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Pleas help with antibiotics doseage info


chap

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Hi there

 

Was wondering if anyone could help. I am having an extremley difficult time with my seven year old who is experiencing very severe tics, including constant vocals and hitting herself.

 

I am going to my GP shortly to request an antibiotic in an attempt to calm things down as we cannot endure any more of this. We have previously tried a penicillin based ab with no effect. At the time someone on this board suggested the dose was not high enough, so this time I am going to request a higher dose and different type of antibiotic.......would it be best to go for zithromax or Keflex or something else? Can anyone suggest what the doseage should be? (doctors here in NZ have no idea about PANDAs) she weighs about 22kgs or 50lbs aprox.

 

We have a history of TS in the family, so Im not sure if she is in fact TS or PANDAs , but want to try AB's before we look at what may be the enevitable....putting her on heavy duty tic meds.

 

She is complaining of a sore throat. Her younger brother has raised glands, but no red throat.

 

I would appreciate any feedback

thanks

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Hi there

 

Was wondering if anyone could help. I am having an extremley difficult time with my seven year old who is experiencing very severe tics, including constant vocals and hitting herself.

 

I am going to my GP shortly to request an antibiotic in an attempt to calm things down as we cannot endure any more of this. We have previously tried a penicillin based ab with no effect. At the time someone on this board suggested the dose was not high enough, so this time I am going to request a higher dose and different type of antibiotic.......would it be best to go for zithromax or Keflex or something else? Can anyone suggest what the doseage should be? (doctors here in NZ have no idea about PANDAs) she weighs about 22kgs or 50lbs aprox.

 

We have a history of TS in the family, so Im not sure if she is in fact TS or PANDAs , but want to try AB's before we look at what may be the enevitable....putting her on heavy duty tic meds.

 

She is complaining of a sore throat. Her younger brother has raised glands, but no red throat.

 

I would appreciate any feedback

thanks

Chap,

I would do the following

a) get both of them tested for strep

:( ask for either high-dose Augmentin or Zithromax

c) look in this forum for a thread that has link to PANDAS articles and print some of them out to bring to your doc. I think it's at the top under "helpful threads"

 

To give you and idea of dosage, my 33kg son on Amox/K Clav 875-125 twice daily (so for your daughter you would do about 2/3 of that)

 

Hope the antibiotics work and you find an intelligent doctor who is willing to educate himself!

 

Isabel

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Have you ever tried giving Ibruprofen? Some find that Ibruprofen takes down enough inflammation on the basal ganglia that they see some improvement or relief. It is not a diagnositic test for PANDAS, but it's something to try. Nor is PANDAS something to rule out if it doesn't work. Even if it does help, you need to continue to try to search out treatment and get to the root of the problem.

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chap,

my son is same weight as your girl. our dose of Augmentin is 500 mg. twice daily. (so 1000 mg. per day). that is the upper limit for their weight. Augmentin does come in a chewable, I beleive, and they are 400 mg. each tablet, so two a day is good, for this weight it is good). (Augmentin is amoxycilin with an added ingredient, so I'm guessing Amoxycilin would be fine too if its all you could get, same dosing.)

 

 

Faith

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Guest Angela Shaw
I would appreciate any feedback

thanks

 

My daughter is 13 years old and weighs around 92 lbs. She is now on the same dose that Sammy was on from Saving Sammy, which is 2000mg of Augmentin XR. The reason that they use the XR at that high a dose is because the ratio of Ammox. to Clavulonic acid is different and at the high dose, the Clav. acid can be too high for their weight.

 

It comes in liquid or HUGE horse pills. My daugher is pretty good with big pills but these were even too big for her and she ended up vomiting last night trying to get the first one down. I called the pharmacy and even though the manufacterer doesn't say you can crush them, she thought it would be okay, since they are scored and can be cut smaller. When we cut them, it made them have sharp edges which were also hard to get down. This month we'll crush and put them into jelly, but next month we'll get the liquid form.

 

I'd advise you to ask your own pharmacist if this is okay though. I told ours that the reason we got the XR was not for the extended release properties, but for the ratio of Ammox. to clav. acid. She seemed to think it would be fine.

 

Anyone else have anything to offer concerning crushing them?

 

Angela

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Actually, I don't know if amoxicillan in high dosing would do the job. I think the most success on ths forum has been Augmentin and Azithromycin (I may have spelled that wrong). Here is the link about why amox doesn't work sometimes...

 

http://www.entrepreneur.com/tradejournals/.../169459644.html

 

If your doctor is willing to give the stronger abs, I'd take advantage of it. Ask for the stronger ones first. Then if they are adament they won't give it, then ask for something else. I would leave amoxicllan and pencillan as the last resort. But I admit, I am not the antibiotic expert on here, so hopefully more will chime in.

 

Is this her first experience with PANDAS? Has she had long term success with an antibiotic before? If so, which one?

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Thankyou, thankyou all for your replies.

The doctor may be receptive to the stronger abs so I am going to ask for Zithromax I think. (which I beleive is Azithromycin, is it not?) I wouldnt bother trying amox as weve already done it with no success. but I forgot to ask- HOW long should the course of ABs be for??? two weeks???three? longer? I vaguely remember someone posting that if there is going to be an improvement it would be within 48 hours??

