Antibiotic dosage, IEPs and vaccinations

[dcmom]

Just wanted to get everyone's input as we are seeing Dr L next week and will address these issues.

 

1. antibiotic dosage. My girls are 40lbs (and on 200mg zith daily) and 60lbs (and on 250mg zith daily). Any comments on dosage? Is it enough? Are you doing more? Symptom wise they are doing ok (one is having minor blip), we are not ready to lower it, they are still very reactive to immune challenges.

 

2. Does anyone know definitively if an IEP can cover for excessive absences? The only accomodation I forsee is frequent absences, and want to request IEP if it will help.

 

3. Vaccinations: at this point, I plan on holding off on any and all vaccinations (at least this year). I don't know if/what they are due for. Should I ask Dr L for a letter stating this? Will this do for a medical excuse? Will this appease the ped? (starting with a new ped in nj- no idea what their opinion will be- my ped here was easy)

 

Thanks!!

[NMom]

Just wanted to get everyone's input as we are seeing Dr L next week and will address these issues.

 

1. antibiotic dosage. My girls are 40lbs (and on 200mg zith daily) and 60lbs (and on 250mg zith daily). Any comments on dosage? Is it enough? Are you doing more? Symptom wise they are doing ok (one is having minor blip), we are not ready to lower it, they are still very reactive to immune challenges.

 

2. Does anyone know definitively if an IEP can cover for excessive absences? The only accomodation I forsee is frequent absences, and want to request IEP if it will help.

 

3. Vaccinations: at this point, I plan on holding off on any and all vaccinations (at least this year). I don't know if/what they are due for. Should I ask Dr L for a letter stating this? Will this do for a medical excuse? Will this appease the ped? (starting with a new ped in nj- no idea what their opinion will be- my ped here was easy)

 

Thanks!!

 

We just came back from seeing Dr. Latimer in July. My son is 45 lbs and on 250 mg zith daily. It seems to be really hard on his stomach though so not sure if we're going to have to switch or if it'll get easier with a little time. Dr. L prescribed this and said he would be on it indefinitely - no plans to lower it even though he's responding very well to antibiotics. I also asked Dr. L about vaccinations and she said she recommends them. She said that Dr. Cunningham believes that the immune response to vaccinations is much less that the response to the actual illness like the flu so she recommended we get the flu shot this year. I'm still undecided about that but I assume she'll tell you the same thing..if not..would love to hear about it.

 

I don't know about the IEP but I'm in the same boat and meeting with the school next week to discuss. I want exactly the same thing - just don't know how to get it!

[MomWithOCDSon]

Just wanted to get everyone's input as we are seeing Dr L next week and will address these issues.

 

2. Does anyone know definitively if an IEP can cover for excessive absences? The only accomodation I forsee is frequent absences, and want to request IEP if it will help.

 

Thanks!!

 

We're using Augmentin rather than azith, so I can't speak to that, and as for vaccinations, I think it will depend upon the pediatrician and your relationship with him/her.

 

The IEP, however, is something I'm very familiar with. The quick answer is, yes, an IEP covers excessive absences. Basically, an IEP classifies your child as Special Education, and Special Education trumps everything, including more absences than the district typically permits. So it would cover you there.

[mandyknowles]

Just wanted to get everyone's input as we are seeing Dr L next week and will address these issues.

 

1. antibiotic dosage. My girls are 40lbs (and on 200mg zith daily) and 60lbs (and on 250mg zith daily). Any comments on dosage? Is it enough? Are you doing more? Symptom wise they are doing ok (one is having minor blip), we are not ready to lower it, they are still very reactive to immune challenges.

 

2. Does anyone know definitively if an IEP can cover for excessive absences? The only accomodation I forsee is frequent absences, and want to request IEP if it will help.

 

3. Vaccinations: at this point, I plan on holding off on any and all vaccinations (at least this year). I don't know if/what they are due for. Should I ask Dr L for a letter stating this? Will this do for a medical excuse? Will this appease the ped? (starting with a new ped in nj- no idea what their opinion will be- my ped here was easy)

 

Thanks!!

 

I just took my daughter back to school for the first time since last September. The lady who does IEP's came to me and we are doing one of these, for this reason. I am glad they came to me for this. They said it will help with alot of things.

