Augmentin

[Josey1]

Does anyone here just use Augmentin and have their kids symptoms under control? Should I expect a dramatic improvement or just some if it is PANDAS? I am trying this for my son now, but I don't know. I am worried because he was very hyper last night and said he felt very upset and he hit his little brother over the head with a book, he has not done that before, I hope he is not getting agitation from these antibiotics. I see some are giving Iboprofin, does that help to calm kids down? He also said he felt itchy. I have called in to the doctor but have not heard back yet.

thank you.

Edited October 30, 2010 by Josey1

[MomWithOCDSon]

How old/heavy is your DS and what dose of Augmentin is he receiving? And when did you start giving it to him?

 

We've used solely Augmentin with our DS, and, yes, while it's not an instant response, we have gotten his PANDAS under control with the Augmentin, along with some anti-inflammatory supplements (like fish oil) and probiotics. Depending on how long your son has been taking it, I would think that his behavior is either a reflection of 1) he's not been taking it long enough for positive results to manifest, and he's just continuing to ramp up on the PANDAS rage behavior, 2) the dosage is inadequate for positive results to manifest, and/or 3) perhaps, the Augmentin is at an appropriate dosage and IS working against the PANDAS, but there's a mounting yeast issue (yeast can cause some kids to behave oddly) with which you need to contend.

 

When we first began Augmentin, our DS13 showed some improvement within as little as 48 hours: namely, his contamination OCD went way down and had virtually disappeared within about one week. That's not to say, however, that the improvement stayed on that trajectory. The pace of improvement definitely slowed dramatically over the year we had him on full, high dose Augmentin, and he had some "stutter steps," too, where it would be two steps forward and then one step back.

 

It wasn't a miracle "cure" in terms of being either overnight or rock solid. But the overall improvement has been remarkable, all things considered. It's just a long process.

[Josey1]

Thank you for the reply.

My boy is 7 and about 60 pounds. Its been about six days or so. The augmentin is 500 mgs. two times per day. I know it takes time to see, but that is so great to hear it has helped your son's OCD issues, we have some of that too, but I am mostly concerned of the hyper and irritable behavior and his tics are mild but they come and go, so I wonder about when they get worse, is it becasue he is getting sick or has strep and we did not know?

 

Thank you for the advice about the yeast. I am worried about that too since I know that antiboitics can cause candida for some. The Pandas doctor did say we could use probiotics and I have acidophilus in the cabinet, maybe I will give him some of that and then go to the vitamin store for a childrens formula.

 

Thank you again for your help.

[MomWithOCDSon]

Thank you for the reply.

My boy is 7 and about 60 pounds. Its been about six days or so. The augmentin is 500 mgs. two times per day. I know it takes time to see, but that is so great to hear it has helped your son's OCD issues, we have some of that too, but I am mostly concerned of the hyper and irritable behavior and his tics are mild but they come and go, so I wonder about when they get worse, is it becasue he is getting sick or has strep and we did not know?

 

Thank you for the advice about the yeast. I am worried about that too since I know that antiboitics can cause candida for some. The Pandas doctor did say we could use probiotics and I have acidophilus in the cabinet, maybe I will give him some of that and then go to the vitamin store for a childrens formula.

 

Thank you again for your help.

There have been strep breakthroughs with Augmentin, so keep an eye on him. Also, if there's any chance anyone he's come in contact with has strep, he could be reacting to the exposure, even though the Augmentin will likely prevent him from developing an active infection. Some PANDAS kids will begin to mount additional strep antibodies merely as a result of coming into contact with strep, even when they don't actually catch it.

 

Make sure you give him the acidolpholus at least 2 hours away from the antiobiotics dose, or the antibiotics will kill the acidolpholus along with other bacteria. There are other probiotics, meanwhile, that antibiotics don't readily kill off, like sach b. (sold as FloraStor at pharmacies) and lactobillus (sold as Culturelle in pharmacies and grocery stores). Those will help and don't have to be dosed separately necessarily.

 

Good luck!

[Worried_Dad]

When we first began Augmentin, our DS13 showed some improvement within as little as 48 hours: namely, his contamination OCD went way down and had virtually disappeared within about one week. That's not to say, however, that the improvement stayed on that trajectory. The pace of improvement definitely slowed dramatically over the year we had him on full, high dose Augmentin, and he had some "stutter steps," too, where it would be two steps forward and then one step back.

 

It wasn't a miracle "cure" in terms of being either overnight or rock solid. But the overall improvement has been remarkable, all things considered. It's just a long process.

 

Ditto! Our son's experience mirrors Nancy's son's in many ways. We had tried lots of different treatments over a 3-year period (supplements, lower-dose abx, 3 rounds of IVIG, even a variety of psych meds... the psych meds were a disaster). IVIG worked well - round 1 gave us 3 months of immense improvement - but nothing lasted. Then in Oct 2009 we begged Dr. K to try our son on the "Saving Sammy" dose of augmentin XR - 1000 mg twice daily. (Our son is now 14 and about 115 lbs.)

 

Within 10 days of starting the higher dose of XR, our son told us he could "feel it working." His massive OCD contamination fears melted away (dropped from a Y-BOCS score of 35 to 9 in 4 months!). We've been on that dose of XR for just over a year, and our son has maintained steady progress over that time with no symptom spikes or regressions. He's probably 95% now and back to school for the 1st time in 3 years!

 

So - for some kids, like Sammy Maloney and our son - the right dose of the right antibiotic for a sufficient duration seems to allow the process of healing in the basal ganglia to occur. And dose is critical. Our son was on a 500 mg/day "prophylactic dose" of augmentin for months prior to the higher-dose, and that did not work at all: he had another major infection / exacerbation on the low-dose abx.

 

In our case, we think we know why our son needed the higher dose. Our entire family have tested highly positive for ASO titer (titers now slowly coming down following a month of clindamycin). Our PANDAS son is currently the only member of the family with an ASO in the normal range! So ensuring that another family member isn't carrying strep is also crucial.

 

Good luck!