Dosing help, pls? I are a doofus…

[Anonymous]

New to the forums, but have been reading them as much as possible lately for my LO and her reflux. Yesterday I went ahead and got the “ingerdients” to try Zegerid on her as the Previd liquid she was on just wasnt working for us. (She REFUSES to wait 30 minutes after the medication to eat, and prefers to have her awake alert time, then sleep, then wake and want food NOWNOWNOW.)

Ok, so maybe its because I havent had a full nights sleep in..7 weeks now, but I simply cannot figure out the dosing. I also have a few questions I’m hoping I can ge anwered as I an’t find them so far. Her pediatrician told me I could let her have 10mg of Zegerid, but stop the Prevacid liquid.

I went to Walmart and bought Zegerid OTC in 20mg, generic omeprazole OTC in 20mg capsules, Tums Extra Strength (1000mg) in Assorted Berry flavor, generic simethicon drops, and generic cherry antacid liquid. Last night at 1AM I was trying to figure out the mixing and dosing instructions, and just got lost.

1. Why does the liquid antacid have to be aluminum free? The one I got isnt so I didnt use it, I just used the Tums and 19ml of water.

2. Does anyone know if any other stores carry aluminum free, as I do not have a CVS near me.

3. When I broke open the generic omeprazole it contained small beads surrounding a small solid rectangular tablet of white. Is this how it is suppose to come? (I just threw it all in the mortar and pestle and ground it up with the Zegerid and Tums.

4. I’m trying to figure out my daughters dosing based on the dosing chart on the site here. She is 7 weeks old, and at her last appt. she was 7 lbs. 14 ounces. That was about two wees ago, and it appears she is gaining around a half ounce a day. That would put her around 8 1/2 lbs. right now, give or take a bit. That means she is around 3.7 kilos. If I figured it right, and I doubt I did, at 2mg/ml she should get about 2.7ml per does. However it states you should have a minimum of 3.5 ml per dose. So…which is it? Should I give her 2.7 or 3.5?

5. Since her Dr. wants her on 10mg a day, should I just ignore him and go with what the dosing says?

Usually I’m not this ditzy, but mathz iz hard when you’ve had two hours sleep 🙂

[hellbennt]

hi.

otc zegerid mixing: https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=14637

1) aluminum is a metal and most people don’t want to give it to their babies

2) it’s hard to find a variety of liquid antacid without aluminum, but you can find store brand equivalents try: rite-aid, cvs brand, walmart, target, Bartell Drug (West coast), Dollar General, meijer, etc- just look for one that does not list aluminum in the ingredients.

3) you don’t use the tablet. just the beads.

The little tablet inside the capsule can be discarded (it is there because Prilosec OTC is omeprazole magnesium), instead of plain omeprazole – (Prilosec prescription is plain omeprazole). So in order for the omeprazole OTC products to get FDA approval, they had to add a small amount of magnesium, so it would have some magnesium in it. The magnesium does not do anything, hence the little tablet can be thrown away.

I’m fairly sure it’s safe, but again, most people just throw it away and use the beads. I’m not sure you crush the beads, either. I think they dissolve on their own…I think if you crush the beads the taste will be horrible…

4. dosing chart:

https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2668

for your baby it’s 1.5mgs/kg three times a day

so 3.7 kilos x 1.5 = 5.55mgs (this is one dose)

5.55 x 3 = 16.65mgs a day, total for the day

the mixture you make makes a concentration of 2 mg/ml and 3.5mL is the minimum volume to give each dose.

so a dose of 3.5ml has 7mgs of meds in it

so you might want to give three doses of 7mgs – this is 21mgs a day, which is higher than the 16.65mgs…you can start here and see if it helps…?

or, you can give two doses a day and that comes to 14mgs a day, which is less than the 16.65mgs a day…

I think I’d try the three times a day and then if it’s working try backing down to the two times a day (perhaps giving zantac for the third dose? do you have any? that’s a fairly ‘easy’ rx to get…) actually, you might want to be giving zantac all along during this time!

make sure to space it 4hrs from the zegerid/prilosec…

for zantac you’d give

10mgs per kilo is highest dose

so 10 x 3.7 – 37mgs total for the day

your bottle of liquid zantac says 15mgs/ml

this means that for every 1ml of liquid you give, there’s 15mgs of the medicine zantac in that 1ml of liquid

so 37 divided by 15 = 2.5mls a day

divide this however you want, two or three times a day- the doses don’t have to be ‘even’ –

In the meantime, I’d look into buying one of the ‘new’ products

https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=14939

hellbennt2012-04-08 10:39:52

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