Ranitidine is a medicine that reduces the amount of acid in the stomach. It is used to treat and prevent heartburn also known as reflux and ulcers. It is also used to prevent damage to the stomach from certain medicines and diseases. Ranitidine comes in tablet, liquid, and injection forms. You may also hear ranitidine called by its brand name, Zantac.
Your child may start feeling better soon after starting ranitidine. It may take several days to see the full benefit. Your child may have some of these side effects while they take ranitidine.
Check with your child's doctor if your child continues to have any of these side effects and they do not go away or they bother your child:. Certain foods and drinks may make heartburn worse.
Check with your child's doctor or pharmacist before giving your child any other medicines prescription, non-prescription, herbal, or natural products.
There are some medicines that should not be taken together with ranitidine or in some cases the dose of ranitidine or the other medicine may need to be adjusted. It is important that you tell your doctor and pharmacist if your child takes any other medications including:.
Keep Ranitidine out of your child's sight and reach and locked up in a safe place. If your child takes too much Ranitidine , call the Ontario Poison Centre at one of these numbers. These calls are free. Disclaimer : The information in this Family Med-aid is accurate at the time of printing. Zantac can also be a safe and effective way to decrease stomach acid, heartburn, and related pain in your baby, but there are certain precautions.
Learn more about heartburn in babies and how certain types of Zantac can work to treat it. Some babies make too much stomach acid. This muscle opens to let food move from the esophagus into the stomach. Typically, it closes to keep acid from moving up into the esophagus from the stomach. It may let some acid back into the esophagus. If this happens, the acid can irritate the esophagus and cause a burning feeling or pain. Too much acid reflux for too long can cause sores or ulcers.
It can also help your baby eat more easily, which improves weight gain and decreases weight loss. As your baby grows, their lower esophageal sphincter will start to work better and they will spit up less. Less spitting up results in less irritation. For more information about this condition, read about the signs and symptoms of acid reflux in infants. Over-the-counter forms of Zantac are available, but they should only be used by people who are 12 years or older. You give Zantac minutes before you feed your baby.
Ranitidine in liquid form has been used safely and effectively in infants for more than 30 years. Ranitidine has been in the news recently due to concerns about its safety. NDMA is an environmental contaminant that can be found in water and foods, including meats, dairy products, and vegetables.
As a result of these findings, FDA has issued a voluntary recall of certain over-the-counter ranitidine tablets and is currently conducting tests of liquid ranitidine and other related medications for the presence of NDMA.
Results of this testing are not yet known, but the FDA plans to provide updates as new information is received. As a pediatrician, Peggy focuses on establishing a trusting and respectful relationship with parents and children to forge a therapeutic alliance. She believes preventive care and parent education are key to raising happy, healthy children-and she feels privileged to be part of the process. It can be pretty overwhelming for a puke-covered new parent to process.
There are a few reasons healthy babies spit up or vomit. Infants drink a lot for their body size, and they have a short esophagus. He explains that regular reflux is when a baby regurgitates milk or formula but is otherwise content and gaining weight at a healthy rate.
With acid reflux, stomach acids move back into the esophagus and cause painful heartburn-like symptoms, feeding difficulties, weight issues, and coughing or choking. Doctors used to widely prescribed acid-suppressing drugs to treat acid reflux in babies. However, studies now show these medications often do more harm than good.
Last fall, Health Canada issued a new warning about ranitidine, one of the drugs sometimes prescribed as a remedy for babies with acid reflux: Ranitidine can contain small amounts of N-nitrosodimethylamine NDMA , a toxin that may cause cancer. Drug manufacturers then recalled at least 20 products, including the one sold under the brand name Zantac, and started conducting additional testing for NDMA levels.
Hassall has been arguing that doctors over-prescribe medications for gastroesophageal reflux disease also known as GERD for years.
The good news: Between three and five months of age, both the crying and the spitting up usually lessen, and, by the time your baby is 12 to 15 months old, 95 percent of reflux issues go away without any treatment.
Some infants do have GERD. With this condition, the puke is noticeably projectile—like an arc that extends several feet. This is the advice Michael Dickinson, a paediatrician in Miramichi, NB, and past-president of the Canadian Paediatric Society, gives frequently, especially if a baby is peeing, pooping, gaining weight and not overly irritable.
The more powerful PPI drugs used for acid reflux are also still available.
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