removed the intolerances? 
I'm glad we did what we did and removed all medication, but now we might be getting to the bottom of things im wondering if now might be the time to reintroduce them as we know better what we're dealing with. We've got the antihistamines if he reacts to foods which did help a lot. It's hard knowing what to do for the best. I would love to rely on doctors but as lovely as they are, my GP doesn't know much about it, and we don't see the consultant enough to gain any guidance. 
Thank goodness for the wisdom found on here! 

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Permalink Reply by Laura McKechnie on April 6, 2012 at 19:22

We were initially given ranitidine then omperazole too when my LO was very young and like yourself found it made no difference.  The screaming, lack of sleep and refusing to feed still continued. 

The switch to nutramigen and then neocate made a big difference for us along with introducing only low allergen foods and doing so gradually.  He started putting on the weight but I'm afraid the sleeping was still terrible.  For us this didn't improve properly until we were put back on to Omeprazole.  I had to play around to get the best dosage for him (enough to be comfortable but not more than was necessary).  Seb now sleeps through the night and just the last week has started sleeping for 12 hours at a time.  I think part of it is age as he's now 15 months but the way in which the drugs have been introduced (i.e.not together) show me that for us the omeprazole was a big part of the puzzle and has definitely helped to make him more comfortable.

Hope this makes sense and helps you with your decision.x 

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Permalink Reply by Beverley on April 6, 2012 at 20:43

That's good to know Laura. I always wonder to what extent it helps with allergic LOs. My child slept 12 hour nights from 8 months but it was the Neocate that was the last piece of the puzzle as he was already on a big dose of omeperazole which had no impact until then. X

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Permalink Reply by Jenny B on April 6, 2012 at 21:37

Thanks Laura, that is very good to know and helpful, ive been wondering if someone out there had had that experience, thank you!I cannot imagine Lucas ever sleeping 12 hours a night! 
It is just like putting pieces of a puzzle together, I do feel like a detective constantly analysing the evidence and researching to find the culprit. I think I will try omeprazole again and see if that's the missing piece! 

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Permalink Reply by Beverley on April 6, 2012 at 23:10

Hope it is Jenny!

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Permalink Reply by laura taylor on April 9, 2012 at 10:21

Jenny, have you tried thickening the neocate feeds?  Certainly with Harry he refluxes a lot more if his feeds aren't thickened, but not sure if the same applies to a silent refluxer rather than a puker.  You might have to be careful with what you use to thicken though.  We were initially prescribed carobel but he was horrible on it (I think carob seed this is made from is related to soya).  Then we used thick and easy (corn based) which was great re the reflux but gave him awful diahrrea.  Now we use baby rice on the recommendation of the dietitian. 

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Permalink Reply by Jenny B on April 9, 2012 at 12:18

I haven't yet because he's not taking any, he doesn't like it with nesquik either! But that's a good tip for when he hopefully is on it. It does seem quite thin! Thanks :)

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