Dosing Mistake

[Anonymous]

My ds is currently on 15mg of prevacid twice a day. I’ve been feeling for a while he needs his dose upped and according the marci-kids site he can have up to 39mg a day.

So I told that to the nurse today and I was telling her I’m not sure how much to increase his dose and how to administer it since the insurance company does NOT want us to get the 15mg packets. They will only give us the 30mg packets. That means I have to divide the packets in half as best I can. But up it by 7 more milligrams and then what? Divide it and then divide it again? Gah, what a mess.

Soooo….the nurse calls me back and said that the dr said to put him on 30mg…twice a day!! That sounds a bit much lol.

What should I do here?

Thanks for all your help, you guys have always given me great advice.

[hellbennt]

many here have sifted the packets (using a tea strainer) to get the beads & then divided accordingly from there

& used a bit of the powder to give it some flavor- you can ‘play’ with the thickness of the mixture to find what works

[Anonymous]

I guess what I’m asking is how much should I up the dose and how should I divide it? Dividing in halves and quarters is one thing…

[Anonymous]

Wow, my first thought is that is SO awesome to get a Rx for 60 mg/day!!! Send me whatever extra you don’t need!!! Just kidding…. sort of 🙂

I tell ya, I would love to have my Nathan on more than the 30 mg that he is currently on because I’ve been having to use Zantac in the afternoon when the Prevacid dose starts to wear off, and I hate messing with Zantac….sometimes I don’t even think it really helps Nathan, at least not like another Prevacid dose would.

Anyway, I’ve always thought that for us, it would be ideal to do 3 doses of 15 mg each (we currently do 2 doses of 15 mg. I tried 3 doses of 10 mg and it wasn’t enough at one time to help him sleep well day or night). We also do the packets due to lactose intolerance, so I know it’s a pain to divide them up. Maybe just try 3 doses of roughly 15 mg and see how that goes? I know it sounds really high, but I wouldn’t hesitate to up Nathan’s dose to 45 mg/day if I could (but the Dr. won’t go for it). I think Marci-kids website says something about how you can round up the calculated dose to the next dose that is easily divisible, so 39 could round up to 45 mg, I think.

Hope this works for you!

[hellbennt]

that sounds reasonable

so try 15mgs 3x a day & see what happens

[Anonymous]

That does sound reasonable. Thank you Paula.

I’m sorry to hear your little guy isn’t doing as well as you’d like. I know how frustrating that is!! Have you thought about doing something else instead of the Zantac? Pepcid Complete works better for us.

About the extra medicine; my husband was thrilled! He was like, “let her call it in, that way we’ll have extra on hand” lol.

[Anonymous]

Jenn,

Please let us know how it works out with the 45 mg/day. I’m curious!!

Nathan is doing great overall, it’s just that by afternoon his reflux pain is back and Zantac doesn’t really manage it that well. I’ve never tried Pepcid Complete — is this OTC? How much do you give? I use Mylanta sometimes, but it doesn’t do much for him.

It’s funny….Prevacid is worth its weight in gold at our house. In fact, we’re planning on stocking up on it even after Nathan outgrows reflux so we can have it handy if and when there’s ever a 3rd refluxer!!

Good luck with everything 🙂

[Anonymous]

Paula B wrote: Jenn,

Please let us know how it works out with the 45 mg/day. I’m curious!!

Nathan is doing great overall, it’s just that by afternoon his reflux pain is back and Zantac doesn’t really manage it that well. I’ve never tried Pepcid Complete — is this OTC? How much do you give? I use Mylanta sometimes, but it doesn’t do much for him.

It’s funny….Prevacid is worth its weight in gold at our house. In fact, we’re planning on stocking up on it even after Nathan outgrows reflux so we can have it handy if and when there’s ever a 3rd refluxer!!

Good luck with everything 🙂

Grrr, we’ve been having quite the day trying to get all this straightened out! A tech at Walgreens said that the Prevacid 30mg packets are either being discontinued or are on back order. So after a lot of round-about with the pharmacy and dr. office we are now getting the 15mg packets. We’ll give that to him three times a day. So no extra for us, but I’m glad we are getting the 15mg packets because that will make it so much easier!

Zantac never helped Gabe much either and he HATED the taste of it. I heard about Pepcid Complete here on the boards. We give half a tablet twice a day, 4 hours from Prevacid – that’s an important part. I’m hoping we won’t have to do Pepcid anymore with 45mg of Prevacid. Oh, and yes, Pepcid complete is otc. I cut the tabs in half, crushed the half, disolved it in water, and then administered with a syringe.

I’ll let you know how Gabe does! Thanks for your help!

[Author]

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