Treating EOE with Proton Pump Inhibitor (PPI)
After abruptly stopping oral immunotherapy (OIT) due to a new eosinophilic esophagitis (EOE) diagnosis, we started working with our son’s gastroenterologist (GI) to explore treatment options. We had no success in alleviating discomfort or reducing his eosinophil count with the initial treatments, which included diet management (removing the OIT food), and swallowing Flovent HFA, an inhaled corticosteroid. Our next option was to medicate the inflammation with an acid suppressor, also known as a proton pump inhibitor (PPI).
We were hopeful the PPI would provide some relief for our son. A PPI can help alleviate discomfort from EOE and also provide some relief from reflux symptoms. Relief is dependent on the patient and is often prescribed in combination with dietary modifications or additional medications. We followed the recommended daily PPI treatment and had another endoscopy to monitor for improvement.
However, it was now a year into his EOE diagnosis, and not only did his eosinophil count not improve, his count doubled. Our son’s GI had him stop the PPI and also remove soy from his diet -- now he was fully avoiding all of the #top8 plus other foods. In response to his further diet restrictions he also started drinking a hypoallergenic formula, Neocate Jr. as supplementary nutrition.
It was frustrating that OIT, which was supposed to provide more food freedom, ended up resulting in removing more foods from his already limited diet. It was a time of great disappointment for our family. Our son was not growing and the challenges in finding meals to alleviate discomfort was very difficult. We continued to hope that avoiding the addition of soy would bring him relief.
In addition to dealing with EOE, tackling the everyday of avoiding most common foods and avoiding anaphylaxis for our adolescent son was, and continues to be, a daily challenge. In the coming weeks I’ll continue to share more about other treatments and food eliminations we tried before finally finding EOE relief for our son. We found a path to move forward and continue to address how as a family we’re going to thrive and continue to live life fully.
To learn more about our evolving EOE journey, look through the EOE page on my blog to discover how we live creatively managing EOE and food allergies. We approach this with a can-do attitude.
For more information on OIT, EOE and other concerns, visit Resources. Please get in touch with any questions.