Infantreflux.org | help with PPIs

This topic has 9 replies, 1 voice, and was last updated 20 years, 5 months ago by hellbennt.

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April 25, 2006 at 9:43 am #6772

Anonymous
Inactive

Hi,

I have an appointment with my Ped to discuss changing to a PPI. I am confused after looking at my insurance formulary. Of course Zegerid is not covered, Prevacid powder is covered- but requires prior authorization and the whole song and dance. Only 10mg delayed release capsules are covered for Prilosec. Is it worth just skipping the headaches, and asking for Zegerid it most of the meds aren’t covered anyway? Does anyone know ball park of how much monthly, even with the coupon? My son weighs 8kg which I guess means he would need 24 mg daily. I want to be informed when I lobby for this, zantac really isn’t working anymore. Any advice would be appreciated.

April 25, 2006 at 9:47 am #6773

Anonymous
Inactive

I know that the price before insurance for us for 60 20 mg packets was around $250.00. For our daughter (who is almost 3 months old and weighs around 12 pounds) the 60 packets will last a little over 1 1/2 months. Fortunately our insurance covers it and the $30.00 coupon also worked. All I know is Zegerid has been soooo worth it for our daughter.

Hope this helps – Good Luck!!

April 25, 2006 at 5:31 pm #6828

Anonymous
Inactive

I just picked up my Zegerid and it said $122.50 without insurance. That is for a 30 day supply of 20mg packets.

Good Luck~

April 25, 2006 at 7:45 pm #6833

Anonymous
Inactive

Switching to a ppi will help your baby so much. It’s hard to watch them in pain! We started on prevacid after doing the zantac and axid thing at 3 months. We couldn’t do the solutabs or packets because she is mspi and they hurt her stomach. So.. we just dump the capsule beads in a bit of applesauce (1 tbs) wait 30 mins then feed her a full meal. It really took full effect around the 2 week mark, although we saw some relief around day 8. We used the zantac in between spaced 2 hours after giving the prevacid so they didn’t cancel each other out and she was getting some acid control.

We tried the zegerid, had to fight our insurance co., then switched companies. Crazy! It worked on day #4.

When the doc. increased the dose, and the insurance co. wouldn’t pay for more than the 15 mg. I went and got a script and samples for myself so I could give her the right dose and not have to pay a fortune for the med. The things we will do to save $. Good luck with everything!

April 25, 2006 at 9:48 pm #6844

hellbennt
Keymaster

from my welcome/intro there’s a link called ‘prevacid 101’ & I recently updated it to show that you MIGHT be able to get caracream from your pharmacy-it’s definitely another option to look into!

here’s my welcome/intro https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=853&am p;am p;PN=1&TPN=1

~laura

April 27, 2006 at 8:35 pm #7042

Anonymous
Inactive

Thank you everyone for all the advise. My pediatrician is willing to switch Jack to a PPI, but was very confused about dosage. I brought along all the marci-kids info because he wanted to write for 8mg a day. I gave him all the literature, that it should probably be 24 mg/day- he weighs 8kg. He is going to consult a GI doc before writing me the script. I find it so frustrating that the doctors are so behind the research. At this point I don’t even care if he writes for Prevacid or Prilosec or if my insurance will pay, I just want Jack to feel better. I am curious, did all of your docs know to advise you to continue with zantac, or did you have to learn it from the website? Thank god for this forum.

April 27, 2006 at 8:58 pm #7046

hellbennt
Keymaster

I learned it here- well, ped gi did mention it but didn’t say WHY & didn’t stress it, so i felt like tiny baby was on too many meds & I stopped the zantac- jonah cried/shrieked/howled so much he went HOARSE so when I called the ped GI, they said to give the zantac…it was day 12 until the PPI ‘kicked in’ and even then the zantac helped along w/ the PPI for quite some time…

April 28, 2006 at 4:00 pm #7110

Anonymous
Inactive

Well, now I am confused. The pediatric GI doc told my Ped to write for 15mg Prevacid solutabs, break in half and give 2x a day. This seems like way too low of a dose, and my insurance doesn’t even cover it. I want to get Jack started, but not if the dose is too low to help. I can’t remember what Joel said, if it is the dose that matters not the frequency, or both. Help.

April 28, 2006 at 4:23 pm #7114

Anonymous
Inactive

Both matter. The dose has to be high enough and they should get it three times per day. If he weighs 8K he should get 8 – 10 mg / 3 times per day. That’s what my son gets and he also weighs 8K.

I hope you can convince your doctor. It took me weeks to do it, but I called and called, and sent the info, and called again. Made a real pest of myself. It was worth it. Myles finally got better when his doctor finally agreed to up his dose. I hope it works out for you, too.

April 28, 2006 at 8:48 pm #7139

hellbennt
Keymaster

hmmm…maybe break in 1/2 and give 3x a day…then when it ‘works’ say ‘uh-oh’ I was giving 3x a day (or blame hubby- say you each didn’t realize you were giving a dose or something) and it’s GREAT so let me just continue this way…
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