V.S.
Please don't accept medical advice from anyone on the internet. Call the doctor on call or the pharmacy. There will be a doctor on call 24/7 who can answer this. No one here can tell you officially, even if they've been through it themselves.
She was born with a cleft lip and palete and her specialist tell me that babies born with a cleft lip and palete they are prone to have acid reflux but I'm having a hard time getting her to take it and I was wondering if it is safe to mix ranitidine with her formula even if it says to wait 30 minutes before feeding because I don't know another way to give it to her please help me figure this out.....please and thank you
Please don't accept medical advice from anyone on the internet. Call the doctor on call or the pharmacy. There will be a doctor on call 24/7 who can answer this. No one here can tell you officially, even if they've been through it themselves.
This is a question for your Dr or Pharmacist.
There is NO way I'd ever accept any answer from anyone on an Internet forum regarding my child's RX.
Please do not rely on the internet strangers for something that has the potential to be critical information.
I'd call the pharmacy - they get calls like this all the time (friend is pharmacist).
Did they show you how to syringe the med past her taste buds? It's a quick squirt, and once you get the hang of it (you'll find this is a good skill to have in years to come - up until school age) you'll be thankful you learned it.
You can try searching on this site - moms may have already answered this in the past.
Ask the specialist to refer you to a special needs nutritionist (at the hospital) or a pediatric feeding specialist. Larger hospitals have these kinds of resources. If your daughter's specialist is at a smaller hospital, ask about getting some help from a children's hospital.
Also, the pharmacist is a great resource.
You need help learning how to administer this medication correctly. This help should come from the cleft palate team you are working with. You ARE working with a cleft palate team, aren't you? If you aren't, get one! You need a children's hospital that has one. It's tremendously important.
Do not try to do an end run around how this medicine is supposed to be used. Your baby already has a compromised structure. Giving her the medicine wrong is just going to make things worse for her.
None of this is easy. I know from experience with my own child. You need to buck up and learn to be an advocate for her. She will need surgery (if she hasn't had it yet). You need to research the surgical team, the insurance. She will need speech therapy, feeding therapy. You must learn the ins and outs of understanding the cleft palate, cleft lip, uvula, soft and hard palate, the whole structure.
Make it your mission to learn, learn, learn. You can do this. You will do this! Early intervention is paramount, and it starts NOW.
The reason you give it 30 min before feeding is that you want it to already be working when she takes the bottle. It can't help her keep the formula down if it's in the bottle with the formula.
One of mine had to take a prescription that he hated as an infant. He would squeeze his lips tight when he saw me with the syringe. I learned to pinch his nose to make him open his mouth to breathe, then shoot the medicine into his mouth while it was open. Might sound mean, but it worked.
There are other ways if you google "giving infants medicine". Try them until you find a way that works for you. But no, I think putting it in the bottle is not a good option for this medicine.
***Important disclaimer. I am not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV. This post is based on my understanding of the medicine, as someone who had a baby with reflux. Your BEST bet is to call the doctor who prescribed this medicine to your baby and ask that person.
The trouble with putting medicine in formula is - if they don't finish the bottle how much medicine did they get?
There's no way of knowing.
Better to squirt medicine down her throat first and then have a bottle of formula ready as a chaser to help her get the taste out of her mouth.
For medicine - use a syringe, hold her on the floor with a towel under her, pry open her mouth (easier to do before they have teeth) and squirt the medicine into her cheek a little at a time so she swallows it.
Like B said, the biggest concern is your daughter getting the full dose. What if you mix it and she does not finish her bottle? Also, if it says to give her the medicine 30 minutes before feeding, you should follow the instructions and do exactly that.
Never mix medication with formula. Your baby might then hate the taste if milk altogether! I agree with other opinions here about getting the best information posible from experts on your baby’s condition.