Omeprazole in children: indications and recommended dose
If you have to give omeprazole to your children, do not miss these indications and recommended doses. But when in doubt, consult your pediatrician!
Nowadays, many children suffer from reflux and severe stomach pains due to a poor diet or suffering from a disease. When adults suffer from this type of situation we turn to omeprazole, which it does is inhibit the proton pump. This means that it blocks the secretion of acids in the stomach .
In most cases, when children have pain or reflux in the stomach, we wonder if they can take omeprazole or not, since it is a drug that is a bit aggressive for them.
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OMEPRAZOLE IN CHILDREN
In the case in which children suffer stomach pain, we can resort to omeprazole , but we will have to take into account a series of parameters so that this drug does not negatively affect the health of children and so that be more effective.
The first thing we have to do before giving the medicine to children is to go to the pediatrician so that he can do a small study on the child . On many occasions it has been the case that children are allergic to any component of the drug, so we could not give it to them. If the child suffers from liver disease, we will have to do without omeprazole because, as the kidneys do not work well, it may not eliminate it correctly and traces of the medicine remain in the child’s body.
Once the doctor or pediatrician has given us the go-ahead and we know that the child can take omeprazole, we have to take into account the following aspects:
– We have to administer the medicine half an hour before eating food, so that it has the desired effect.
– Do it always, as far as possible, at the same time every day.
– Give the entire capsule , do not divide in two, or remove anything from the content that comes inside. Unless the pediatrician or doctor prescribes it.
As for the dose that we are going to give omeprazole to children, it will vary depending on their weight and age, since they cannot all receive the same dose because it will not have the same effect on them.
– Newborns : Newborns will also be able to take this medicine but in a very small dose. between 0.5 and 1.5 mg . It depends on the kilograms that the baby weighs. Of course, we are only going to give it a daily dose.
– Infants: These will receive a dose of 0.7 mg per kilogram of weight. We are also going to administer a single dose a day. It has been shown to be very effective in infants.
– Children and adolescents under 16 years: It will also depend on the weight of the child . In this case, if the child weighs 5 to 10 kg, we will give him a single daily dose of 5 mg. If you weigh between 10 to 20 kg, we will give you a dose of 10 mg a day and if you weigh more than 20 kg, we will give you a dose of 20 mg once a day.
In the case in which the child suffers from liver failure that is not very serious, we will have to reduce the dose of omeprazole by half.
It must be taken into account that omeprazole is a drug that cannot be ingested at the same time if other types of medication are being administered as it can be highly harmful to the health of children. In this case, if children are taking anticoagulants, diazepam or phenytoin, we should always consult with the doctor or pediatrician if we can administer omeprazole or not.
Dr. Tabriella Perivolaris, Sara's mother and fan of fashion, beauty, motherhood, among others, about the female universe. Since 2018 she has been working as a copywriter, always bringing to her articles a little of her experience and experience as a mother and woman.