When you need a miracle, try TCMax!

by Amy Howell
(Savannah, GA, USA)

Our son was born at 28wks and 4 days. Thankfully, he only had to be intubated a few days.

We spent a rollercoaster 58 days in the NICU and became aware of his reflux during that time. It is pretty common for preemies, especially when they have been incubated. He was never given medicine while in the NICU in hopes that "he would grow out his reflux soon".

This would soon become my most hated phrase!

We finally were able to bring our sweet boy home and I thought surely things would calm down for a while. Boy, was I wrong. It began with screaming, arching, and agonizing crying after almost every feeding. He also spit up all the time. It didn't matter if it was 30 minutes or 2 hours after feeding him, he constantly spit up. I soon got used to everything smelling like sour milk and doing laundry everyday.

With a two year old daughter at home as well, this was quickly becoming unbearable. I was breastfeeding, so of course that was the first thing the pediatrician questioned. I met with a lactation consultant and tried so many different things that we decided it wasn't an issue with breastfeeding.

I started pushing for medicine. We were given the standard H2 blocker at a super low dose. Things got better for a little bit, but not for long. We increased the dose a few times before "maxing it out." Next, we tried a PPI. The pediatrician was not helpful at all in how to administer it and actually suggested I open the capsule and mix the little beads with applesauce to give to him. Since he was only a few months old and technically supposed to have only just been born, there was no way I was giving my baby applesauce.

I tried for a few days to come up with a way to give it to him, plus time his nursing sessions to be at the appropriate time after giving the medicine. This was pretty much impossible. I gave up and soon found a new pediatrician in hopes they could help us since at 4 months he had still not grown out of his reflux.

The new pediatrician was a little more helpful, but still questioned my breastfeeding as a potential problem which was soon ruled out again by a lactation consultant. We went back to the H2 blocker and still had to keep increasing the dose until it was "maxed out" by their standards as well. They also kept saying he should soon grow out of it.

Instead of enjoying my precious baby boy, all I could do was wish for him to grow up faster so we could be done with reflux.

Then came another few months of constant spit up, poor weight gain and numerous nights spent searching the internet for help. It was absolutely heartbreaking, because my little boy was and is such a happy baby. He rarely cries and when he does cry, I know something is wrong. I had come to the conclusion it was up to me to find a way to help my little boy. When he was finally able to eat solids, we went back to the PPI and things got better, but not great, for a little bit again.

One day, in my still constant searching I found a facebook group for moms with reflux babies. I kept seeing mentions of TCMax and one day, I finally asked what it was because it seemed to be helping a lot of the other moms/babies. I was directed to the Infant Acid Reflux Solutions facebookpage and website and I began to read all the wonderful testimonies. Was it too good to be true?

When we had our next pediatrician appointment, we found out my son had not gained any weight at all for two months. That's when I decided to take matters into my own hands and give TC Max with Lansoprazole a try. From day one, the staff and Dr. P were extremely helpful and answered my seemingly endless questions.

It was like a miracle.

It was so easy to administer and my son loved it from the first dose! No more pain and no more spit up. It took about two weeks of acid battle (which was still improvement from anything else we had tried) before he was totally spit up free. Finally, I could enjoy my little boy and stop wishing his childhood away. Also, I could finally breastfeed on demand and not worry about timing it around his medicine. We probably still have a bit of a journey ahead of us. Since he was a preemie, he started out behind and we are still working on catching up. We have already encountered some bumps in the road (the dreaded teething), but anytime I have concerns, the TummyCare Max team is right there and quick to answer questions and help adjust dosing.

I only wish I had found out about Infant Acid Reflux Solutions and TC Max sooner and saved myself so much stress and worry from the beginning.

When you have a preemie, you are already worried about so many things, it is so nice to not have to worry about reflux anymore. We do hope that he will grow out of it sooner rather than later, but until then, we will use TCMax!