AboutMary Pat, R.N. Expertise I am happy to answer general non-diagnostic questions on infant & child care, infant & toddler feedings, discipline, illnesses, and how to access resources for the child with special needs.
Experience I am a pediatric nurse, an R.N. with 40 years experience first as manager of a community hospital pediatric department & 11 years working in a private pediatric practice. I have managed more than 100,000 phone calls from parents in private practice.
My son went last week for his 4 month appt. His doctor was concerned that he is not gaining weight well (he was 10% at his 2 month visit and is now 3%). She said he was proportionate and looked healthy, but was concerned none the less. I told her he spits up often and can be fussy during some feedings. She prescribed Prevacid and since he has been on it, there has been nothing but problems. He has always been fussy in the evenings, crying for about 1/2 hour at night when I'm attending to my other 3 children (baths & bed time - my husband is currently working out of state so I'm by myself). Now he has been crying all afternoon & evening unless I hold him. He won't sleep in his swing (where he used to be quite happy). If he falls asleep while nursing he will wake up as soon as I put him down. I am lucky if I can get 10 minutes before he has a meltdown. He has been sleeping through the night since 3 mo. and for the first 4 days of Prevacid, he was waking up like a newborn. He is now back to sleeping through the night, and is great in the am until about noon. Then he is fussy, screaming if I put him down, and won't nap unless he falls asleep nursing. I have been giving him one of the Prevacid solutabs at 8 am daily since last Wednesday. Other than that, he is breastfed and I started him on rice cereal (1-2 tbsp in the evenings) last Tuesday. I don't know if this is a coincidence, maybe something else is going on to make him cry act this way? Do you know if anyone else has had this sort of trouble with Prevacid? I'm so tempted to stop the Prevacid to see if it helps, but I'm afraid of his weight gain. He still spits up, but it's a little bit less than before. I really don't think he's eating any more than before (my Dr. thought that he may have been eating less because the acid reflux was making eating uncomfortable for him). Any advice?
Answer Dear Aimee:
Babies with reflux are discontent and fussy and spit up often but they continue to thrive in most cases. I have not seen infants have adverse reactions to Prevacid but have seen crying like this if they are on Zantac.
Because we do not know if something else may be going on to cause your infant to react this way, the safest thing to do and probably the most reassurring for you, is to take him in to see his pediatrician.
We will not know if something is bothering him otherwise until we examine him. He cannot tell us something is bothering him so we have to rely on his crying and fussiness to let his know he is not happy about something.
You may be right that it could be the Prevacid but you should see the doctor first before stopping it.
