Zegerid Help

[Anonymous]

We upped ours but our doctor told us that anytime we felt it needed to be that we could go ahead and do it. You have to give 14 mgs to keep from adding Mylanta for the extra buffer. So if you increased it that amount then you could stop adding Mylanta.

[Anonymous]

I’m not sure about the buffer question…but we did up Sarah’s dose about two months ago. She was teething and it really bothered her. After giving mylanta for a few days (and seeing it work) I decided to increase her dose a little bit. It wasn’t a tremendous amount but it seemed to really help her. When I told our doc. so that she could change our prescription so it would be accurate, she said it wasn’t a big deal b/c we were already on such a high dose anyway and she’d just leave it at 30mg a day even though we upped to 33mg.

Hope it works for you!

[Anonymous]

yes if you are giving a min. of 3.5 ML you dont need the buffer.
also, my son required an extremely high dose of zegerid. we recently switched to prevacid, but about 2 weeks ago, the marci kids calc said 42 mg per day, and he required 60mg per day to control his pain. i always upped his dose myself.

[Anonymous]

Hey all,

I emailed Dr. Phillips just to be sure, and this was his response:

“Once you reach 7mL of the 4mg/mL you do not need buffer
Once you reach 3.5 mL of the 2mg/mL you do not need buffer. “

According to what he said, you would need to be giving 28mgs. per dose before you don’t have to add the buffer (40 mg. packs) and 7 mg. per dose (20mg packs). This is different from what you all have said, right??? I’ve not been giving the buffer the last few days and he seems to have gotten worse, so I guess we’re back to it again.

[Anonymous]

The issue is the buffer (bicarb) in the Zegerid. (The Zegerid is a combination of omeprazole plus a buffer agent.)

There is a different ratio of buffer to actual active medication (the omeprazole) between the 20 mg and 40 mg meds; the ratio is less in the 40 mg packet (there is less buffer). Therefore, you need more volume with the 40 mg strength to have enough buffer. (This is why you only need a minimum of 3.5 ml with the 20 mg dose and 7 ml with the 40 mg med.)

The buffer is there to protect the omeprazole from stomach acid, since this is an immediate release form of the medication. Without a buffer there, the normal stomach acid would destroy the omeprazole, making it obviously ineffective. Adding the mylanta to 4 mg/ml doses of the 40 mg Zegerid gives more buffer to protect the active med (the omeprazole) from the stomach acid; if you gave the Zegerid alone, you aren’t getting enough buffer at the smaller (less than 7 ml) volume.

He’s probably getting worse because although he is getting the same mg dose of Zegerid, he’s not getting enough extra protective buffer (from the extra mylanta), so the med is getting degraded by his stomach acid. The mylanta wouldn’t be necessary if the volume of each 40 mg dose was 7 ml or greater; at these volumes, there is enough buffer in the Zegerid to protect the omeprazole component of the medication.

[Anonymous]

okay now i am lost. i have an actual email from dr phillips that said if i was giving a min. of 3.5 ML i didnt need buffer. this was referring to the 40 mg packs at a concentration of 4mg/ML.

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