is prevacid solutabs better than compound prilosec

[Anonymous]

I know what you mean about the frequent dr. trips. I used to get so embarrased just calling them. But you are your dd’s best advocate, and hopefully it will only be a short time longer until you get everything under control!

I don’t know much about the capsules. I’m sure it is in Laura’s intro. I have heard some moms mention that they are phasing them out, so they have been hard to find.

If you don’t think the pedi will up her dose and you think she needs it, I would suggest taking her to your family doc. Since he already knows about your heartburn/reflux, I would guess he’ll be more willing to prescribe meds for her. In fact, many moms have resorted to family docs when the pedi’s wouldn’t up prescription. Family docs. tend to be more comfortable with the PPI drugs as they prescribe them so often for their adult patients.

[Anonymous]

Thanks. I think I have called the peds office every other day for the past 6 weeks. The nurse sometimes seems a little put off but I could care less. We’ve paid them over $2500 in the past 6 weeks and they can just deal with it. I really just hate going in there because we always have to wait an hour and that’s not always easy w/ a reflux baby.

I’m becoming concerned that nothing seems to help her when I know people who’s babies have severe reflux from birth and they get reglan and zantac and it works wonders. Why do we have to go through all these meds to find something that works for these babies. My daughter’s reflux doesn’t even seem that severe compared with some I’ve read about and some friends locally who’s babies actually almost died from it, yet nothing really helps her. I’m starting to wonder if it is something other than reflux or if there are different types of reflux or different root causes that medication is just much less effective on. Sometimes she will just scream nonstop while not having any reflux symptoms at all, no spitup, no gagging, hiccups, coughing, etc. She just screams and has a little gas, usually at night.

I wish we had a GI around here to do some testing. There are none within 100 miles that I have found.

[hellbennt]

to be honest, I’m not sure what kind of testing would be good at this point…so much is trial & error…an upper Gi is good for finding structural abnomalities (like a blockage or something) but not good for actual diagnosing GERD…an edoscopy is good to find out if baby is allergic, but it doesn’t sound like yours is? I would go for an edoscopy & ph probe much much further down the reflux road, more to find out why everything isn’t working…

as for not finding the right meds, etc, you are not alone. it took us a while- I found this site and away I went, lol!

to be honest, maybe you’re not finding the right meds due to the compound you have. maybe things will improve with the solutabs?

I do know that some babies need both kinds of meds- a h2blocker & a PPI. jonah was on both for some time until we figured out the right dose, the right timing of the doses, etc.

as for the capsules, well they can be opened up, but for a newborn I’m not sure how they would work? they need to be given w/ something acidic, so if baby can eat from a spoon, a little apple sauce works. I would imagine that apple juice would work, too, but I don’t thing the beads from the capsule dissolve, so I might worry about how baby would get them down?

with the solutabs, the beads dissolve. also, talking about beads dissolving: there are prevacid packets which are what I think are being phased out. they are packets that have powder and beads and those beads do dissolve…

one thing left to do is the elimination diet. I did it. I was desperate. And, my instinct told me that it wasn’t even mspi. but, I had to just do it, to show myself, my husband and the world I guess, that it wasn’t ‘my milk.’

my husband actually did it with me! (ok ‘just’ for the meals that he was home with me, but still!)

all this to say that to me it sounds like maybe baby is undermedicated….maybe try the 15mgs bore bed, since that’s the worst time…and try 7.5mgs in the a.m.

and, if you need ‘more’ try the pepcid in between (given 4hrs seperate from the prevacid)

[Anonymous]

oops, she’s right.. it’s the packets, not the capsules!!

[Anonymous]

I gave her the solutab for the first time tonight. When I disolved it inside the syringe I saw the tiny beads & I kind of squashed some of them at the bottom of the syringe. Next time i’ll try to dissole it inside her mouth & give her a bottle w/ some water or apple juice. Or i’ll suck it up w/ a dropper.

anyway, she is doing good so far tonight, although I’m not giving the prevacid credit yet. She didn’t take anything all day cause I didnt refill the prilosec. She took a very good nap this afternoon & tonight. So i’m thinking the compound prilosec was giving her abdominal pain or gas.

I wonder why the capsules have to be given w/ those certain foods listed (cottage cheese isn’t acidic??). I think that the acidic foods would keep your stomach from making too much acid right away, not sure.

