Omeprazole
Brands Names: Losec, Prilosec
- Form of administration: Capsule or syrup
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Why is the drug here:
A basic treatment for gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD, also known as occult reflux).
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Purpose of treatment:
Treating GERD (or occult reflux) in babies and children. In this link, you can read more about these conditions and the difference between reflux (a baby who has lots of spit-ups) and occult reflux (GERD). You can also find treatment options for each case.
- Ingredients: The active component is called Omeprazole, which is a proton pump inhibitor (PPI). This medication will lower the secretion of acid in the gastrointestinal tract
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How to use:
Notice the following tips ahead. Practically it really doesn’t matter how you administer the medication, but generally it should be given once daily, in the morning hours, about 30 minutes before a meal. The dosage is 0.7-3.3 milligram per every kilogram of body weight. Check and see for yourself, in many cases the dose you were given was barely homoeopathic, which won’t help the symptoms.
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Benefits:
A unique medication to treat GERD in young babies. In fact, there is really no another treatment option in real cases. Again, when diagnosed correctly, this medication (if given properly) will work wonders. Syrup formulation requires prescription, capsules does not in most cases.
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Side Effects:
The active ingredient has many drug interactions. Luckily, most children do not take any other medication while taking Losec. In term of side effects – very uncommon.
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Another word from the doctor:
I want to emphasis a few important points:
In many countries, If you go and see your pediatrician enough times and complain about restlessness you will end up treated with Omeprazole. Therefore, I recommend reading the important post about restlessness in babies, and considering whether this is the real solution to your child’s problem.
There are a few different options when given treatment with Losec. Notice the differences:
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- Syrup – a pharmaceutical preparation. The pharmacy will take the little Omeprazole particles or beads (this is what’s inside the capsule), crash them and prepare syrup from the material. The problem is that the active component needs to be absorbed after passing the stomach, in the Duodenum. When given as syrup, the acidity in the stomach will break the active component down, so when it’ll get to the duodenum, it will not be affective. So this is a nice way to administer the medication, but it is not ideal.
- Capsule – relevant only for older children, and those who can swallow pills.
- Omeprazole particles (beads) – opening the capsule and giving the beads inside something acidic like apple sauce. Yes, you can open the capsule, take half of the beads (the capsule mostly contains 20 mg, and the dosage for babies is 10 mg), spread them on apple sauce and give to the baby. Doesn’t matter the age. In this form, the acidic apple sauce will protect the active component in the stomach, the active component will arrive to the duodenum, absorb in the blood stream and lower the acidity level in the stomach.
- Dosage – I often see babies who weigh 4 kg receiving 5 mg Omeprazole. This is homoeopathic at best, and mostly will not work (well, in most cases there is no GERD to begin with, but the placebo effect still works..). Regular dosage should be higher, as written above.
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