Any ideas to help with difficult child's acid reflux?

BeyondWeary

New Member
Hi All Most Wonderful and Blessed and Battle-weary Parents -
My 11 yr. difficult child complained of heartburn guite often when given Abilify. He was on it about a year. psychiatrist said to give it with food. That seemed to help, but then the difficult child complained of stomach pain in November and school work suffered. psychiatrist said to grind it up. That didn't change the situation.

I took him to a family doctor and he prescribed omneprazole. Pain continued and school work suffered. I took him to a Pediatric Gastroenterologist and he did a endoscopy and stool sample. Result was no ulcers, but some acid reflux. I have tried all the over-the-counter heartburn/stomach medications inbetween the morning and evening dose of omneprazole.

The child gets quite irritable when he feels bad. Of course he doesn't complain when he is playing gameboy, legos, etc. His school work is not getting finished, and the pain seems to be an off-again, on-again thing. His older brother pulls the "I don't feel good" routine to get out of school work. THIS little bugger is very oppositional - very difficult to get him to make his bed, sit for breakfast, take clothes to washing machine, pick up after himself, etc. etc. all day LONG. I mean L O N G.

He is usually a good student once you finally :919Mad:get him started on his school work, and he makes good grades if you give him enough attention. I will take him back to family doctor tomorrow.

He has been off the Abilify for about a month to see if that made any difference. It hasn't.

Its time for my relaxing hot bubble bath now. :bath:
Thank you for any suggestions. - BeyondWeary
 
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smallworld

Moderator
You might want to try one of the prescription medications for acid reflux. To be most effective, they should be given 30 minutes before a meal (according to my father, who is a gastroenterologist).

Sometimes when somatic complaints continue despite treatment, it means the child is not stable on his psychiatric medications and the psychiatrist may need to make medication adjustments.
 

flutterby

Fly away!
What is the dose of the omneprazole? 20mg is what you get OTC, but you can go to 40mg.

I started at 20mg, then went to 40mg. It worked for a while and then I started having breakthrough symptoms. My doctor switched me to Protonix which has helped some. I still have breakthrough symptoms, but they're not as intense. Plus, they're smaller pills and easier to swallow - which is a big issue for me.

Also, you should know that people on proton pump inhibitors - Prilosec (omneprazole), Protonix, Nexium, etc - do not absorb regular calcium properly. Talk to your doctor, but calcium citrate is the supplement that is needed.
 

gcvmom

Here we go again!
FWIW, I had chronic acid reflux due to a hiatal hernia, and the nighttime reflux was not helped at all by OTC products. What worked best for me was a combination of rx medication and changing my sleep position to elevate my head/shoulders. Aciphex worked best for me (until my insurance nixed it), and now I'm taking Nexium and it seems to work almost as well. Protonix did not work very well for me, but everyone's different.
 

flutterby

Fly away!
J -

They really recommend that you elevate the head of your bed, not just your sleeping position. Don't ask me why, although I knew at one point.
 

smallworld

Moderator
FWIW, Aciphex works best for me (I also have chronic reflux). I failed a course of Nexium when I was first diagnosed about 7 years ago. My GI doctor had to write a letter of necessity to my insurance company that I needed to be on Aciphex because I had failed other PPIs.
 

Josie

Active Member
My younger daughter had stomach complaints until she was 8. Some of her diagnosis'es included anxiety and reflux. She took medicine for it for a while but since it didn't work, she got the anxiety label.

Anyway, it turns out she is gluten and dairy intolerant. The GI doctor tested her for celiac disease but those tests don't always detect problems with gluten.

Her stomach problems went away when she went on the girlfriend diet. As an added bonus, my older daughter's ODD went away when I had her try it, too.
 

LucyB

New Member
My son has acid reflux which might be caused by the Strattera he takes. Our family doctor prescribed Pepcid Max, available OTC, which he always takes before bed whether he has symptoms or not. When he had a bad flare-up a couple of years ago, the pediatrician gastroenterologist put him on Prevacid for a short time. She did not want him on that long term. The other thing she had us do was to see a nutritionist. Your son may be eating something that makes the situation worse.
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
Start keeping a food diary on difficult child. Most times, reflux is triggered by certain foods and beverages.

For example; chocolate, milk, spicy foods, greasy foods, will all set it off for me. I use OTC anti acid medications for my heartburn and GERD and have been known to take a slug of Mylanta right out of the bottle to calm things down until the medications start working.

Neither Prevacid nor the other OTC brand made much difference. I'm also quite overweight which can make it worse as the weight effects the functioning of the upper sphincter of the stomach.
 
K

Kjs

Guest
We were just discussing this tonight at work. Yogurt. Even in the middle of the night. Seems to work according to co-workers.
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
Yoghurt helps if you are not one of the people for whom dairy causes problems. I have to take ibuprofen for my arthritis and I chase mine with a carton of yoghurt. Extra calcium doesn't hurt either, especially since I'm post menopausal now.
 

BeyondWeary

New Member
Thank you all for the posts! Yes, yogurt, does seem to be agreeable. The gastric specialist put my difficult child on a specific antidepressant that is supposed to calm the digestive tract. My chiropractor said to give calcium lactate and aloe vera juice. The calcium is to help him get to sleep better and the aloe vera is to soothe the irritation.

Well - he is going off to sleep now without a problem. Before the calcium, he was telling me repeatedly that he couldn't sleep. He drinks the aloe vera juice quite willingly and says it helps sooth the stomach ache. The source of the stomach ache is not solved yet, but at least we have some help for the symptoms!
 
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