Reflux Moms - Weaning off of medications - how do you know if not ready? - Update in First Post

I know a lot have posted about weaning off of reflux meds and that their baby was not ready and they went back on for a period of time. What signs/symptoms was your baby showing that they still needed the medication?

GI had us take Jordan off of his morning pepcid dose two weeks ago - he still get Prevacid 2x a day and evening pepcid dose - he is drinking noticeably less since off the morning dose. Sometimes, he will push the bottle away and outright refuse it. But, he is not showing other "classic" signs of reflux - no arching, crying, etc. There seems to be no rhyme or reason though - he drank a whopping 12 oz two days ago for the whole day - yet drank 26 yesterday and had a nice full bottle this morning (not norm for him.) DH thinks it's because he's eating so much more food, but GI feels I should give it another day or two and then go back on.

What do you guys think? What were your signs that DC wasn't ready?

Thanks!


Update - I started him back on the Pepcid this morning He drank maybe 10 oz the whole day yesterday and prob around 25 the day before so I don't get it. But since he's had these two days in the past two weeks that were SO low, I'm going to give it a shot and and see if it makes a difference. I still tend to think it's teething but we shall see.

Message edited 11/22/2010 8:16:08 AM.

Re: Reflux Moms - Weaning off of medications - how do you know if not ready?

We had to wean DS from 3 doses of Axid a day down to 2 at 9 months. The first 2 weeks he was off. He had a hard time eating without his morning dose. He was refusing and drinking less. And his burps were very acidic smelling. So I switched and took away his afternoon dose and he did a lot better with it. So now he gets a dose in the am and one before bed. Those times seem to be when his reflux is bad...He is almost 13 months old and he is still on 2 doses because he is still on Elecare. Still very allergic to soy. Haven't tried dairy yet..It is trial and error still. Hopefully your DS will feel better in a couple of weeks. Good luck.

Message edited 11/20/2010 12:33:54 PM.

Re: Reflux Moms - Weaning off of medications - how do you know if not ready?

ITA, it is hard at this age to figure things out bc there is more to complicate it (teething, solids, etc) My DS had silent reflux--at 6 months our ped said we could try weaning him. I posted something similar at that time as I was really unsure. Someone mentioned watching him when he burped if it bothered him. Since he seemed totally fine and not uncomfortable (and certainly not screaming as he was eating like he did when he was diagnosed) I kept weaning and he did fine. I BF, so I have no idea amounts he was taking. GL

Re: Reflux Moms - Weaning off of medications - how do you know if not ready?

Thanks for the responses, ladies. As I said, he's not showing any classic signs of reflux - barely burps after a bottle as is anymore, but it doesn't seem to bother him when he does. Again, only sign is drinking less and outright refusing bottle sometimes. Nick - as you said though, so may factors - solid foods, teething, lack of attention span for drinking bottle!

Re: Reflux Moms - Weaning off of medications - how do you know if not ready?

Honestly, that sounds more like teething to me than reflux issues. When Ava wasn't ready to wean off, she would still howl after a bottle because it burned so badly. HTH!

Re: Reflux Moms - Weaning off of medications - how do you know if not ready?

Re: Reflux Moms - Weaning off of medications - how do you know if not ready?

If you are at all in doubt, wait. There's nothing wrong with keeping him on the meds a few more weeks that way you can figure out if teething is causing changes or the weaning off the meds. We tried weaning off zantac at 7 months and it was the biggest mistake ever. My DS suffered horribly - his reflux was worse than i had ever seen it. He could not drink more than 2 oz without arching, crying, screaming (symptoms he had NEVER shown before when diagnosed at 7 weeks). These symptoms appeared after being off the zantac like 6 days.

I quickly put him back on and he was great. Now at 13 months I am trying to wean him again. I do it VERY VERY SLOWLY. As in, I have been lowering his A.M. dose by .2ml every 5 days. I am taking no chances with him. We are down from 2.5ml in the AM to 1.2ml. Still at 2.5ml at bedtime. I know my Dr thinks I'm crazy but i don't care. Better safe than sorry.

I remember your reflux posts in the past. I would wait to wean.

Re: Reflux Moms - Weaning off of medications - how do you know if not ready? - Update in First Post

Bump for update.