[Anonymous]

Well, she had a very good night, slept most of the night but woke up about 2 or 3x to eat which is normal for her. She did want to be held to sleep most of the time but I think that is becasue she has gotten used to it. So while she slept good mommy & daddy didnt’, but we’ll sacrifice a little and hold her if it means having a happy painfree baby. This morning she was in much better spirits than she has been for a long time, she was gabbing away all morning while I got ready for work.

Now, just to find out what made her better. We gave her an entire 15mg solutab at around 6:30 and then she took her pepcid at around 10pm. She only had mylanta 2x all night, about 1ml each time. I don’t know if the prevacid could work that fast but since she was already on prilosec compound maybe she had enough of the medication in her system for long enough. But at the same time mommy has been cutting out all sorts of food, she really only eats rice, meat, eggs and bread now. She does get to eat a lot of jello though.

I still suspect the prilosec was working but the side effects were hard on her so she had other symptoms more like gas pains. I’ve read about both drugs and prilosec seems to have a larger occurance of abdominal side effects than prevacid.

We’ll see tonight, I’ll give another update.

[Anonymous]

Hi everybody,

I just wanted to chime in about the Prilosec compounded in suspension.

Amanda was on Axid first .7 and then 1 ml 2x day. This was working well but I was still having trouble putting her down without her waking up crying. But I could at least hold her and she was comfortable.

I thought, well, we have her “manageable” now, but what if a PPI could make her “great”?

So I called the doctor and was able to get the doctor to call in Prilosec. Both of my boys were on Prilosec and it worked great for them.

So we started the Prilosec compounded in the suspension. Well, it wasn’t too many days before all hell broke loose around her. I went from a baby that could at least be held to a monster who could not be comforted even when held.

That poor baby screamed and cried and drew up her legs and flailed her arms and legs. To the point that one night earlier this week I got 5 minutes of sleep because she was grunting and flailing her arms and legs all night.

And the gas!! She has always passed gas, but usually it didn’t bother her. We went from that to CONSTANT gas and painful gas at that, that caused her to scream. It was so obvious that the gas was hurting her and that something like cramps or spasms or something was killing her.

So night before last I just quit giving it to her. Yesterday she had her 2 month checkup and we decided to go back to Axid. So last night she got her first dose of Axid, and another this morning and so far today I have gotten my baby back that I had a couple of weeks ago. She has slept even while in her carrier or swing, is passing less gas, is not flailing her arms and legs like before.

I really think it was the Prilosec compounded in the suspension. One thing I noticed is that over the past couple of days the suspension started to take on a new smell. I knew suspensions don’t last long but this Rx was only a week and a half old.

The other thing I realized is that when my boys were on Prilosec they did not get it in a regular suspension. “Back then” – yes, this marks my 7th year working with reflux! – they got their Prilosec compounded in ChocoBase ( by the Marci Kids folks ).

SO – I just wanted to chime in and say we had the same experience with the Prilosec compounded in the suspension. I am looking forward to hearing your next reports on the Prevacid. It was my next choice other than going back on the Axid.

We also got a referral to the pediatric GI on May 13, so I decided to go back to Axid and let him decide about going to Prevacid.

Like your baby, Amanda does not seem to have reflux that bad, not as bad as her brothers did.

[Anonymous]

I’ll have more of an update later. But would like to know if others have had trouble with prilosec compound. I know side effects of both drugs (prilosec/omeprazole and prevacid) are abdominal pain and gas but I hope it was more the suspension than the drug itself so that maybe the prevacid won’t give her so much gas pain.

Today so far she has been very fussy & mommy says it seems more like gas pains but I don’t know that we can really tell the difference yet. The prevadic seemed to work well for about 10-12 hours but we can’t be sure that was what helped her, we try so many things at once. So I’ve already asked doc if she can have 2 15mg solutabs per day, should know soon. She might just tell us to give her half the dose twice per day cause I told the nurse it seemed to be working well for about half the day. Then after a couple more days I’ll call back and bug them into giving us 2 15mg/day, they have acquiesced on all my other requests except for the zegerid, but to me it seems that is even harder to give than prevacid.

