Maintance meds

Hi everyone

Just a quick thread, Lucy has mickey button
Fitted next week , then will be discussing
Maintance meds, I'm scared of giving her
These big scary meds .
So my question is WHAT MAINTANCE MED
DID YOUR CHILD START WITH??
Any advise would be great

Within 1 year

DS started with Pentasa ( lasted 1 month) - did NOTHING- he just got worse
EEN + 6-MP (3 months last)
Add allopurinol due to liver stuff ( Lasted 3month)
added pred( 2 months course) + ASacol
FInally moved to MTX and Pred 9 mths after dx for 8 weeks + ASacol
Finally remicade after almost 1 year ( lasted 9 months) + Asacol

Now Humira(starting May) + Asacol + peptamen jr

DS has only been on Pentasa. I don't think it does much. Switching to 6MP or Remicade in June.

Alex has been on Pentasa for 3 years now 3500 mg/day. We just switched (last week) to Lialda (suppose to be the same med, but in less pills - before 7 pills a day, now 3 pills a day).

My daughter started on sulfasalazine and was ok for a few weeks and then started to get diarrhea.
Next was salofalk which caused diarrhea as well.
Then was Pentasa which hasn't been enough to get the inflammation down so they recently added imuran, they said she could probably come off the Pentasa in about a year.

My son was on supplemental EN for 1.5 years. Kept him in clinical remission (no symptoms) and kept the inflammation from spreading but did not eliminate all the inflammation. He just started on remicade in Feb.

started on 50mg of Imuran kept upping dose until we reached 150mg/day and still was not at theraputic levels. no growth/weight gain
Tried Methotrexate developed bronchitis/lung issues. Skin on hands dried and cracked and bled. gained 5 lbs grew 1/2 inch
Back to Imuran 75mg and added allipurinol 100mg was on this combo for 2 years still had joint pain, eczema and stomach pains but far less than previous. no weight gain/growth
LDN now in 10th month - labs normal, scopes normal, no joint pain, no eczema, no stomach pains, normal bowl movements. 1-8 months - no weight gain/growth 1"; 8-10 month with addition of supplemental EN 20 lb weight gain/ growth 1"

Started on azathioprine (Imuran) in Feb. 2012 and have stayed on it. He seems mostly better although he still has the odd bad day here and there. Azathioprine takes a long time to become effective (3 months or more). I understand not wanting to add the big scary drugs but once you take the plunge it doesn't seem so bad.

We started 6MP and it is going well. I agree with those who say that once you start, it isn't so bad. Jae has not side effects of it other than it lowering her white count (which is part of the reason she takes it...), so far. It is one pill a day.

We started with 6MP

We did EEN and started methotrexate at first. It worked for almost a year but then stopped so now we've added Humira too. It's really scary when you read all the possible side effects but it actually was just as scary watching him in pain, losing weight and looking sicker and sicker. Humira has quickly made a huge difference for him overall - so an acceptable risk, I guess.

(((((((HUGS)))))))))
Grace thus far.................
EEN and Pred

Grace's future (we hope).........
EEN+Budesonide+LDN

Hi, good luck with the mickey button placement next week.
Andrew had the EN first, failed Aza and is now on 6mp. So far so good with tiredness being the main issue unresolved (but I do keep forgetting to give him his iron :ybatty

Joseph was the same as Sascot's son Andrew, it must be a UK thing!!!!!!!

We are 9 months since diagnoses.

Best of luck.

Xxx

We started with salofalk then introduced 6mp. Has been on both since diagnosed 3 years ago and currently doing fine. xx

Sarah takes aza, no side effects 14 months on this treatment.

We started with sulfasalazine.
At age 10 we quickly went thru meds. Started with Prednisone, azathioprine, and pentasa. After few rounds of pred...he kept getting worse. Went to Remicade and pentasa. Then to Humira (bi weekly) and Pentasa. Now we're on Humira (10 days) and Methotrexate (orally) and Rowasa enemas. Waiting to see if that works

Both kids started with and have continued with Imuran.

Dusty.

Started low key on flagyll and cirpro, saw an improvement for a few weeks, then started prednisone and 6 mp prednisone worked well but once we started to taper symptoms returned. We then tried the 6mp in conjunction with flagyll for a few months again it worked for a while , then it was infliximab ( huge decision) and 6 mp - started off really well but not so great now. 6 mp is now stopped and we are due to replace it with methotrexate when it is flushed out in about six weeks, so it will be infliximab and methotrexate and we will see how it goes.

This is a really scary time mlp these drugs are heavy duty and the last thing you would want to give to your four year old but for us we felt we didn't have a choice - we have watched our baby in pain since she was 9 months old and at this stage I think we would try anything if we thought it would stop the pain. Having said that agreeing to give her those drugs was one of the hardest things we had to do but for now and for Lucy we think we made the right decision.

Your Lucy is very young also and our experience is that our GI did not give these drugs lightly and sought a second opinion in relation to infliximab so again we took comfort in the fact that he considered all options and consulted with other experts before making the decision to recommend infliximab. We also felt we were given enough information to make an informed decision. I suppose what I am saying is that we trust our GI and believe he is acting in Lucy's best interest at all times.

Polly