Hi,

DD is 3.5 months old. She has silent reflux and is on neocate for dairy/lactose intolerance. She has been on Dr Reddy's omeprazole for a few weeks now and form the day we started using granules, she showed an improvement. She is 5mg once daily. She has put on a lot of weight (now about 6.5kg) in the last 3 weeks and has started drinking quite large volumes as compared to previous.
We are currently abroad on holiday and I feel her reflux has got worse in the last few days- back to unsettled sleeping and evening distress. It seems to me she is suffering from early afternoon. Nights are ok.
I intend to increase the losec dose (the doctor in NZ was ok with this when I discussed the posiblity prior to leaving NZ and in fact the label on the omeprazole says to give twice daily but we never have) but I guess I'd like a little reassurance on this. I have read that the doses sometimes need to be incresed with weight.
I was also wondering if babies tended to do better on once or twice daily doses.
We will be visiting a GP after the weekend for more neocate anyway, however I am still interested in the practical experience of people on this site.

Thanks

I think 5mg 1x daily is a light dose for a 3.5 month old. We were on 4x that dose at the same age. If you think her reflux is not as well controlled then I would look at adding in the second dose if her behaviour doesn't pick up in a few days.

Hi

My ds is 4 mnths as is also on necoate and on 20mg losec. There weight gains definatly effect the losec dosage so could well be that she needs a stronger dose. Also some people has found using the dr reddys brand in younger babies have bad effects on there tummys, wind cramps etc so if the dosage increase doesnt help you could try switching to losec brand omeprazole. The reason people split the dosage ie: 5mg morning and 5mg at night is to reduce side effects like wind pain. Also do you give the dr reddys in a little bit of apple half an hour before a feed? The losec works better half an hour before a feed but can be tricky to do.

Best of luck I hope she improves soon.

Thanks for your advice.
I know 5mg is a low dose but family were concerned about increasing it. Your comments have given us reassurance.

In any event, this morning we gave 10mg in apple 20 min before a feed. I used to give 20 min before a feed but when at the mothercare unit, they said it could be given directly before, so I'd been doing that for the last couple of weeks.

Wizz851, are you saying the higher dose of omeprazole can cause wind pain? my concern for giving two 5mg doses is that I want to ensure efficacy in the afternoon so I feel I'd need to give one at say 7am and the next at 12 or 1 which is only 5-6 hours after first dose. Is that ok do you think? Thinking about it now, it's probably better than all at once to reduce risk of side effects even if the doses are relatively close together. Giving at 'night' is too late for benefit, I feel.

Thanks again.

Hi

So you want to give the losec in the afternoon to help out with the unsettleness. I wanted to do the same thing with my first dd but was explained on here in a post that is doesnt matter on what time of the day it is taken it will benefit. ie: if you take it in the eveing is will still work the next day. So I dont think splitting the dose in the morning and then again at 12.00 will make any difference. Have you had a look on the www.cryingoverspiltmilk.com website as they have all the medication on there with info on the correct dosage and how it works so it may help you understand it better. Its worth a look it helped me to understand. Dont forget that it can also take up to 3 weeks to see any difference on an increase on losec as the acid burning up the windpipe needs time to heal any damage done to the wind pipe. Have you tired gavison before a feed or in the bottle ? Some mums find this helps but can also cause constipation in some babies. You may also need to look at trying losec if it she doesnt seem to get any better.

Good luck I hope that helps

I also struggled with when to give my DD the losec. The nights were when I really wanted some respite and began by splitting my dose into 5mg morning and 5mg evening, but moved to 10 mg in the morning as it seemed to give her more time to get rid of the wind that it seemed to cause for her. I might well have been clutching at straws though, but it seemed better for me this way.

I also did the split dose of 5mg in the morning and if He was unsettled in the afternoon give him the other 5mg
In the end gave the whole 10mg in the morning and we were good all day

A bit of an update:
We felt the one 10mg dose caused discomfort due to side-effects so have gone to 5mg twice daily (7am and 4pm). This seems to have resettled everything well but now she is getting very upset with taking the granules. We've had to resort to just popping the granules straight into her mouth as it's faster and quicker than with apple puree, the latter of which was causing much distress.
She's fairly sensitive about things going into her mouth after the early problems with presumed lactose/dairy intolerance, gaviscon, colic powder, untreated reflux etc etc. She balks at a bib being put on too. I can't imagine what starting on solids is going to be like!
Thanks for your help.

vetgirly not sure if you are breast or bottle feeding but I used to pop in the granules then straight on the breast/bottle