01.25.10  |  News  |  By Corine Tran

More Reflux

Aiden's reflux had seemed to be under control and better. We were really seeing a happy baby after starting the compounded prevacid. But after about 4-5 days the cough was returning and I could see that Aiden was becoming unhappy again. I had read online and was told by Dr. Phillips from Marci-kids.com that the compounded prevacid would stop being effective and that prevacid should not be compounded. I had originally told this to Aiden's pediatrician and even faxed her some information from the marci-kids.com website. But she still called it in as a compound. Once Aiden stopped being happy and I heard that cough return I called the pharmacy to ask them about the prevacid. I was assured it would be good for 2 weeks. The pharmacist told me that the information he had from the drug company said it would be good for 2 weeks. I wasn't buying it so I refilled Aiden's Rx of the compounded prevacid. It was Friday and I needed to get Aiden through the weekend without being miserable. After talking to his pediatrician about the returning cough she wanted us to go see a GI specialist but didn't want to call in any other medications. So I already had planned on bringing Aiden to see Dr. Khoshoo since several friends had recommended him. We had our appointment on Monday and it went pretty well. It was a huge relief and very gratifying when the doctor said that the compounded prevacid I was giving Aiden was not any good. He even said the pharmacy should have known NOT to compound it because prevacid is unstable and becomes uneffective when compounded. So yay! That was nice to hear. I mean I already knew that but it was nice to have a doctor agree since Aiden's pediatrician wasn't comfortable calling it in any other way. Dr. Khoshoo put Aiden on the prevacid solutabs. We went home with a Rx for those. Aiden can also take mylanta 3-4 times a day. Dr. Khoshoo was concerned that maybe something else is going on and drew a little picture of an esophagus with a little kink in it and said Aiden might have that. But they would have to get him to drink barium and take x-rays to be sure. He wanted to go the route of trying the prevacid solutabs first and if we saw improvement skipping the x-ray. So that has been the plan, take the prevacid. I was really excited and emailed Dr. Phillips to let him know. Im sure he is way busy but I wanted to let him know. He responded that prevacid solutabs have a 50:50 chance of being absorbed in the infant stomach. Great! Aiden's cough persists. I call it a cough but its like he refluxes and chokes and then starts coughing. Almost like when you swallow the wrong way and cough and choke and try to catch your breath. He does it when awake and in his sleep, it wakes him up, its wakes us all up. A new thing that has started is that after feedings he becomes very agitated and fussy and squirmy. This is followed by lots of spit up. I hold him in a standing position after feeding, you cant get more upright then that. And while I am holding him I can feel his tummy and then he spits up. To me its more like throwing up the way his tummy tightens. Afterwards he seems to feel better, but then he is hungry again. One thing I dont like about the solubtas is that they have to be given on an empty stomach and then he cant eat for 30 minutes. So this is where we are with the reflux.