Prednisone Tapering

The first time I used prednisone last year I felt the side-effects up till a few weeks after I had tapered all the way down to zero.

Also, once I had tapered below 20mg things got a bit shaky (literally, I got shaky hands - but also had minor flare-ups) so I'm tapering at a slower rate below 20mg this time.  I'm on a second course of prednisone at the moment and have tapering down to 15mg. 

A few people suffer no side-effects, so hopefully your son's one of them.  More importantly it's great that he seems to be in remission or headed in the right direction.

Prednisone tapering can be tricky. It takes a few days for your body to be at the actual level that you are at. And the longer you are on them the more side effects you will get. I normaly have started haveing problems when dropping to around 20 or 15. But also I get less side effects. But I will go into a mini-flare and will be held at around 20 or 15 for longer. I have gone into a flare both time while trying to tapper off of the prednisone. So I have disscused Remicade with my GI as the next step if I can not get of off prednisone with this tapper (i'm at 25 so keep your fingers crossed.) I was diagnosed as a teenage as well, so I know how hard it must be for your son. I drasticaly changed my eatting habits, and with the prednisone side effects i just never felt like myself. I hope that everything goes well and he can get off of the prednisone sucessfuly!

Typically when tapering down from 20, you want to decrease the dosage every 5-7 days by 2.5 mg. You want to split the dosage equally between the morning and evening dosage. Decrease 2.5 mg at the nightly dosage. When the night dosage reaches 0, then split the dosage again. So when you have 10 mg in the morning and 0 mg at night, the next day you split 5 and 5. I read this online, it is called the Marshall Protocol. This is how I tapered down, but your GI may have other ideas.

I am down to my last 2.5 mg, and will be off of this by next Monday!!