My daughter had reflux as a newborn. She spat up like the exorcist 10 to 20 times a day, then cried and arched her back. A couple of times this happened at night, and I was terrified that she would choke herself.
At her 1-month appointment, the paediatrician prescribed Zantac (or Rinitidine, which is the generic baby version). We started her on it right away, and it seemed to help.
At the same time, I was worried about giving medication on an ongoing basis to such a young baby. I was reassured that Zantac is fairly harmless, but still. Over the next 2 weeks, I noticed that her digestion seemed much slower. She was only filling her diaper at times furthest away from the last dose of Zantac.
Now, there is considerable online debate by desperate parents on whether medication is a good idea. Generally, there are two schools of thought.
Medicate Your Way to Relief
Zantac has helped a lot of children control their reflux. The stronger alternative, Prevacid, has also been a godsend for many parents.
Yes, they have side-effects, but when your three month old baby is screaming hysterically for hours, it seems like a good trade-off.
This is even more apparent when it comes to more severe conditions, and the stronger medicines that accompany them. Should you give your child cold medication? Ritalin? Antibiotics? In many cases, depriving your baby of medicine could risk their life.
However, where do we draw the line?
Alternative Methods
Many conditions can be managed without pharmaceutical intervention.
I did some research which mentioned that keeping my baby upright after feeding, and eliminating dairy could help. We followed those suggestions, took her off the Zantac, and followed her very closely to see the effects. She did just fine without the meds, and her paediatrician was happy with her at the last appointment.
Other moms have found relief through homeopathy, herbal medicine and acupuncture.
Whether this is the right choice for your baby is up to you to decide, but I think we have gotten way to trigger happy with pharmaceuticals.
Doctors don't always follow the latest research
Before my daughter's vaccinations, several people, including our doctor, suggested I give her Tylenol before the shot just in case. But this can actually interfere with the effectiveness of the shot. As a parent, it is my responsibility to do my own research, but it's disturbing how pervasive our reliance on drugs really is.
And these are fairly harmless drugs. What happens when they are powerful, like Ritalin or Prozac? How likely are we to jump at any convenient diagnosis just because our kid is a little more temperamental and we don't want to spend the time to deal with it? And how much do we really know about the side-effects.
Don't be stupid about vaccines
All of this is not meant to be some push towards refusing needed medications. I'm not a Luddite, nor would I encourage anyone to be. I'm just encouraging some caution and self-directed research.
However, one shot I would actively encourage everyone to get for their babies is the standard vaccination protocol for babies. Every theory on vaccines being bad for babies has been scientifically debunked. They are safe and they save lives.
I'll be a lot more careful in the future about medicating my baby, that's for sure. But I will also make sure that she does get any medical intervention that has shown to improve her chances for a long and happy life.
No comments:
Post a Comment