I keep writing out our whole story but everything I write points to taking her back off dairy so I think I have found my answer lol

Just wondering if anyone has any experience with older children with reflux that didn't have it as a baby. She was an absolute dream.

We have tried rantidine - all of one dose lol which was quickly spat out again. sorry I did try putting some in some OJ as well but she wouldn't have it.

Do I persue trying something else, or do I go the diet route and take her back off dairy and see how she goes?

My 4.5 year old still has reflux, which is definitely made worse by dairy.
She has Rice Milk instead. She can tolerate cheese for some reason but rarely has any other kind of dairy product.

She is on Losec and is now able to swallow the pill.
That might be worth a shot?

Doctors generally try ranitidine first before Losec.

Giving dairy free a go would be a good option I would think. I'd go completely dairy free to get a base line and then introduce some back to see how much she can tolerate - or not tolerate.

We haven't managed to get off the Losec yet, but we have a Coeliacs diagnosis hanging over us as well so it confuses things slightly.

I have to say that dairy free and Losec make one very happy, normal child here.

Medications alone don't control allergy symptoms in my experience so it would seem your child will need the dairy free diet regardless.

If she does need Ranitidine syrup it is strongly mint flavoured. It will taste worse in juice. You could flavour it with a little hot chocolate powder! (Cadbury's Hot Chocolate is dairy free.)

Hi
I couldnt get my kids to take rantidine syrup at all, and they are usually pretty good with medications, so it must be pretty ick. I use rantidine tablets and grind them up in a small motar and pestle and add it to whatever drink the kids are having. Usually milk.
I have thought about setting it in some melted white chololate but I havent quite got that motivated as yet.

Maybe try her dairy free first and if that settles the reflux symptoms then well and good, if not then omeprazole could be an answer.

Ironically I had William refuse to take omeprazole granules as a littlie and we had to stay with ranitidine but we had the dubious advantage of giving cisapride as well which is sweet so we'd to ranitidine with a cisapride chaser!
He happily took the capsules when he went back on meds aged 4 1/2ish though.

But having tasted the ranitidine myself I can promise you it is pretty disgusting! Thomas was a total nightmare to get it into although the other two were okay.

Best of luck with it though!

Dairy free has definitely helped in the past. We went GF for a while too but I wasn't convinced that there was any huge difference. We already use the Cadbury Hot Choc for that very reason, and it's yummy Won't be hard to flick her back on to rice milk (except for on the pocket!)

I did try the rantidine a long time ago...it's since been thrown out lol

I'm just not sure why she would seem to be ok for about 6mths and now be doing it again. Is it possible that reflux is triggered by stress or is it definitely just a physical thing?

We have had the same Mummy T, Emily (age almost 6) has been off meds since she was 2 but since starting school she seems to be refluxing again. I think to much diary is a problem but I also think stress seems to be a big factor here. 6 days from going back to school, which I know she is anxious about and she is waking complaining of a sore throat again and saying that she is refluxing.

Hiya, I've had extensive trouble with my DS2 and "reflux". His began sometime after 2yo and peaked at around four years old. In the end he had a scope as EE was a possibility due to the other kids allergy history and everything was fine. It all sort of spontaniously resolved after a few years of diet changes, losec and finally the scope. He does still have bouts of "reflux" and it does seem to be both diet and sometimes stress and tiredness. I think over time he's learned to live with it We only medicated for one year and it didn't fully remove the symptoms which indicated allergy/intolerance rather than true reflux but it did help him. I started a similar thread to this myself a couple of years ago.

I'd go the diet route and be really strict about it - also keep a food diary so you can really see what's going on.

oh that's really interesting.

Daisyblue I didn't even think about school! We don't know where we are going to be living/working as of 1st June and have told the girls cuz it was likely they were going to overhear it when we talked to friends. Poor wee poppet has more going on than I thought about...she say she is excited about school but it's still a change eh.

I think DD just deals with it too. She doesn't often complaign that it hurts but I can hear her burping/assume it's coming up then going back down.

Her issues really peaked after I weaned her on to formula so dairy is definitely an issue for her.

Think we're going to have to go down that route again! Just feel stink that I can't get it sorted/thought it was sorted so mucked around with her diet again.

Oh don't feel stink!
It's a hard road - my older two were off meds aged about 2 1/2 and had to go back on around 4 1/2-5yrs old. In hindsight they were clearly still refluxing - William was actually spilling on occasion - and they should never have been off meds that long.

William yo-yoed on and off for some time and self-medicated with gaviscon for a good 6 months before I realised how much he was using and put my foot down about seeing a doc which he hadn't wanted to do. Very long story short he wound up having reflux surgery aged 11 1/2 as his reflux was so bad he was bringing up blood streaked reflux!

The surgeon found that all those years of reflux had shortened his oesophagus, his stomach had adhered to the oesophagus and the oesophagus had adhered to his diaphram as well. The surgeon specifically told the nurses to watch his pain levels as he had lived with pain for years and so wouldn't report it well - thanks reflux!

I know with both William and Nicholas going back on meds co-incided with starting school or the build-up to it. I know that there's not a heck of a lot of research on reflux and stress but I think I've seen a linkage in my older boys anyway.

But when they are long term refluxers they do just deal with it, it's normal to them so they don't complain. It can be hard being the detective!

Gem yo yos between great and awful. June last year, she was retching all the time and the only thing that settled her down was a really really restricted diet, and now all of a sudden she can eat everything except we haven't tried gluten yet. Still on medications though. It is just bizarre.

We were told by the gastroenterologist that when her stomach is irritated, more foods will make her really ill. When you think of it that way it isn't so bizarre but what makes it irritated in the first place? A variety of foods over a period of time, a disease process, surgery, stress....???

I'm just enjoying my happy girl.