Prednisone for a 21 Month Old?

A.,
My son has been on prednisolone several times for asthma. Personally I hate it. It makes him hyper and jittery. My doctor doesn't like to prescribe it because it's a pretty strong dose of steroids for such little kids. And, unlike the inhaled steroids he's on daily, prednisolone goes straight to the bloodstream. Mostly, he was prescribed it by ER doctors because I think they want to CTA.
Good luck.

Dear A.,

Don't give your child anything as strong as prednisone. Instead get him to Dr. Merkle who will test him to find out what is really going on. I'll bet everything is connected but diffuse symptoms are hard to connect. Dr. Merkle is very good at connecting the dots and he will help your baby get healthier rather then cover up the symptoms with meds.

Office is ###-###-#### and his web site is www.3000health.com. On the site they have some case histories and a sample report to help you better understand how he does what he does. Basically it is all done by blood and other tests to see where you are chemically and test toxicity levels. Then he rebalances the body and removes the toxins. Wonderful things happen to people on his program. You can also listen on the net or radio to his show on Sat at 11:00 AM. WHIO1290.com - link it from the site.

My friend Becky had bleeding ulcers from when she was 9 years old. She was a nurse and none of her doctor friends helped. Finally at 40+ she went to Dr. Merkle. Within six weeks, with only a change in diet and supplements, she stopped bleeding. If you call the office say a friend of Becky's gave you the info.

God Bless,

S.

The long term mouth sores were a flag to me. Have him tested for Behcet's Syndrome. My son had mouth sores constantly. Always had at least one in his mouth at all times. He had sores on his skin that I had always thought were ingrown hairs on his legs or pimples. When he went into the Air Force he had a break out in a private place and they started to run tests. They diagnosed him as having Behcets. Once I read about it...everything fit! It's an auto-immune disease that the symptoms are treatable but he'll have to live with for the rest of his life. Mention it to your dr and have him tested. It's a skin test. If left untreated, these "lesions" can move to the eyes (causing blindness), to the brain and major organs (causing death). I don't mean to scare you, just want to spread the word when I hear of anything that matches because for years, we didn't know what was wrong with my son. He was 19 before the Air Force figured it out!

While pregnisone long term isn't a great thing for kids, a short course to see if it helps is probably a good thing. I have had a lot of prednisone myself, not at that young of an age, but it was a necessary evil. Also, and your doctor should know this, SED rates are not best indicator of inflammation - in fact my dr stopped using that at least 3 years ago, now they use C reacitve proein - it's much more accurate. Just some food for thought.
Good luck!

My middle daughter has severe asthma and has since she was 3 months old (she's 5 now). Up until about a year ago, she was on oral Prednisone (Orapred) 3-4 times per year. I never noticed any negative side effects from it. However, she has always been a very healthy child otherwise. The only thing I noticed with her is that she has always been a very big child. She was born "normal" size (7 lbs 14 oz), but after about the second round of Orapred (not to mention the inhaled steroid that she took twice a day) she seemed to get really big really fast. She has bene in the 98th percentile or above on all of her measurements since she was about 6 months old. Now, I never considered this a negative thing at all, and the doctors have never shown any concern either.

I know that prednisone will dramatically reduce the immune system, so he must be kept away from anyone that may be sick or around someone who was sick. My mother and grandfather are both on it. I had just a tiny touch of the flu a week before I saw my mother. A week later I thought everything would be fine. She turned up with the flu about a day later and it was awful for her. The same thing happened with a sinus infection. She caught it from me somehow after a visit and it was full blown in her a couple days later. My grandfather caught a cold from my son, and they never touched each other. My son had a slight runny nose. My grandfather had a terrible cold and I think it turned into bronchitis.

It causes them to gain water weight, gain fat weight very very very easily, and to look very round faced. The face gains water weight and it looks really puffy, swollen and a bit red. They gain weight very easily, so the diet must be strictly controlled: no sugar, no salt, no matter what. Any weight gained is impossible to lose when on the prednisone. You have to lose it after getting off the prednisone. It's difficult for an adult to manage, so I suggest seeing if there's a different drug to try before prednisone.

Or... maybe they can keep the dosage very low and for short periods of time. Then give the child's body to regulate back to normal and try the meds again.

If you are net sure seek a second medical opinion.

I'm so sorry that you are going through this with your little one. It's so hard to have things wrong with your child that you can't immediately fix, isn't it?

The child I know who is on it has swelling so severe that it looks painful, unnatural and discolors the skin. I would try some of the suggestions the other moms more experienced with the drug have suggested about seeing specialists for rare diseases/disorders before launching on a drug with this many side effects. (Of course, from the sound of things, perhaps you are going down that road now.)

Best wishes for you and your little guy!

A.,
First let me begin by saying that I am not a doctor. Reading your post though, I immediately thought of Behcet's disease based on the symptoms you are describing. My husband was very ill a few years back and went through EVERY imaginable test known and still the doctors could not give him a clear diagnoses. He finally saw a rheumatologist that suggested it was Behcets and sure enough as the years have passed, all of his symptoms fit the diagnoses of Behcet's. Unfortunately there is not a simple test to diagnosis it... it is something that is diagnosed on exclusion meaning the symptoms can't be attributed to anything else. The one symptom that somebody must have though is chronic mouth ulcerations. I would suggest having your child see a pediatric rheumatologist. It is a rare condition though so you may need to seek out someone who has experience with it. Over the past several years my husband has been on numerous medications and was on pred for almost a year and a half.... the docs may want to try a short course of steroids to control the symptoms, but please think long and hard about agreeing to long term use of prednisone as there are some horrible side effects. If I can answer any other questions or just discuss other symptoms, etc. feel free to e-mail me at ____@____.com. I wish you and your son the best.
T.

Have you looked at the side effects? It's about a legal size sheet of paper long. I would avoid it at ALL costs at such a young age.

Have you tried a natural med doc or someone who specializes in children? If not, I'd HIGHLY recommend it. Don't know where you live but there is one here in the Carmel/Fishers/Noblesville area.

In addition, I KNOW for a fact that one of the things that MUST be done is build up his immune system. Dr. Marshall will tell you that, too. When the immune system is down/depleted, ALL KINDS OF THINGS CAN HAPPEN. You can take meds to cover up the symptoms or you can find the root source of the problem/nutritional deficiences or toxicies and take care of them thus taking care of the problem. I would be afraid that if you start a child on such a "drastic" med at that age......they might be on meds for life. I certainly wouldn't want that headache or expense.
In addition, you may fix one problem but end up with more from the side effects. Just some things to think about.

Let me know if you want her contac info.