"Saving Sammy" Dose of Augmentin for 60 lb Kid

[mama2alex]

We have an appointment with a new pediatrician tomorrow. I've heard through the grapevine that he sees a few other PANDAS kids and I'd like to bring up the idea of upping my son's antibiotics and possibly trying Augmentin. He improved some with Azithromycin (250mg) and then seemed to be 95% better after 3 days of prednisone, but we seem to have backslid some and now leveled off. He's doing better than this summer, but still has many PANDAS symptoms. Does anyone know what the Augmentin dosage for a 60 lb kid would be?

 

We are planning to do IVIG as well, but also want to try this while we're waiting. We'll get our Pneumovax challenge results back in about 1 1/2 weeks (this will tell us whether he has a Specific Antibody Deficiency to strep pneumoniae) and then we'll figure out the treatment plan with regards to IVIG.

[colleenrn]

The upper end for a treatment dose would be 500mg twice a day, BUT the Saving Sammy dose could be a little higher. My sister has her 70 lb. child on Augmentin 500mg twice per day as a prophylactic dose. Have you considered staying on the Zithromax, but ading a few weeks of Augmentin? This is what i am thinking of trying with my children. I am too scared to take them off Zithromax at this point, but am really interested in trying Augmentin. Years ago, my daughter did really well on Augmentin for a year until she got hives one day and we stopped the Augmentin, fearing she was having an allergic reaction. BIG mistake in hind sight.

 

Colleen

[mama2alex]

Thanks Colleen. I feel like we've leveled off at a place that isn't anywhere near acceptable. It's better than last summer, but he's not well yet. I think it's worth a try to switch to Augmentin and see what happens. After talking to Dr. K, we suspect that his first full-blown PANDAS episode was at age 5 1/2 when he was hospitalized for pneumonia. He had panic attacks at night which subsided slowly over the next 6 weeks, then completely resolved. I looked back at our records and he was on Augmentin at the time. There may have been other PANDAS sypmtoms, but I didn't know what to look for and there was so much going on with his health at that point, I can't remember all the details.

 

Doing both antibiotics at the same time is an interesting idea. Do you now think your daughter wasn't having an allergic reaction to the Augmentin? Is there a way to test her for an allergy to it - like a skin test?

 

Thanks again!

 

The upper end for a treatment dose would be 500mg twice a day, BUT the Saving Sammy dose could be a little higher. My sister has her 70 lb. child on Augmentin 500mg twice per day as a prophylactic dose. Have you considered staying on the Zithromax, but ading a few weeks of Augmentin? This is what i am thinking of trying with my children. I am too scared to take them off Zithromax at this point, but am really interested in trying Augmentin. Years ago, my daughter did really well on Augmentin for a year until she got hives one day and we stopped the Augmentin, fearing she was having an allergic reaction. BIG mistake in hind sight.

 

Colleen

[dcmom]

My non pandas daughter has has reactions to several antibiotics. I finally took her to an allergist. He mentioned that since her reaction (rash) started on the 8th day of treatment, it was probably more a side effect than a true anaphylactic type allergy. He wants to test her for a penicillin allergy (when the test comes back on the market). He felt we probably would in the future be able to treat with these abx, maybe needing an allergy med along with it. It may be worthwhile to see an allergist....