azithromycin warning

[laura s]

FYI, I took azithromycin these past 3 days and each time I took a 250mg tablet, I started severe cramping and bowel problems - within 2 hours after taking it! Horrible, imagine your worst monthly cycle - cramps like that!

 

Just a warning for you who may have kids who can't talk and tell you how they feel after taking this med. (like my son). I can't imagine how he made it through the school day if he felt like I felt.

 

Laura

[mom md]

We saw the pediatric infectious disease doctor this week and she warned us about the possible rare side effect of hearing loss from the macrolide drug class (azithromycin). She said it is very rare and usually with clarithromycin (biaxin) or older macrolides but did recommend a hearing tess at least twice a year while we were on it. Azithromycin is used often in children with cystic fibrosis long term and considered pretty safe. I do think it would be a good idea though for all of us on azith to keep an eye on our kids hearing. Often the hearing loss is reversible if caught early.

[DebC]

One other thing to watch for with antibiotics is serum sickness. Our children have not experienced this, but I am in the midst of it right now thanks to an an autoimmune response to augmentin. Two days into the meds, my joints felt achy and luckily I called my allergist since I'm allergic to Cephalosporin. They recommended that I discontinue and I did. Six days after discontinuing the meds, serum sickness set in. For me it consists of very swollen joints (basically like arthritis, knees twice normal size and painful), rash everywhere (not itchy, just looks bad), and fever over 100. I'm currently on prednisone to counteract the reaction. My grandmother was allergic to penicillan so I probably inherited this from her. My biggest fear is that our PANDAS daughter will end up with this as well. I'm praying that she won't. She's been off of antibiotics since the end of March and I'm hoping she can remain off for awhile.