Let me ask one more question about the milk allergy thing. Could it be sporadic during the week or so after mommy stopped dairy or would she be miserable all the time until it got completely out of her system? I don’t think mom had any dairy yesterday, we only had beef and potatoes & some jello for dinner & she had rice and steak for lunch & no breakfast. Maybe she had a ginger snap or two and some chips.

[Anonymous]

I would think that the reaction to milk would lessen with each passing day. But it can take several weeks for the proteins to fully clear. It is possible that she is reacting to other foods too. Beef possibly related to milk?? Who knows. It is such a horrible guessing game. That’s why I finally threw up my hands and did the TED. It was hard but worth it in the end for us.

Again though.. I didn’t do that until I knew he was getting the best meds. possible and at a high enough dose.. I just didn’t want to try too many things at once and not know for sure which of them were working.

Also, I think Lori (S&H’s mum) had a HORRIBLE time with the prilosec compound too.

[Anonymous]

Thanks.

Just talked to the nurse and the doc will not increase it to 30mg/day because that is an adult does. The nurse just kept saying, give it in the morning and call us back. I will do that but I’m also going to split the dose up into two parts if the morning does idea tanks, day and evening and then give her the pepcid right before bed, it has more of an immediate effect too. Yet they were gonig to give her 32mg of prilosec, she said they are not equivalent dosages, again, the nurse is an idiot, the adult dose of prilosec is actually less mg than prevacid (20mg vs. 30mg).

The other option is to up the does myself but my wife doesn’t like doing anything against the doc’s wishes. I already got some samples of the solutab for myself and son earlier so I know I could get another scrip. I just hate to be breaking the rules when it comes to drugs and babies…

I may try faxing the dosing letter from marci-kids to the doc and see if she has any change of heart.

[Anonymous]

Just giving an update.

We have given 2 doses of the 15mg solutab the past two nights. She actually slept from 2pm until about 12:30am, waking 2x to feed and take her 2nd does around 7pm. She did wake up very fussy for a while but nothing like before. I think the meds are wearing off after about 6-10 hours.

I did email Dr. Phillips to ask him for advice about dosing and help convincing my dr. about increasing her dose. I don’t think he gave me what I need to convince our Ped, but I won’t blame him as he must be terribly busy. All he told me was that the 15mg 2x per day is required and is the FDA approved package labeling. I agree w/ the dose recommendation but for the life of me can’t find anywhere that says that dosing is approved by the FDA or even recommended by any other organization other than the Marci-Kids. Actually most organizations, including NASPHAGAN (pediatric gastroenterology society) recommends only 1.4mg/kg/day. The FDA only recommends 1-15mg/day for children <30kg and older than 1 year. So if anyone knows where to find this FDA dosing reccomendation I’d appreciate that very much.

Oh, I did forget to mention. I had written to Dr Phillips that Amelia had a great night after her very first dose and he said it was very typical and most likely due to the dose of Prevacid. So he was very helpful in assuring me that the prevacid is indeed working like it is supposed to.

area1232008-04-25 10:34:45

[hellbennt]

the FDA has approved Nexium for pediatric use

http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2008/NEW01802.html

maybe switch to Nexium?

if you go to the upper right hand corner of this page

& click on ‘search’ and if you search for Nexium, you’ll see that many have

had great success with it- I think it even comes in packets that are easy to mix

[Anonymous]

That’s an idea, but so many babies do great on prevacid, if they can get their ped to give the correct dose.

[hellbennt]

ok, so then make the argument w/ the doctor that the nexium is approved and is a ‘stronger’ PPi than prevacid, so therefore prevacid should be fine, too

[Anonymous]

Ok, I called my dr. again (man they are sooo sick of me). I asked for only 15mg morning, 7.5mg evening and told her I had contacted a specialist that recommended 15mg 2x/day for Amelia. She called me back immediately and said to go ahead and try the 15mg 2x/day but she wanted to make sure I knew that all her documentation says 15mg/day is the max dose for infants. She also said if this doesn’t make her much better that she would need to send her to a specialist, who is 1 hour from us, so I hope we can avoid that.

Doing my own reading, prevacid is only approved for children 1yr up and only at 15mg regardless of weight (well up to 20kg I think). So I can see why these Peds are so reluctant. Dr. Phillips is the only documenation I have seen recommending this 30mg dose, but hey, hopefully it works.

[Author]

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