Prednisone for teenage Ulcerative Colitis?

My daughter is 16 years old with mild UC. Symptoms exacerbated with Asacol. Now the doctor prescribed Colazal. He is pushing steroids because she has lost weight and is getting weaker. What is your experience with steroids? Is there any such thing as a 1 week course. I'm afraid of steroid dependence and side effects. Thanks!

Thank you.

I have not heard of a 1 week course of Prednisone for UC. Sometimes you do hear on here about people getting short course packs to try for UC but I'm having a hard time remembering someone having good results going that route. The usual course seems to be 40mg to start until symptoms are better and then a taper of 10 or 5 mg per week until done. That's more like 4-8ish weeks depending on how long symptoms take to resolve. It might be worth waiting a bit to see if removing the Asacol and starting Colazal improves her symptoms but if she's losing a lot of blood or going a LOT, if she's super sick you might have to bite the bullet and go the pred route.

How far up is her UC? If it's low in her colon or limited to the left side, perhaps Hydrocortisone enemas or foam would be a good think to try before oral pred?

I hope she feels better soon! ;o(

I would probably give some of the rectal meds a try, whether it is a 5ASA or steroid, it's better than taking oral prednisone if it is unnecessary. Of course, this depends on how she is feeling, if she is really bad, you may want to try to nip it as quickly as possible and prednisone could be the best option for this. I was on pred for the first time last year and I had a very hard time tapering off. the GI is always going to tell you it will be a short course but it's not always easy to get off without having symmptoms reappear. My advice to you is to planf or this ahead of time. It may not be the case, she may be able to do a quick course and get into remission but if not, you want to know at what point you feel it's time to try something else. I waited too long to start 6mp. I didn't want to face the reality that it was what I had to do.

Has she had stool tests? Has she tried any antibiotics? there are people who have luck with Flagyl or other antibiotics. I think it's worth a try before going on prednisone.

We finally had to bite the bullet. My daughter went for three weeks barely getting off the sofa, barely eating, with 12 lb weight loss. She barely did any schoolwork, and completely stopped her sport. She was able to bear two hours of her birthday party, but suffered afterward with cramping, diarrhea, some blood, and got up a few times in the night. She slept the next day til noon

Today we gave her 35mg of Prednisone. The difference is night and day! She is eating! She hasnt had any diarrhea or cramping. She eagerly took a walk around the block.

Tomorrow we plan to give her 30mg for 5 days.

Thanks for all of the responses!

I was 16 when I was flaring and I tried pred. tI did nothing for me but make me crabby and fat. Is she still on colazal? I would stay on it to try and maintain things after stopping pred. Pred is tricky. It's easy to become dependent and its NOT good long term but it can really help some.

Our daughter (19)is now tapering off of the Prednisone. She started on 40mgs back in July 2010. She is currently on 5mgs.

I wish we were better informed on the side effects of this devil drug. She was hospitilized in September 2010 for 2 weeks and in mid October we began the Pred. taper. We are taking the taper exceptionally slow.

She's also done a FT (fecal transplant) which I believe brought on her remission. Now it's just a matter of getting off of the prednisone and dealing with the side effects of that.

My suggestion to you is that you read Everything you can about this disease and this drug. Don't rely on the G.I. to help you understand this. Ours was near useless. She had about 5 scopes last year and the only one that was near normal was the one after the FT. Read up on that. I believe that might be the future of dealing with this disease.

Best of luck to you and your daughter. My thoughts and prayers are with you.

Thank you MomUC19 and Runforpancakes!

Dear Mom-

Waking at night with urgency, diarrhea etc is a sign of uncontrolled UC. The prednisone should start to help this. I hope your Dr has her on a slow taper..it does take awhile to get the inflammation under control. Also, have you tried a hydrocortisone enema? That may help- my Dr would have me do it every morning and night but certainly using it at night may help with the diarrhea and night waking.

Please look for a good Pedi GI that you like and trust- that is half the battle of this darn disease in our kids. We can be so helpless but continue to research and ask questions.
Keep us posted!

Good luck with the GI on Tuesday.
I hope her UC starts to improve and that you feel like the Colazal is working.
Unfortuanltey none of the ASA's worked for us- we tried Sulfasalazine, Pentasa and Colazal and they
all increased and worsened her diarrhea and cramping.
Keep up with the VSL- I think that is very helpful in the fight against UC.

My daughter, who is 15 ,has had her colon removed eight weeks ago. Scheduled for takedown surgery for tomorrow. Yes predisone stopped her flare but I would never put her on steroids again. Some bone loss in lower back. Hair loss and stretch marks on her back. She was the type of person who always got most of the side effects from the drugs she was taken. At one point my daughter was down to 89 pounds. Yes find a pedi GI. I didn't at first, and she got sicker and sicker. Made a big difference when I went to a pedi GI. Oh I forgot she got the chipmunk cheeks from predisone.


THE BLENDER
My daughter had hair loss also her doctor suggested biotion she said that could help. Also the doctor had told her it is from her being so sick.