Spitting up Famotidine

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ben3721

New member
Hi everyone. My baby (6 weeks old, boy, exclusively breastfed) was diagnosed with GER four days ago after several weeks of really bad spitting up. The doc thinks it’s reflux so put him on Famotidine. We aren’t sure if it has been helping though bc each time we try to get the baby to take the medicine from the syringe, he spits up curdled breast milk from his last feed. This happens about 5 mins after giving him the medicine- he doesn’t have issues swallowing the medicine, but we think he is probably spitting it back up along with some curdled milk. For context, we are waiting 45-50min after a feed to give the medicine, are keeping him upright during that time and giving medicine while upright, and shooting it (.1mL at a time -total dose of 0.3mL) into his cheek which makes him swallow it.

Has anyone experienced something similar? Any suggestions on how to get the baby to keep the medicine down? Has anyone seen success from Famotidine?

We are feeling very discouraged and overwhelmed as our baby has been in pain and crying for weeks now. Thanks for the advice!
 
@ben3721 Mine is on it too, it never stopped the spit up just decreased how acidic it was so that when he did spit up it didn’t burn. He didn’t spit it back up immediately though, but he is a much happier baby now. I give it before his feed
 
@sanguinecross Same. I give mine his dose before a bottle. Mine can spit up for up to an hour and 45 minutes after a feed, so I try to give it to him right before the bottle. Burping halfway through the bottle and holding him upright after a feed tends to keep the meds in. Plus, he can be a slow eater, so it takes a while to finish and, therefore, longer until the next spit up.
 
@sanguinecross Thanks spicynug8 - it is great to hear that Famotidine has been successful for you. We will start trying to give it to him before his feed. From your experience, has your baby been spitting up during the feed after giving the medicine? And if so, do you think your baby is digesting it?
 
@ben3721 Not during a feed but he does about 10-15 after a feed and I have no idea if he’s digesting it but he’s stopped seeming like he’s in pain so I just went with it
 
@ben3721 We give famotidine 2x/day, at least 30 mins prior to first bottle and last bottle (about 12 hours apart). Baby is no longer a newborn, but we’re finding over the course of the last month that an hour prior to bottle is even better. Can you attempt to give prior to feeding with a short window to give it time to do its magic on the stomach acids first before feeding?
 
@ben3721 We had bad luck with famotidine. We told our pediatrician it wasn’t working and they switched us to omeprazole. It worked way better for us. That being said I think you are supposed to give it 7-10 days for baby to adjust. Personally I would wait a couple more days unless it seems like things are getting worse. If it doesn’t improve I would contact your doctor
 
@ben3721 My baby has done this, not always & definitely not every single time but sometimes. I’m not sure why. I kind of suspected since I do it around 20 minutes before her first feed & 20 minutes before her last feed that maybe she is hungry and it goes on an empty tummy. But like someone said it doesn’t stop spit up. It also takes around 2 weeks to show improvement because it does a lot of healing. After she started she finally was able to lay on her back & sleep. It eased her pain soooo much, which made her less tense laying down & that alone helped her spit up less even though the medicine itself doesn’t stop spit up.
 
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