Problems with Carafate/Sucralfate

Hi everyone, I've been taking Sucralfate (brand name Carafate) for the past week and it seems to be helping the burning stomach. I discovered a few things about Sucralfate/Carafate that I wanted to share with you.

I've been taking the large white "horse pills" (1 gram pills). Many people swallow the pill whole, and from what I've read on other sites, this is not the best way to take them. What I do is pour a very small amount of water (about 1 oz.) into a cup and drop the whole pill into the water. It starts melting immediately. I swoosh it around in the cup, wait a minute for it to melt completely, and drink the mixture. It has no taste or aftertaste, but it's a tad chalky. I think taking it with a full glass of water might not work as well because you'd be weakening the medication with all that water.

I got a prescription for the liquid version the other day, which is only available in the brand name (Carafate), so it's a bit expensive. I tried it once, 2 teaspoons which equals the one pill (they're both 1 gram), and I didn't like it. It's very sweet and has a "chemical" taste and aftertaste, and it almost "burned" slightly going down. The next day I had awful bloating and gas, which I have every day anyway, but this was really bad. I looked up the ingredients and the sweetener used is Sorbitol. Sorbitol is known to cause gas, bloating, and diarrhea, and I've always had a problem with it. It also contains red dye number something, which some people might be sensitive. So if you're getting abdominal symptoms from the liquid Carafate, you might want to try the generic Sulcrafate pills, plus they're cheaper too.

Hope this is helpful to anyone having issues with Carafate/Sucralfate!

I'm taking sucralfate since omeprazole wasn't taking care of the intense upper abdomen pain (I'm also on mesalamine). I'm wondering if anyone has experienced constipation and trouble sleeping on sucralfate. There are nights I wake up in a panic and I'm trying to rule out why.

Thank you for your reply. I also have recently changed my diet to include more fruits and fiber so that may also be part of the problem. I'm on my first go-around with sucralfate and it has taken care of the upper abdomen pain so I'm grateful for that.