 

She has had no long term success with any ab before as Ive always considered her symptoms to be more Tourettes, especially due to the genetic link. Where we are at the moment is that we feel trying ABs would be the ''lighter'' approach to trying a tic med such as clonodine or something, so Im willing to try even though its not conclusive that its PANDAs.

 

 

The last three days all 3 of my kids are complaining of sore throats- and my youngest has a slight rash that a hospital paed said was probably related to the "VIRAL" infection that is causing his sore throat and raised glands. Incidentally the tics increased severly three days ago.

 

 

It is not her first experience with tics- she was diagnosed at 4 years old (three years ago) and has had vocals off and on since then- but I cant bear the recent escalation and self harm.

 

I would like to ask if it is typical for PANDAs kids to have such severe tics- Im referring to the hitting herself mainly-???

 

I will try ibruprofen today. Ta for that tip.

 

thanks again all.....I feel so isolated with this.

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My son did not have tics, but he hit his head as a result of a sensory problem. If someone touched his head, kissed him, he took off a hat or hood...he'd start wih flattening his hair and spiral into hitting his own head.

 

maybe someone had improevment w/in 48 hours (I think that was a recent post) but that is rare. Some will notice some improvement or a plateauing of symptoms w/in the first couple of weeks, some have said it took a month or more. And that's just for the beginning stages of recovery, not 100% back to themself. Get as long a script as you can and then you will may to eventually go to prophylactic dose to try to prevent future infections.

 

Thankyou, thankyou all for your replies.

The doctor may be receptive to the stronger abs so I am going to ask for Zithromax I think. (which I beleive is Azithromycin, is it not?) I wouldnt bother trying amox as weve already done it with no success. but I forgot to ask- HOW long should the course of ABs be for??? two weeks???three? longer? I vaguely remember someone posting that if there is going to be an improvement it would be within 48 hours??

 

She has had no long term success with any ab before as Ive always considered her symptoms to be more Tourettes, especially due to the genetic link. Where we are at the moment is that we feel trying ABs would be the ''lighter'' approach to trying a tic med such as clonodine or something, so Im willing to try even though its not conclusive that its PANDAs.

 

 

The last three days all 3 of my kids are complaining of sore throats- and my youngest has a slight rash that a hospital paed said was probably related to the "VIRAL" infection that is causing his sore throat and raised glands. Incidentally the tics increased severly three days ago.

 

 

It is not her first experience with tics- she was diagnosed at 4 years old (three years ago) and has had vocals off and on since then- but I cant bear the recent escalation and self harm.

 

I would like to ask if it is typical for PANDAs kids to have such severe tics- Im referring to the hitting herself mainly-???

 

I will try ibruprofen today. Ta for that tip.

 

thanks again all.....I feel so isolated with this.

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I would do 2mo. of Azith. at 250mg/day...for us tics took the longest to go away (see my post above). Add on Ibuprofen (advil) as well. This might help.

 

Consider getting her blood drawn and serum sent to Dr. Cunningham (Univ. of Oklahoma) for her study when the lab reopens in Jan...this seems to be a pretty good test for differentiating reg. tics from pandas tics.

 

Are there other symptoms (ocd, adhd, sensory, mood), or just tics?

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I would do 2mo. of Azith. at 250mg/day...for us tics took the longest to go away (see my post above). Add on Ibuprofen (advil) as well. This might help.

 

Consider getting her blood drawn and serum sent to Dr. Cunningham (Univ. of Oklahoma) for her study when the lab reopens in Jan...this seems to be a pretty good test for differentiating reg. tics from pandas tics.

 

Are there other symptoms (ocd, adhd, sensory, mood), or just tics?

 

 

hiya

thanks for that EAMom

 

went to doc today and got Erythromycin (EES) prescribed. Its only a two week course for now...

it was reccommended to do 6.5mls twice daily, im working on the conversion to mgs....cant tell you off the top of my head.

 

We are overseas so cant do the bloods. Its pretty much only tics, which is why I tend to consider it more TS then PANDA's but having said that in the previous month she has experienced lots of anxiety and bad moods (grumpy/shouting etc)- which I am not sure is connected or not....

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chap- that is great about the zithromax. We started with a two week course, when it just about ended I called the doc and asked to extend it two more weeks- by the end of that course we had seen pretty decent results.

 

Hang in there and be persistent with the docs ...

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Chap: Azithromycin and Erythromycin are very different antibiotics and from my understanding....... certain strains can have a resistance to Erythromycin. If you don't see any improvement within a week please try to switch.

 

-Wendy

 

 

 

Really? Are you saying certain strains of 'strep' have a resistance? I thought they were both macrolides ....but I feel very much out of my depth and like I dont understand the majority of this medical stuff! I kind of just went along with my doctors advice- she wasnt happy to give Zithromax as its not used often here in NZ (so our bugs havent been 'exposed' to it) and apperently thats how they want to keep it. Its also not funded so would be the pricey option.

 

So should I bother giving her the Erythromycin? I also have another question to put to other PANDA's moms and that is how do you determine that it is the antibiotic that is working as opposed to the natural wax and wane of Tourettes tics?

 

thanks guys

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