Switching to Prevacid now

A week ago Dr.B increased Cooper's dose of Zantac to adjust for his weight. The medication dose is very weight sensitive and thus needs to be constantly readjusted as the baby gains weight. The first 5 days on the new dose were great but the last few days have gotten increasingly worse with Cooper crying through feedings again and crying when the acid would come up between feedings. I could smell it on his breath when it would happen and my heart sinks when I smell it because I can just tell it has to hurt or at least taste horrible.

This morning was the last straw when I was holding him while I prepared his AM dose of the medication and he had eaten about 90 minutes earlier (though he barely ate half of what he should have had) and he threw up over my shoulder and onto the kitchen floor. I was looking at the bottle I was putting his medication in when I heard a splat and felt something spray onto my foot and I kept staring at the bottle on the counter thinking "what the hell was that?!" haha!! Cooper was quiet the whole time - even appeared to be asleep! I turned around and saw the small puddle on the floor and then felt more of it on my back through my shirt.

Talked to the doc today and he agreed it's time to get Cooper on the stronger medication, Prevacid, which will block production of the acid (Zantac just neutralized it). He gave me the green light to start him on it today since he had given me a few sample packs last time we saw him - just in case we ended up needing to switch - so we wouldn't have to drive in for it when the time came to switch. Doc is going to package up several more sample packs for us to pick up Friday when Cooper goes in for the remaining 2-month shots that we skipped last time (we wanted to split them up to prevent bombarding his little system with too many at once).

The Prevacid only has to be given to him once per day (Zantac was 2x/day) which is good. The preparation of it is a pain - have to dissolve a tablet in water and then give Cooper a certain amount of the mixture. We'll do this at night when we won't be rushed to get out the door so I'll start him on it tonight. Anyway, we can also get a liquid syrup form prescribed but it has to be done at a compounding pharmacy that's out of the insurance network so we'd have to submit it for reimbursement, etc - but I may go for that anyway since I think it'll be easier to deal with and allows us to choose the flavor of the medicine for Cooper. We'll see how it goes with the dissolving tabs first and then figure it out.

I'll be so glad when the reflux nonsense is over with. I just hope it doesn't continue for very long - some kids don't outgrow it for a year or more ;(.