Meds WWYD?

[Anonymous]

According to the MARCI-Kids calculator, my 6 mos old, Gabe, is underdosed. It says he should be on 30-39mgs of Prevacid a day. He’s been gradually getting worse the past few weeks and today was just terrible. The problem is my doctor isn’t in on Fridays or weekends and there is no answering service. So I can’t do anything until Monday which seems like a very, very long way away when baby is this miserable!

What should I do? Should I go ahead and up the dose on my own? He’s on 22mgs right now…

Also, he takes 2 CCs of Zantac liquid twice a day. That dose has never been upped since he began taking it at 8 weeks old. Should I have that upped too? I can tell it helps him because when we’ve tried to wean him from it it’s a no-go.

How do I make it until Monday??

[hellbennt]

well, the first thing i would do is figure out a ‘conservative’ dose for the prevacid- so that would be 3mgs/kilo- & I’d give that

then I would figure out the ‘high’ dose for zantac- 10mgs per kilo

and I’d give those 2 doses…that’s just me…I’m no doctor…

[Anonymous]

Hi Jenn,
I’m sorry your little guy is having reflux problems. It does sound like he could use a higher dose. I kind of think if you can get the Prevacid increased enough that you won’t need to increase the zantac. Until Monday, you could maybe try some Pepcid complete… I know a lot of moms have had success with that. Just be sure to space it a few hours from the prevacid like you would the zantac. Just an idea. Good luck! I hope you can get that higher dose on Monday and can find something to help him until then.

[Anonymous]

Hi Jenn,

Just from my own experience with Nathan — going from 22.5 mg of Prevacid to 30 mg of Prevacid made a huge difference. He finally stopped crying all day! What works for us is 15 mg in the morning, 15 mg before the last feeding at night, and one dose of Zantac in the middle of the day at 10 mg/kg. We tried just dividing the 30 mg of Prevacid into 3 doses of 10 mg per day, but it didn’t give him the relief that a dose of 15 mg does.

I would go ahead and up the Prevacid (although it took a day or two for us to see the improvement with the increase) and up the Zantac. I really hesitated for the longest to give Nathan so much medicine, but he really needs it and nothing else was helping.

I hope Gabe is better soon. Keep us posted!

[Anonymous]

Thank you all for your suggestions. Paula, we pretty have the same routine as you do!

I went ahead and gave him 15mgs this morning. I’ll give him his zantac this afternoon, and then 15mgs at tonight before bed. I have also been giving him Zantac in the wee hours of the morning. He wakes up about 3-4 am every day so I give him a dose then.

[Author]

Posts