DawnMCH Posted February 23, 2009 Report Share Posted February 23, 2009 My two PANDAS kids (age 10 and 80 pounds; age 8 and 65 pounds) have been doing great on Zithromax. However, the doctor is concerned with using it longterm due to liver damage concerns (and my children will NOT submit to bloodwork to have it checked, they would actually rather die!). She wants to switch them to Augmentin and see how they do. She wants to try 250 mg. once a day for each of them, but that seems awfully low to me. Just wondering if Dr. K , who I know uses Augmentin for prophylaxis, has a standard dosage/weight that I could pass on to my doctor. Thanks! Dawn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amy s Posted February 23, 2009 Report Share Posted February 23, 2009 My two PANDAS kids (age 10 and 80 pounds; age 8 and 65 pounds) have been doing great on Zithromax. However, the doctor is concerned with using itlongterm due to liver damage concerns (and my children will NOT submit to bloodwork to have it checked, they would actually rather die!). She wants to switch them to Augmentin and see how they do. She wants to try 250 mg. once a day for each of them, but that seems awfully low to me. Just wondering if Dr. K , who I know uses Augmentin for prophylaxis, has a standard dosage/weight that I could pass on to my doctor. Thanks! Dawn My child is taking 250mg Augmentin daily as recommended by Dr. K. My child is about 70lbs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bmom Posted February 23, 2009 Report Share Posted February 23, 2009 My son too. He is 83 lbs. Of course he did get strep on that same dosage! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DawnMCH Posted February 23, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 23, 2009 Thank you, Amy. Has that dosage been effective at keeping strep at bay? -Dawn quote name='amy s' date='Feb 23 2009, 02:35 PM' post='30427'] My two PANDAS kids (age 10 and 80 pounds; age 8 and 65 pounds) have been doing great on Zithromax. However, the doctor is concerned with using itlongterm due to liver damage concerns (and my children will NOT submit to bloodwork to have it checked, they would actually rather die!). She wants to switch them to Augmentin and see how they do. She wants to try 250 mg. once a day for each of them, but that seems awfully low to me. Just wondering if Dr. K , who I know uses Augmentin for prophylaxis, has a standard dosage/weight that I could pass on to my doctor. Thanks! Dawn My child is taking 250mg Augmentin daily as recommended by Dr. K. My child is about 70lbs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DawnMCH Posted February 23, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 23, 2009 Thank you. So what did your doctor do when he got strep? Increase the Augmentin or put him on something else? After the strep was taken care of, did your doctor go back to the 250 mg. dosage for prophylaxis? Thanks so much!-Dawn My son too. He is 83 lbs. Of course he did get strep on that same dosage! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TiredMom Posted February 23, 2009 Report Share Posted February 23, 2009 "My two PANDAS kids (age 10 and 80 pounds; age 8 and 65 pounds) have been doing great on Zithromax. However, the doctor is concerned with using it longterm due to liver damage concerns (and my children will NOT submit to bloodwork to have it checked, they would actually rather die!). " -------- My daughter has been taking Zithro 250mg everyday for 3 months. On one hand, I have seen studies that say it is safe for long term use. On the other hand, I have had Drs. warn me ominously that it is dangerous to take longterm, but I can't seem to get any specifics from them. Is Zithro hard on the liver? Has anyone seen any good studies on this? Dawn, like your kids, I think my DD would rather die than have another blood test, and frankly - I've had enough of the blood test thing myself! So, I understand. Best wishes to you and all of us in navigating the confusion and finding the right meds. for our children. -Peggy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EAMom Posted February 23, 2009 Report Share Posted February 23, 2009 This is a such dilema for us... 1) is Azith. safe long term? and how long? 2 mo., 1 year, 10 years? (And how well is it controlling symptoms?...not 100% anymore) 2) certainly risking another full-blown PANDAS episode isn't safe (eating disorder, brain damage) 3) IVIG also carries risks 4) Augmentin, Keflex, Amoxicillin didn't do much for use originally...so would we be just be asking for another exacerbation by switching to one of these long term? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P_Mom Posted February 24, 2009 Report Share Posted February 24, 2009 Both my sons, 85 lbs. and 58 lbs. (just got weighed at docs today), are on Augmentin 250 mgs once a day...they are under dr.K's care. So far, it is doing its job for us. Dad contracted strep in December, so the boys were definitely exposed by close contact FOR DAYS before he started antibiotics...neither one contracted strep! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Worried_Dad Posted February 24, 2009 Report Share Posted February 24, 2009 My son is 12 and weighs around 95 pounds. Dr. K has him on 500 mg of augmentin daily (single dose). During "exposure risks" we double up the daily dose to 500 mg twice a day. Hope that helps! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Indigo Posted February 28, 2009 Report Share Posted February 28, 2009 Worried Dad, has the augmentin helped your son? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Worried_Dad Posted February 28, 2009 Report Share Posted February 28, 2009 Worried Dad, has the augmentin helped your son? Hi, Indigo: It's hard for me to say, really. We started on the augmentin shortly after our phone consult with Dr. K last Aug. At that time, our son's condition was off-the-charts horrible, and psych meds prescribed by a local doc made things much worse. We had IVIG in October, which led to major improvement, so I don't think the augmentin was much of a factor there. What I can tell you is that the augmentin isn't a silver bullet. Our son caught a sinus infection in early Jan that caused another symptom exacerbation (not as bad as pre-IVIG, but obvious) despite being on augmentin. We had to supplement the augmentin with a 5-day course of zithromax to kill it off. Hope that helps! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EAMom Posted February 28, 2009 Report Share Posted February 28, 2009 Hi Worried Dad, have you thought about trying a longer trial of Azithromycin at this point? Maybe at least 30 days? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Worried_Dad Posted February 28, 2009 Report Share Posted February 28, 2009 Hi Worried Dad,have you thought about trying a longer trial of Azithromycin at this point? Maybe at least 30 days? I asked Dr. K about this after the January sinus infection set my son back, but he was adamant about sticking with augmentin for prophylaxis. Didn't really go into detail; just said he had not had good luck with zithromax. We did do 30 days of zithro back in the "nightmare days" before IVIG, but we don't really know how much it helped. At that time, the psych meds (ativan, zyprexa) completely put our son over the edge, as we found out later when we tapered off them. Have to confess, we were very relieved to see how well the zithro worked to kill the sinus infection during that Jan emergency. We won't hesitate to ask our local doc for it again in the future! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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