10 yr old with uc - probiotics after antibiotics

If you can get VSL#3DS, its the best (costs about $140, insurance does not cover). The have also regular variant which costs about $70. Both of these are little higher doses than any other brand offers.

I started off with Benebiotics and then switched to VSL#3DS but will switch to Benebiotics again soon (It has inulin, a prebiotic, that no other preparation has)

But may be you want to wait till his flare is little in control, may be, I am not too sure. What do the docs say? If he is not really in flare, you could start with whatever you could get your hands on first.

I'm not really understanding why they gave him antibiotics at all when there was no evidence of infection. Antibiotics are usually horrible on our systems as it is, even when we need them. To give him antibiotics when there is no known infection seems like not a good thing to me unless his fever was so high that they are just grasping at straws. I would definetly give him some high dose probiotics such as VSL. How old is your son now?

Hi Gary those were my thoughts exactly. Doc couldn't answer when I said just that, apart from to say they were just making sure. It makes me mad... Is it ok for kids to take slippery elm do you know Deltaforce? My son is 10.

gary, why did you discontinue your slippery elm? Did you feel it was not working for you or were you afraid of the effect it would have on reducing the absorption of your pills? Slippery elm helps me significantly.

if taken iv-antibiotics, then yes give probiotics. IMO this is much more important for someone who does not have UC. It could prevent UC from triggering. But it should help someone who already has UC too.

Post Edited (DBwithUC) : 11/24/2012 10:34:01 PM (GMT-7)

Max: I discontinued slippery elm a month or two ago. I do worry about pill absorption since I not only take asacol (they were slipping right through) and, even though my blood pressure is not majorly bad, my primary doc wants me to take a small dose of BP meds every day to keep my BP in the normal range constantly. The last time I took slippery elm I took it at night only so I could take my meds during the day. At first I saw noticable results but after about a week those results vanished into thin air and it appeared I was taking the slippery elm for no reason.

Thanks so much for your replies, I really appreciate it. Regarding Remicade - doc says that's our only option left before surgery. My son was put on azathioprine - I believe immuran in the us - but he was intolerant to it and had to be taken off. He's been on prednisilone for a year - when we try to wean him, symptoms get worse. He's also anaemic almost all the time. He's had 4 blood transfusions this year but iron boosting effects only seem to work for about a month each time.

KillColitis point about probiotics and immune supresants is important.

I had read some cautions about that and forgot. I still think probiotics is a good idea, but my earlier opinion may have been too strong. I was not thinking about the immune suppression. I would try to get docs some literature on probiotics, and have them in the picture. I would be careful of doing anything the docs did not know about as long as they are prescribing other strong drugs.

@Macster: it is rare, but probiotics can do harm.

@Edbar, this would go double for FT, because of so many different bacteria/germs/virus. Be careful recommending/using FT if immune suppressants are in use because there is a small but real chance of death. (For example donor should be screened for TB just like patient receiving immune suppression is screened.)

My son was diagnosed with UC last December (age 8). We just started seeing a new Pediatric GI doctor that I really like. She is much more thorough than my son's first doctor. She recommended that we start him on VSL#3DS. She wrote me a perscription for it and my insurance pays $260 dollars and I only have to pay $60 for a 3 month supply. My son is on Pentasa, azathioprine, and 2 mesalamine enemas per day. He had a flare back in August and had to go on prednisone. It took 3 months to wean him off, but he is finally off and in remission. Hopefully he can stay in remission longer this time.

Back in December when he was first diagnosed, we spent 10 days in the Children's Hospital. They treated him with Flagyl (a strong antibiotic). He never tested positive for C-diff, but he had already started the antibiotic when they began doing the stool samples.

I asked the doctor why he was on Flagyl and the doctor said that having IBD seems to make you even more susceptible than others to C-diff infection which can result in death. He said that if he suspects C-diff infection is behind a bad flare of colitis symptoms, he will treat for it even before he has the results of a stool test just to be on the safe side. I wasn't extremely happy with this doctor, but I had to agree with him on this one. I have read that C-diff travels as spores which can live outside the body and on surfaces for up to 60 days. Yikes!

My heart goes out to you and your son. Hang in there and I hope he gets better soon.

when i was in the hospital on iv abx, i took Jarrows sacch boulardi as soon as i got home.  its one of the ones rec for after abx use.  its not that expensive, maybe $25 for 90 pills. 

 

as far as probiotics for my uc, i have never found one that helped, i tried sooo many (vsl3ds, etc)  however, on a whim i started sustenex , its mades with bc 30 strain or something like that.  Out of all of the things i have tried i feel like this sorta helps, in conjunction with all the other stuff i am taking.  this one may be worth a shot if youve tried a bunch of ones that didnt work.