Paediatric chiropractor or osteopath for reflux? Post Reply

[Bubs]

Rantidine is very very weight dependant and will need upping frequently, asfor omeprazole. Worth noting with these drugs that here's a 'GP dose' and a 'gastro paed dose' - hence large variations.

Ranitidine has good antihistamine properties which is often why improvement is seen.

We didn't along with omeprazole either and I'm quite glad really, I know of people who get a little dependant on it, with further and further increased doses & find it v hard to get off. Our Doc in particular believes that there should be a move away from PPI dependence (as it has downsides - reducing stomach acid isn't a great idea for any length of time) and try to get to the root of the issue, be it allergy or other.

[ready2pop]

Bubs - I wasn't madly keen on my LO being on such a high dose but he had very severe reflux and it was the only thing that worked.

Rantidine (zantac) and omeprazole essentially work in the same way but to a different degree. Zantac reduces stomach acid production, omeprazole stops it altogether.

My son was on zantac pretty much from birth but it didn't help at all. In fact, it still allowed sufficient acid to be produced that by the time we saw the specialist my son had severe damage to his esophogus from the acid burning it.

It took us a long time to find a good specialist and we saw many doctors all of whom told us zantac was the only 'safe' medicine for a baby (we'd tried changing diet, thickening milk etc... already).

Finally we saw the head of paediatric gastro at a top London hospital, she was exasperated no one had tried him on omeprazole before. He was given it and within a month or so the damage was able to repair itself and he went from crying 24/7 to being a normal happy baby (albeit one who was still sick a LOT). He also started to feed well enough that we were able to avoid him being tube fed which had looked like a definite possibility while his reflux was bad.

Sorry, long story but my point is that the scare-mongering some drs do about Omeprazole is really unhelpful. It works and has no proven long term side-effects for children. Whilst taking it your child is a little more susceptible to stomach bugs but that is it. If you have a child with severe GERD it really is the only thing that will stop the pain.

Also, I don't really follow the point about trying to 'get to the root of the issue instead'? Yes I agree it is important to rule out allergies or any physical deformity that might be causing the reflux but in the vast majority of babies the cause is just that the muscle between the stomach and esophagus is not strong enough because it is not mature. In which case all

Because of this 98% of babies outgrow reflux altogether by the age of 2. The period you are medicating them for is therefore naturally limited and so it is not true that it is then 'hard to get off' the meds - you wait until they hit 2 and then gradually reduce the dose while watching for the symptoms to recur. If they don't - which will be the case for all but 2% -you stop it altogether.

This is what happened with us.

Sorry this has become a bit more of a rant than I planned but I had to fight and fight to be given omeprazole for my son and it then changed our lives. I wouldn't want anyone else to be put off using it on the basis of what Bubs says.

[Bubs]

Gosh, sorry, scaremongering wasn't my intention at all - in fact we got omeprazole for my daughter at 3 weeks old.

Sadly for us it didn't work, as we have deeper rooted issues it seems. Ranitidine only worked v briefly too and now we're on a whole raft of horrible meds (ketotifen nalcrom, montelukast). I'm not anti-meds, I promise. I was just meaning that as a starter ranitidine is a gentler one to try FIRST as its an H2 receptor as opposed to a PPI.

God knows we all do whatever works for us. Omeprazole is v widely used, rightly so. By long term we're talking years and years, which isn't the case for most kids. If you're lucky enough that omeprazole negates the issue and you can then progress to decrease it without issue then that's brilliant, and I'm sure in straight reflux (so just the immature tummy muscle) that works fine.

I'm probably coming from a skewed perseoctive where allergies and other conditions are at play and it isn't just 'straight' reflux, and seeing friends with older children on crazy doses of PPI struggling to decrease. They are the other end of the spectrum, I'm sure.

I guess my point was that sometimes just stopping the acid isn't enough ....... a little acid can be needed to keep nasty tummy germs at bay we were told (we are also under a highly respected gastro paed at Gt Ormond St who is the guy who's told us all this).

My first DD had 'straightforward' reflux, and she did great on her meds and is doing great now age 7 (albeit with a bit of ENT issue from the refluxing), my second reflux baby (now toddler - reflux not cleared up by 2) is a little more complex, with some allergies & immune issues at play meaning usual meds aren't really helping us, so I've just got a bit of a broader range of opinion on this now.

I would always try ranitidine first, then always definitely got to omeprazole. But what I mean is, try not to keep on pushing that dose up to crazy amounts over long periods (and here I have to say, I don't find 10mg high, I'm not including you in that - I'm talking 30/40) if it isn't doing much other than a short term gain - maybe investigate other plans. Thats' all I meant. It's the go to drug to try initially (after ranitidine) and I agree with its use as a short term thing.

[Bubs]

Sorry meant *10/20 not too high*.

I'm glad it's doing the job for your little one, truly. I had in mind friends on whopping, ever-increasing doses where it STILL wasn't resolving things fully. And that to me isnt a good place to be.