Anyone familiar with Protonix?

[Anonymous]

My daughter was diagnosed with silent reflux at 11 weeks (w/o an upper gi…just observation from doc). We started her on Zantac and that seemed to do nothing, so the doc switched us to Protonix. After about a week my daughter improoved considerably…but a week later she was worse than before…crying through every feeding and refusing to eat at times. I do not come across this medicine when doing research on reflux and am a little stumped as to why this was prescribed rather then some of the other meds. Is anyone familiar w Protonix?

[hellbennt]

hi there!

I’m laura and here’s my welcome/intro that I post for all newcomers: https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=4808&a mp;a mp;a mp;TPN=1

it should address many of your questions and concerns- look for what I’ve written about PPIs, as this is the same kind of drug as Protonix…also look for the link ‘prevacid 101’ & click there to find out HOW to get your protonix compounded…

glad you found us!

~laura

ps: here’s about protonix: https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/search.asp?KW=protonix&amp ;SM=1&SI=TC&FM=0&OB=2

[Anonymous]

I have not heard of many infants on this but I take Protonix myself for reflux and it has worked wonders for me. Sorry I can’t be of more help but here is a link that lists Protonix as a med given to infants.

http://heartburn.about.com/cs/childrenwithgerd/a/reflux_infa nts_2.htm

[Anonymous]

it worked wonderfully for me, but it did not work for one of my daughters.

[Anonymous]

My son is on it and it is a miracle drug! We have tried others before this and it was the only thing that worked. It does take 2-3 weeks to work completely though so it is probably too early for you to tell yet. Also what is your dose at? They usually start at a lose dose and most ped gi’s will raise it without too much of a fight. My ped gi said that protonix is one of the best ppi’s out there right now and i have to agree! Feel free to ask me any more questions that you have about protonix as Isaac has been on it for 5 months now!

[Anonymous]

It worked great for me but some drs just prescribe Prevacid more often than Protonix. I asked our ped GI about it & he said that it doesn’t seem to have the same success rate with children as it does with adults.

[Anonymous]

The main reason that it is not generally prescribed for children is because it is not FDA approved for pediatric use. The only PPIs approved for pediatric use are omeprazole (found in Zegerid and Prilosec) and lansoprazole (found in Prevacid). NO PPI has FDA approval for pediatric use in children under 1 year of age, and their use for this age group is termed “off label usage”. This term does not mean that these drugs are not safe for infants. It simply means that sufficient studies have not yet been done by the companies making these drugs to get them approved for children of this age. Sadly, this is primarily because infants make up such a small sector of their market and it is not worth it for them to spend their money on such studies. Actually, the majority of drugs used in pediatrics are not FDA approved for pediatric use – for the reason I just mentioned and because not very many parents want to use their child as a guinea pig.

In the case of PPIs though, there is a very good track record of their safety and efficacy in infants. We know why these drugs have such low side effects: 1) because they are only activated at the site of acid production (the proton pumps), and 2) they have a very short half-life, which means that they are broken down by the body very quickly after they are activated.
RefluxSol2006-3-7 10:48:36

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