Cushings syndrome in prednisone users

Hi all!

I'm new to this board and am so happy I found it! My son (almost 17) was diagnosed with chronic and severe pancolitis (has since been reclassified to severe proctosigmoiditis) at 3 years old....he also has an autoimmune bleeding disorder.

He started Prednisone again on Saturday. It has been 10 years since he last took it. Back then, the doses were very high for someone so small and brought on massive Cushings, very quickly. Most noticeable, being the "moon face".

So I guess my question is this: As adults who use prednisone for your UC, when do you (if at all) see your face begin to change? How severe is it? What doses are you on, when you begin to see it? Then, how quickly does it recede for you when you begin to taper, and at what doses? I am SO concerned only because being a teenager isn't easy to begin with and adding moon face to the mix just adds insult to injury.

One other question: Do you find any tried and true dietary tips...ie. no salt, etc....help with minimizing it?

I so appreciate your comments. I was just hoping that, since he is older, it won't hit him as hard.

Thank you so much! xo

Hi John...
Yeah, drugs definitely work differently for the individual. We're very "lucky" in the sense that corticosteroids work crazy fast and well for my son. His doc seems to have an alternate opinion on age-indiscriminate thing. When Ben was 3 he would be put on 80mg for two days (his bleeding then was hard to believe) then begin a taper of 10mg per week. His GI now says that given that Ben is basically the size of an adult, his serum levels would be different...especially since he's been started on 50mg a day for 7 days, with a taper of 5mg every three days. I have read in the past that if you stay below 20mg that the likelihood of cushings is lowered. I sure hope that's true. I just thought I would see what different people had experienced. I appreciate your response. Thanks! :D