[P_Mom]

Dr. Cunningham did recommend vaccinations for the very reason you said. That was the one thing she said that made my stomach knot up. My older son presented his first sign of PANDAS after his K-shots....sudden onset stuttering few a month or so. I have spoken to parents who have had their children go into a PANDAS episode from **** from vaccines. Personally, and absolutely NO disrespect to Dr. C or L (love those women).....I will not vaccinate my kids.......not anytime soon, atleast. Why take a given reaction to a vaccine, against the chance your child may not even contract the illness in the first place???? Isn't a vaccine created to stimulate an aggravated immune respponse????

[LNN]

Just want to point out that there is a significant difference between an IEP and a 504 Plan. We were denied a 504 when we requested one but had not yet rec'd an "official" diagnosis. We got one after we presented a letter from our Pandas doc with the diagnosis, stating my son should be given accommodations similar to those given to kids who have OCD, tics, ADHD etc. But our school made it clear this was not special ed and did not give us the same things as an IEP. So be clear on what you want.

 

In our case, for now, we're looking for things like lighter homework load, being able to answer questions orally when possible, being able to call home when he asks..Not sure if it will be enough as he heads into higher grades. But one step at a time.

[AmySLP]

On vaccines... a year ago Dr. L told us not to vaccinate our daughter with any "live" vaccines-we chose to do none of the kindergarten vaccines at that time and due to her current relapse, we will not be doing any of these this year either. I don't know if anyone mentioned this to you, but you can have your child's titers checked on the vaccines to see if s/he even needs the booster (if the titers are high enough, s/he doesn't & school must accept these results). Dr. B told us to absolutely do this first and if the numbers were low, he would write the note (like our pediatrician did last year) that due to medical reasons, vaccinations would be deffered at this time. We had no problem with that note in NY. My daughter will be having her titers checked next week, in anticipation of the school year beginning in three weeks.

[EAMom]

DC mom...I forget how old your kids are exactly. If they've already had Kindergarten vaccines, they don't need anything major for a while.

 

My kids are 7 (possible PANDAS, trying to figure that one out) and 10 (definitely PANDAS) and we won't be vaccinating anytime soon.

 

Some things to consider for IEP's (depending on the grade level and PANDAS problems):

ability to use an alphasmart or type on computer (handwriting), or have a parent type reports for the child (handwriting), not having to copy off the board (our dd has problems with copying) and provide written notes instead, have less homeowork if needed(only do every other math problem etc.), use a calculator or addition/multiplaction chart (if problems with math memorization)...

 

BTW, has anybody gotten an IEP to excuse tardies? our 7 year old (hopefully not PANDAS, but we're getting suspicious) has loads of sensory issues. Clothing/underwear meltdowns are pretty common and it makes for some pretty long mornings! The sad thing was, it was our older PANDAS dd that always got "dinged" by her teacher if she walked in the door even a few seconds late (ie the bell had started to ring). The younger sibling (who was often the actual source of us getting to school late) never got "dinged" once b/c her teacher wasn't so overly stringent about when the kids arrived (yeah, they'd get "dinged" if they were 5 minutes late, but not 5 seconds late!). Ughhh.

Edited August 12, 2010 by EAMom

[EAMom]

PS. I think the doses sound reasonable. (The 60 pounder could go up to 500mg if she is having an exacerbation.) Our 64 pounder is on 250mg/day of Azith.

[dcmom]

EA mom- My girls are 7 and 10 also! My little one started with PANDAS and sensory issues She snowballed into crisis REALLY fast, though. We were late to school every day, sometimes VERY late. Eventually, she wore her PJs to school- and didn't wear panties for more than a year. (we settled on Gymboree bike shorts with soft dresses). I have photos of her when she is 3 and 4 in jeans....

 

I hope you find your little one doesn't have pandas- it is so impossible worrying about this with two kids- but all too common. Because of our therapist- we use the wort GUTI (get used to it). We would practice with clothing, etc- but she really made very little progress on this front until aggressive pandas treatment. Like all of the kids, I guess.

[Kayanne]

In our school district, the children are evaluated first. Based on the results of that evaluation---they may or may not offer an IEP. I don't know if you can fight it...you probably can. However, for our daughter, we agreed that she didn't need an IEP, and we moved on to getting an 504 plan. I still haven't submitted my request for specific accommodations yet.

 

For sure, I want the actual "wax and wane" nature of this (at least for her) to be taken into account. I want them to understand that each time it can be a different set of behaviors...and that is essentially why I am having a difficult time getting this done.