<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote><i>Originally posted by: <b>SJCmoon</b></i>
I have a 5 month old son who has been on zantac for about 6 weeks. <b>He was put on it to increase enzyme efficiency,</b>
</end quote></div>
I've done a lot to decrease the acidity of my stomach without drugs. I also use some natural stuff to help my stomach work better, things that were recommended to me as "good for the gut". They ended up working so well that I stopped needing digestive enzymes altogether.
Some things that I take because they are good for the gut:
Sea salt
coconut oil
glyconutrients (you can use aloe vera as a cheaper substitute that does part of what this does -- not as good, but a nice place to start)
probiotics -- I get these in the form of organic yogurt. The one I buy is specifically formulated for babies: Yo-baby, from Stonyfield Farms
I was diagnosed at age 35 and my son was diagnosed at age 14, so I haven't personally given the above items to a baby. I do know people with younger kids who put coconut oil in the baby bottle (as long as it's warm, because this oil tends to harden when cold) and stuff like that. I buy glyconutrients in powder form. I wouldn't hesitate to add a little sea salt and glyconutrients to a bottle if I had a baby with CF. I buy aloe in pill form but it can be gotten in a liquid form.
As always: Only start one new thing at a time so you can tell what it's doing, wait a week or two before starting something else, start at a low dose and ramp up gradually to see what the child tolerates. High doses of coconut oil and sea salt and glyconutrients can cause severe diarrhea as they all encourage the body to clean up the gut and dump crud from the system. So please start with a low dose, like 1/8 or 1/4 teaspoon a day, see how the child tolerates it, ramp up gradually. I have heard that some naturopaths and the like recommend a tablespoon a day of coconut oil, so that might be a dose to shoot for as an upper limit. Please do not start with a tablespoon a day. You will regret it.
Also, since people with CF purge baking soda at high rates and it is an alkaline (ie "antacid") substance, I would think giving a little of that would be safe, non-toxic, without drug side effects, etc. and actually get at the root cause of the problem better than any drug does. I have done that at times in the past. These days, I substitute baking soda for yeast in pizza and just try to get baking soda from my diet.
