[tfrankenberger]

Do any of your Celiac kids take Prevacid along with a gluten free diet?

[AJSmom]

tfrankenberger, on Oct 20 2009, 07:57 PM, said:

Do any of your Celiac kids take Prevacid along with a gluten free diet?

My DS is also on Prevacid.

[Tigercat17]

I'm not a kid, well, maybe a big kid... I do take Prevacid along with the gluten free diet. I had really bad acid reflux that wasn't controlled by Prilosec so they did the upper endoscopy. I was then diagnosed with the Celiac just last month. The doctor started me on the Prevacid two weeks ago. It seems I have a lot of damage to my esophagus & stomach for all the gluten I was eating. My doctor told me it takes two weeks to feel some relief. Also, he told me I'll have to be on it for 8 weeks to completely heal everything & then will try to stop them. But if I still have the reflux I might have to be on a "maintenance dose." I'm hoping not... I don't want to be on medication all the time. But, I guess, whatever makes me get better...
I hope you this helps.

[Raven's Mum]

Raven just started Losec, which is similar. She was on ranitadine for years but it wasn't cutting it. When they did the celiac biospy, that's when they noticed esophogus damage from reflux and decided to switch her.

[Darn210]

My daughter was on Prevacid for acid reflux and it wasn't completely controlling it . . . that's when they sent us to a ped GI resulting in an endoscopy and a screening for Celiac (among other things). We were completely surprised by the Celiac diagnosis. She remained on Prevacid for quite some time (4 or 5 months?) after switching over to gluten free. She's not on it anymore.

[chiroptera]

For one of my twin now gluten free daughters, GERD was her primary Celiac symptom. Her identical twin had more of the "typical" digestive issues. My daughter was put on prevacid for a little while and she got somewhat better but not enough for me. She went gluten-free on June 11 and just now she is basically 98 percent free of GERD. We also did some Enterolab stool testing on own and found out she is also casein and egg intolerant. Being off those foods has really helped. If she gets some casein or egg (like in a baked product) she gets acid reflux again.

I was on prevacid for over 10 years. I also went gluten-free in June and oh my gosh, I have no GERD at all! I am SO amazed. Our family does not like taking drugs of any kind and am I was so upset that my child was headed down my GERD path. But no more!

I just want to mention to you (because no doctor told me) that prevacid and other ppi drugs can do a whammy on your stomach acid. It depletes it so much and what happened to me what that I was on an antibiotic and ended up very ill (in hospital for a week) with an overgrowth of the C. Difficule A and B toxins. I was a healthy 35 year old adult and the doctors were amazed I was so sick.

I'm certainly not saying this to scare anyone, but should anyone need to take antibiotics with their ppi drugs, please make sure you take some probiotics as well.

[Fiddle-Faddle]

Many of us on this board have found that our reflux was CAUSED by the celiac.

Acid blockers controlled the reflux, BUT (and this is a BIG BUT):

Acid blockers tend to be addictive. Literally. There is a HUGE rebound effect if you try to quit cold turkey, which can convince you that you really NEED the acid blocker. This is not listed in the package insert, and my GI doc knew NOTHING about this(although she does now).

If you've been taking acid blockers long-term, you will almost certainly need to wean off. Cut the dosage in half instead of quitting outright. A week or two later, cut it in half again.

Another major problem with acid blockers is that they can cause B12 deficiency. Again, this is not in the package insert, and this was also something my GI doc had never heard of. But it's on every B12 deficiency site, and every Pernicious Anemia site as one of the top risks for B12 deficiency, because in order to properly absorb B12, you need acid.

Celiacs are already at major risk for B12 deficiency, due to malabsorption.

[NewGFMom]

My son has been taking it going on six months now to resolve some unexplained belly pain. It's helping quite a bit.