I've seen this moment coming, but now that it's here, I still feel caught off guard. I learned early this week that my son has high levels of ammonia in his blood, probably from a long standing yeast infection in his intestines. The quick search shows that this can be really really bad (could cause liver damage or brain damage). I somehow managed to settle down about all of that and focused on getting the rest of the testing done and treating the yeast. It could be the yeast and leaky gut issues that make him more susceptible to the food dyes.
In addition to being dye free, gluten free and dairy free, my son now needs to be completely sugar free. He also probably needs to be off fruit, potatoes, corn and peanuts as they could all contribute to yeast growth. I stocked up on things he can eat (meats and veggies) and decided to experiment with new things like squash, pumpkin seeds. I felt like I got over the initial stress of "OMG! what is he going to eat?" and was handling it all OK until my husband got back with the prescription for Nystatin (anti fungal to treat the yeast). IT HAS GUESS WHAT ---RED 40!!!
My husband called the pharmacy and they checked it out. It seems to be the only way it is made by all three manufacturers. We may have one option to have it specially compounded in a liquid suspension, but I can't check into that until the doctor's office is back open Monday. I seem to recall the liquid being bright yellow when my daughter took it for thrush as an infant. So I might get a great choice of red pills or yellow liquid. I am SOOOO MAD about the lack of choice in this. I need to get my thoughts together and write to some politicians.
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2 comments:
Yikes!
Medications are the worst...and why do we NEED artificial colors in meds, anyways? When you're sick is when you really do need the smallest amount of junk in your diet possible, you're dealing with so many other issues, yk?
I just did a websearch on inactive ingredients of nystatin, and there looks to be an oral suspension available that's dye free. Diflucan also has a version that looks dye free; according to webmed's rx-list.
http://www.rxlist.com/nystatin-oral-suspension-drug.htm
There should be a solution. Can you try calling a different pharmacy? When dd was put on a migraine med, my regular pharmacist got us a dye free version. Then I got a refill...and the "new guy" tried to tell me that there were no dye free versions available. Turned out that the pharmacy didn't contract normally with the people who made the dye free version.
If it comes down to it, ask for advice in recognizing the difference between a negative reaction to the drug and a "normal" allergic reaction to the dyes. (Hopefully they'll see the difficulty there and be helpful.)
Good luck!!!
Well that's the best knews I've had all day. Thank you for doing the research. If we have it oral suspension, we need it to be specially compounded to be sugar free (or it kind of defeats the whole point of treating the yeast). Huge thanks!!!!
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