[ScootchsMom]

DS has been responding fairly well to the Prevacid. But, he is only taking one 15mg dose a day. After about 12 hours, it wears off and he is miserable again. I called the ped office to ask about upping his dose to 2 times a day, 15mg each. They said no, to split the tablet in half and give him 7.5 in the morning and 7.5 at night. I tried that for two days and ended up with a very upset baby all day, since it wasn't enough to calm down the reflux at any time. I'm now giving it to him about 2 hours before bed so he can get some sleep without waking in pain and screaming. But the daytime hours are spent with him crying and spitting up all day again.

So, since the peds office is reluctant to increase his prescription, can I buy the prevacid over the counter and crush it to give to him? Has anyone done this? From what I see, they are still 15mg. The only difference is that DS's med is the kind that melts in his mouth. According to the GERD website I found (I can't find the name again) he should be getting 15mg 3 times a day, not once.

Thank for any help!

Liz

 

[nataliachick7]

Yes you are so right! doctors know nothing about this stuff (in my experience) i had to FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT to get ds on prevacid. eventually at 6 months old he was on 30mg a day split into three doses. I put the little beads in applesauce (30 min before a full feeding). It is very important to do it on an empty stomach.
Also, in between mylanta (the aluminum free kind) i think its called "supreme" did wonders!
I had to show my doctor the research from marci-kids.com to get her to cooperate with the dosages. good luck!

 

[sbgrace]

Print off information from the marci kids site referenced above, make an appt. and don't leave until you get appropriate help for your baby. Zegerid (unlike prevacid) doesn't need to be given on an empty tummy. But prevacid adequately dosed with food is much better than trying to do what you're doing or once a day without food.

I dealt with this (similar situation anyway) and the end result was absolutely horrific for my son. What they are doing is not in their prescribing information book and it's worse than nothing imo because he's getting rebound acid. He actually should be dosed three times per day at his age I'm pretty sure (check Marci kids). IMO they need to do it right (IE, correct dosage at three times per day, have the pharmacy verify they dosed correctly for weight and/or do the calculations yourself) or send you to pediatric GI who will handle it correctly so he isn't harmed. If I could rewind time to your situation I would be fighting for my son to avoid what we went through.

 

[nataliachick7]

Yes, i wanted to mention we were on Zegerid for a while. It was just put out on the market at the time and had some stabilitly issues, and my son was actually on 52 mg a day in order to stay pain free. Eventually, we went back to the prevacid, mylanta in between, and Pepcid COMPLETE chewables at night are also a godsend! you can dissolve those in water. They contain an h2blocker as well as a mylanta type medicine for immediate relief.

 

[ScootchsMom]

Thanks everyone. I guess I'm going to have to make another appointment to try to get them to dose him correctly. I've seen a ton of improvement with the Prevacid, its been like day and night, but its not 100% because of the lag time between doses.

marci kids was the site I found the info on, thanks for giving me a name to work with. I'll be going there tonight to print off the info I need. I HATE having to fight for this stuff, why can't they just do the right thing in the first place!

The kids are on CHIP (in PA) so I doubt I'll get a referral for any specialists. They discouraged us from getting one with DD's milk allergy that we just discovered, and I can't see them sending us for this either. I could pay out of pocket for one when I get my tax return. Maybe I should just do that and bypass the regular ped all together?

 

[nataliachick7]

*i am not giving medical advice* but what i did was increased the prevacid on my own when i knew it was time. when youre baby is in pain from reflux, you just know.
also eliminating all milk protein and soy protein helped a lot. he had to be on medical formula-neocate.

 

[ScootchsMom]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nataliachick7 *i am not giving medical advice* but what i did was increased the prevacid on my own when i knew it was time. when youre baby is in pain from reflux, you just know. also eliminating all milk protein and soy protein helped a lot. he had to be on medical formula-neocate.

That is what I wanted to do, but I only have 3 refills left and I'll go through them in a month that way. That is why I was originally asking about using the over the counter version crushed up to supplement the script.

 

[nataliachick7]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScootchsMom That is what I wanted to do, but I only have 3 refills left and I'll go through them in a month that way. That is why I was originally asking about using the over the counter version crushed up to supplement the script.

is the script in the same form? the capsules? how old is your ds?

 

[balancedmama]

We had that same problem w/ DD's HCPs when she was a baby. All it took was one trip in there with her screaming bloody murder in the office for a solid hour for them to finally believe me.

I wouldn't hesitate to make an appointment and go lay out what you just said in front of them. Often your HCP is communicating through a nurse, a receptionist, written notes, etc., and having some face-to-face contact can really help.

 

[ScootchsMom]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nataliachick7 is the script in the same form? the capsules? how old is your ds?

No. The script is for the disolvable tabs. DS is only 9 months old.

Quote:

Originally Posted by balancedmama We had that same problem w/ DD's HCPs when she was a baby. All it took was one trip in there with her screaming bloody murder in the office for a solid hour for them to finally believe me. I wouldn't hesitate to make an appointment and go lay out what you just said in front of them. Often your HCP is communicating through a nurse, a receptionist, written notes, etc., and having some face-to-face contact can really help.

That's true. Sometimes just showing up makes enough of an impression. I think I'll still be looking for a gastro though.

 

[sahmmie]

I was able to convince my son's doctor to give us the marci-kids dose by printing the information from marci-kids and faxing it to her with a detailed letter about how much he was suffering.

If that doesn't work another possibility I learned about at another site is OTC Pepcid Complete. The doctor at marci-kids (Dr. Phillips) says it's safe for infants. I'd fax or call him or your own doctor first to make sure because I certainly am not qualified to give medical advice.... but I wanted to mention it because I did read about and I've used Pepcid complete myself and also given it to my son (he was older, probably about 2) a few times. It works very very well and lasts 12 hours. It's chewable so you can probably easily dissolve it in some warm water. Dr. Phillips usually does answer his emails.

Good luck. I know how hard it is to see your child suffer from reflux. I've been through it twice.

 

[WuWei]

Mama, please read reflux baby.


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