Thursday, February 16, 2012

Not so good advice on how to administer acid reflux meds....

Written by

Lisa

Lisa

Tue, April 14, 2009

'Lay your baby down on a changing table or other flat surface.Gently open baby's mouth and squirt the Prevacid in, aiming at the inside of his cheek. Make sure to empty the syringe all at once. If you have any left over, or if you notice that there are still some capsules left at the tip of the syringe, add a bit more water and give it to your baby. Trick the baby into swallowing. Once the baby has gotten all the medication in her mouth, quickly blow a puff of air into her face. This will startle her briefly and cause her to swallow. If your baby takes a pacifier, offer it now. The sucking reflex will help the medication go down."

This was directly from eHow, what I don't agree with is that if the baby has reflux you shouldn't lay them down on a flat service, isn't that defeting the purpose of placing them on an incline and maybe it's just me but I can't see myself blowing a huge puff of air in my baby's face just to get them to take their meds. Also, if you empty the whole syringe into their mouths wouldn't that cause them to choke? What I have done with both of my children (and it takes a little patience) is make sure they are in a really good mood (play, bath, story book or tv) and then do a quiet time routine....during that routine when things are calming down I will put the meds into a syringe and keep putting little bits of it in theirs mouths until it is all gone (takes about 5 mins) and then give them a little sip of water to wash it down. With my son that has the reflux, it takes alot more time to get him calm enough but once he is ready for quiet time then its no problem. There have been times that I just can't get him to settle into quiet time at all but I still give him his meds, I think it's more the routine that I have worked out that helps...either way, whatever a parent does to make it work is good, no way is better then any other, they all have their benefits but the advice above just makes me shake my head and laugh because if I tried that with my son he would start choking immediately, probably vomit and then I've just made him more upset than he needs to be. Cry 

 

 

4/15/09 7:03am

Hello!

Thank you for sharing the information about giving medicine. I have written several Shareposts on giving medication too. Sometimes I have used your slow and steady approach too. A baby will hardly notice the medicine in her mouth when a tiny amount is given at a time.

Jan Gambino

The Reflux Mom

www.refluxmom.com

4/26/09 12:55am

Hi,

 

We finally switched from Prevacid to Prilosec and it has saved us a lot of trouble. No matter what you do, some prevacid granules will always get stuck in the syringe and the contents will not flow out.

 

We had some success wetting the solutab in a tiny baby spoon with a drop of water. Gently tease it so that it loses all the lumpiness. Then pick the soft blob on your fingertip and put it way inside her cheek. We also fooled our son by showing him his pacifier first; when he opened his mouth my little pinky went in instead of a pacifier. We did this for about 3 months.

 

Of course when he got older (i.e7 mo), we couldn't trick him any more, he started blowing the granules back on our face. We now have his prilosec suspension in two different flavors -- chocolate and bubblegum-- he loves both. Ask your dr if the Prilosec suspension can help your son. You may need a compounding phamacy for this (CVS, Walgreens are not useful). Also do not buy more than 15 days worth of meds, for some reason the compound is not as effective after 15 days (suggestion of my GI and pharmacist).

 

Good luck and hope this helps.

 

 

 

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