When and How to stop Losec?

Hi All,

I am seeing my baby's doctor in a few weeks time, but was just wondering about your experiences with stopping Losec? For the past couple of months we have been on a reduced dosage and so far so good. How did you go about stopping Losec with your kids? Did you do it really gradually or just cold turkey?. My son is 14 months, eating solds quite well and still drinking 3 small formula bottles a day.

Thanks

Adi

Hi Adi,

I have a question for you.

My son is 20 weeks old and has been on losec since he was 4 weeks old. He has half a tablet twice a day mixed with 3 mls of water. My doctor has told me to try in the next couple of weeks to cut back to only once a day and see how he goes. Your son is 14 months old, my questions are : How old was your son when you started to reduce his dose? What dose was he on and what is he on now?

I am a bit worried about reducing his dose when he is so young. He is now a very settled child but still vomits quiet alot after his bottles.

my boy is now 7 mths and about to stop losec cold turkey...........very scared will keep you posted.

Hi All,

He was on 1.5mls of the suspention twice a day. The amount was 2mg/ml. He started this at 3 months and I reduced the dosage to once a day from the age of 10 months with no apparent ill effects. Now the dr has asked me to reduce it down to 1ml per day for 4 days and then to completely stop if all seems well.

All the best with your babes!

Adi

Hi Adi -my DS is on Losec (tablet form, originally 10ml then reduced down to 5ml). We stopped it by starting to give it every second day, then stopping completely. He went really well for 2 months, then the symptoms returned and we had to put him back on it. It was the second time we had tried stopping it - the first time was more of a instant thing were we knew he needed to be back on it, whereas the 2nd time it was more gradual. The thing is we know he is on it for a reason at least!

The advice we recieved was to go off it at a stage when there is nothing new happening - no teething, change in routine, illness, or starting to walk etc, although at this age it seems very hard as they are doing new stuff every day! Apparently a lot of doctors have different opinions on how to stop it - some suggest cold turkey, others gradual. Ours was happy for us to try either. I just felt a little better at doing it gradually.

As I said, DS did super well coming off it, but slowly the symptoms returned - irritable, sleep issues, refusing to eat which I put down to teething - then he started doing very small vomits again (better than the 20 times a day it used to be!) and thats when I realised it was reflux again. Once back on the Losec, we had to give him a higher dose (10ml) for a few weeks and then cut it back to 5ml. At the moment he is doing really well, and we occasionally miss a day (not on purpose, just mummy brain :lol:) and it doesn't bother him. We will look at trying him off it again soon, but at the moment he is getting a molar and it is a nightmare, so don't want to do anything to add to his distress. Taking them off the Losec is a real trial and error thing. Just keep an eye out for those signs that signal it might be not be working.

Good luck with it all!

Well we started to go off it then we got our first cold so we started again ( suspension this time - which sucks he was happy to take the tablet dissolved, even opened his mouth for it. HATES the suspension shuts the jaws and we are stuffed ) We are starting to cut the dose back ourself now to see what happens, he has been off his food the last couple of days so we will see. he is 7 mths and now taking 2.5 ml a day.

Well all we have been off the losec for a while but in the last week we have seen he refusing food and bottles and a bit of vomiting with generally unsettled behaviour so we are going back on it, He is 8mths now, what dose are your babies on ?

kellmay Jake was on Losec 20mg tablet / day from 6wks old and we tried weaning him gradually off it at 9,12 and 18months. We did it gradually and dropped to half a tab etc but everytime we tried we had the unsettled nights etc back within 2 nights. He has just turned 2 and is now completely weaned, however his mattress is still tilted and he eats and drinks at least 30mins before lying down. We started weaning him at about 22 months and this time it was easy and straight forward and he was completely off it his second bday. One thing my doctor really emphasized to me was that it will not create a dependency so there is not a huge rush to get him off it. Ideally he said to wait until he was walking bcos then his abs and internal structures would have been fully developed etc.

Thanks, that really helps, he was doing so well before we when off it and the return of symptoms when we went of it was very upsetting, we started the 5mg dose today so we will see, i think he may need a higher dose.

Hi Kellmay,

My 6 month old son is on 5mg twice a day and has been since he was 10 weeks old. We have decided not to try and stop the losec until he is 12 months old. He still has so many of the reflux systoms that I don't think it is worth trying it at the moment. He has started solids and I tried him on apples a couple of week a go and he had a really upset tummy and was unsettled for most of the day. I am not sure if it was the apples but I am not going to risk it again. He still vomits at every bottle even though it doesn't hurt him like it use too and he is still weezey and catches every cold that is going. His twins sister has had one snotty nose since she was born and he has had about 5 full on colds.
Questions :
Have you found your son has had more than the average amount of colds?
Does he sound weezey even when he doesn't have a cold?
Have you found that any foods play up more than the others?
Please let us know how you go.

Thanks

Hoowdy doody
Well Will dosent seems to have any of those probs but his reflux is mostly silent, in that he dosent vomit, it go uo anf then back down. I have heard of bubs with reflux that do have those symptoms but esp the vomiters, some breath in a tiny amount of vomit, so a heard ????. :o
I have increased his dose today as he is just so unsettled and sleeping badly during the day again, which sucks big time. He was doing so well, eating and drinking and sleeping all night (up at 5.30 but) and two good naps of 1.5 hours, and now the days have gone to s*#t with food rejection and much less sleep. hopefully we will get back to that, we are going down your road and staying with the losec for a while longer now.
Will rejects alot of foods but apples, tomato and rich foods tend to set him off. not sure about bananas either. :rolleyes:
Lets hope they grow fast

Kellmay Jake had silent reflux too. Try to avoid foods high in salicylates like tomatoes, citrus, strawbs etc as these will irritate him. Bananas are one food Jake loves but only in small doses. Some people swear by putting kids on a lactose free diet for a while, or an elimination diet, to see what those trigger foods are. If you are going to try this it is best you speak to a GP or qualified practitioner first. At one stage our staple diet was breastmilk (he weaned at about 1) weetbix, toast and pears - until we found foods that he could have. Also have a look at the RISA website- some good info there too.