Losec - HELP!

Anyone giving their babies Losec? My paed diagnosed my 6 week old with silent reflux and has prescribed 10 mg Losec tablets - 1/2 in the morning and 1/2 in the evening. I'm having a terrible time giving it to her. I dissolve it in a small amount of water, but first of all its hard to get all of it sucked up into a syringe (the powder bit seems to stay at the bottom of the cup rather than float up with the water) and then its also very hard to get it all into dd without her spitting it out. Very frustrating. Its my understanding that you aren't supposed to give it with milk or I'd try mixing it with her bottle. Any suggestions? She's not on solids yet so I can't mix it with cereal. I've heard some chemists will make a liquid suspension Losec, anyone familiar with that, and if so, do you know of a chemist in Melbourne that will do that? It does seem like when I'm able to get the Losec in her that its helping, so I really want to find a better solution.
Thanks!
Stephanie

Hey Stephanie :)

The way that we used to do it was to put the tablet into the syringe and then suck the water into it cos we had the same problem as you. To get Zander to take it, we found that squirting it into the side of his mouth worked really well for him to not spit it out.

Good luck with it...

Sarah - Do you mean you put the half tablet into the syringe, suck in the water, then wait for the tablet to dissolve? Seems like that would work. How long did it take for the tablet to dissolve? Normally I put the tablet into a small cup, add the water, then stir to speed the dissolving process along. As for injecting into the side of her mouth - yeah, thats what I try to do but as soon as she feels it in her mouth she sticks out her tongue and out flows all that precious medicine! I will keep trying it that way though, maybe as she gets older she will swallow it better. Thanks for your advice, and if anyone else has any other tried and tested tricks I'd love to hear them!

Yep, exactly as you described it :) I was doing the same with putting it into a cup and we never seemed to get all the little balls things into the syringe. I would just cover the end of the syringe and shake it a little to get everything dissolved (well as much as it dissolves ;) ).

It might sound silly, but I always talked Zander through the process. He may not have understood, but a calming voice may have helped ?? He was just under 3wks old when he started on Losec. I'd tell him "This is the medicine to make you feel better so you can have your bottle. I know it tastes yucky, but you'll see, it won't hurt anymore once you've had it." Then I would squirt about 1/2 in his mouth, let him swallow that and then do the other half telling him "last one". SOunds a bit silly & I guess I would have modified what I said if we had had a good/bad day. Also heaps of praise once he'd taken it I think worked. "Good boy, you took your medicine sooooo well. Mummy is very proud of you."

Stephanie - My daughter was on liquid losec for 6+ weeks as the paed thought she had silent reflux. At the time I was living in Brisbane and had to get it from a compounding pharmacy - basically they dissolve the tablets into a liquid form and also add some yummy fruit flavour to it. In the end Lucie loved it and it was really quite easy to give her. Maybe ask your paed if there is a compounding pharmacy in Melbourne (I know there isn't in Geelong because I checked it out before we were holidaying down there) and if he can prescribe that for you. I think if you do a search online there is one in NSW that sends things by post if I remember correctly??? But it needs to be kept in the fridge and is exy - about $48 a bottle that only lasts 3 weeks or so (I did get $19 a bottle back on private health). If you have any more questions, just let me know! Good luck.

Thanks guys!

Wheatie - I will look into the liquid kind, that might be easier although not sure hubby will sign off on the cost! How much were you using a day and how much comes in a bottle of the compounded liquid? Just trying to get my head around the cost per day compared to about $1 a day for the tablets.

Sarah - I dissolved the tablet in the syringe today and that worked much better, although she still spit quite a bit of it out when I squirted it in her mouth. How long would you wait to give Zander a bottle after you gave him the Losec? I read somewhere that you should wait 20 minutes to half an hour to give a bottle, which is really tough, and it would be a lot easier for her to go through the torture of taking the Losec if she could have a bottle right away to wash the taste out of her mouth.

Thanks again, and if anyone else has suggestions I'd welcome them!

We had the drama as well with having to wait the half an hour before a bottle. My Dr actually told me it was so it had time to work, apparently it works for about 12hrs and then it has completely left their system. I think the idea is that if you give it to them right before a bottle it's possible that the acid would ave had time to develop a bit (does that make sense?).

Personally though, I would give it to Zander right before his bottle. We tried it half an hour before, but we would have a lot of crying & screaming in that time. It was just easier (& obviously nice for him) to do them together and we never had any problems.

Yay that dissolving the tablet in the syringe helped - it gets to the point where you'd try anything once just to help them doen't it.

Thanks for all of your help Sarah. Just a couple more questions - was the Losec effective for Zander even though you gave it to him with his bottle? As long as it works I think I will try that scenario. Also, how long after he started taking it did it seem to help? Abbie's been taking it for 4 days now, and she seems slightly better, but no clear cut dramatic results yet.

Ok Stephanie let me think.....We started on 1ml twice a day I think and went up to 2ml twice a day I think. Sorry it seems like ages ago! I think the use by date is 1 month maybe from the date they make it up, and it always seemed to last right until that time, so I guess maybe $48 for 30 days so about $1.50 a day? That's not counting any money you might get back if you have private health, and costs might be different in your area. It was very easy to do though. Not sure about the timing thing either and if it's different for tablets, but I was never told that. We'd just give it to her any time of the day. Paed did say that it takes about a week or so to build up in their system though and to have an effect. I hope it all goes well for you. In the end I don't think Lucie actually had silent refluc (although I'm no docter!) she just doesn't like to eat!

It was still effective when we gave it to him with his bottle, only on that particular one (so his morning & night ones) he was grizzly afterwards, but nothing like the screaming we had without it. I'm pretty sure that we had the same as you, sightly better for about a week & then a big difference after that.

Just remember though if Abbie is vomitting the Losec won't change that. It stops the acid from developing so when they do vomit (whihc they still will) it doesn't hurt them as much.


BTW Soph, just noticed you avatar & signature... Where have I been?! Congratulations :D

Thanks so much ladies for all of your help, and Soph, let me second Sarah's congratulations! =D>

I will let you know how we go in the coming weeks.

Let us know how you go Stephanie.

And thanks guys - I know we must be mad!!!! Sarah hope the TTCing happens at lightening speed this time for you, I do think that it does the second time, your body just 'knows' what to do.

Brooke, now wonder it didn't work, Losec isn't designed to stop the vomitting - that I can assure you of!!

Hi girls, I have some advice to help you get your little ones to swallow the medications.

I don't know if any of you have tried Losec (powder dissolved in water) - but it is disgusting! Just so you know, and don't think that bub is just being difficult.

If bub is under about 4 months of age, you can put the liquid in their mouths, and then blow over their nose and mouth. THis stimulates them to swallow, and is the reason you can teach babies to swim at such an early agte. It also helps if you purse their lips together by pressing on the sides of their cheeks and get them to make a 'fish face', IYKWIM?

Hope that helps for you all, I know it certainly helps me at work with babies!! ;)