How to cure my daughter's GERD
How I did it: Our daughter was on 15mg of Prevacid solutabs, 2x a day from the time she was 2 1/2 months until about 10 1/2 months. Every attempt we'd made at taking her off or decreasing the dosage resulted in disaster. Finally her doctor recommended trying again. At nearly 11 months, it finally worked. Every week we would decrease it a little more.
Start: 15mg in the morning, 15mg at night
Week 1: 7.5mg in the morning, 15mg at night
Week 2: 7.5mg in the morning, 7.5mg at night
Week 3: none in the morning, 7.5mg at night
Week 4: none at all!
And she was okay!
Next we started weaning her off Alimentum, a hypoallergenic formula she was on for her milk intolerance (the reason why she had GERD in the first place). Again, after 8 months of her unable to tolerate anything else, she was finally able to come off that gross formula (and I'm telling you, it was GROSS). She is now on Enfaml GentleEase (she is nearly a year old), and we also give her whole cow's milk, something she definitely couldn't handle a few months ago.
Lessons & tips: Things that worked for us:
-A higher-than-normal dose of proton-pump-inhibitors (Prevacid/Prilosec/etc.). The "normal" adult dose is 15mg a day. Doctors rarely prescribe more than that for an infant. What they refuse to see is that infants metabolize it faster and may need it more often. If your baby isn't responding well to the regular dosage, consider upping it -- we did without our doctor's go-ahead, which I don't advocate, but it worked for us. PPI's don't usually cause side effects because of how they work, so it's hard to overdose on them. This kept our baby's acid reflux under control until she grew out of her problems. Keep in mind that if you end up giving your baby a PPI, you need to time it around feedings. A PPI should be given on an empty stomach, and you need to wait 20-60 minutes before feeding, after administering.
-Sleeping on a slight incline -- I've heard that anything over a 10-degree incline is counterproductive. When she was really little we let her sleep in her carseat. Sometimes it was the only thing that helped.
-A hypoallergenic formula. Acid reflux is often caused by some sort of food intolerance. Medication coupled with a hypoallergenic formula (Nutramigen and Alimentum are two you can buy at the grocery store; if they don't work, you can order Neocate online) helped our daughter's symptoms dramatically. For us, we needed both.
-Time was the only thing that really cured her. We are so, so grateful she grew out of it. Most babies do, so don't despair! We went through hell with it but came out all right. There was a period of 2 straight weeks where I sat with her 24/7 on the sofa, holding her upright because she was in so much pain if I laid her down. She could only sleep for 15-20 minutes at a time, then. So when I say we know how hard it can be, believe me, I'm telling the truth.
Resources: Prevacid solutabs. Alimentum formula (powder -- if the powder doesn't work for you try the ready-to-feed liquid only -- the liquid doesn't have corn syrup solids, which your baby could have an intolerance to). Graco carseat. Mylanta Supreme (on those really bad days/nights; give up to 1ml 5x daily. Make sure you get the one with no aluminum -- this is the only one I know of that has none).
