Compounding For Babies

Pharmaceutical compounding helps doctors create customised medications for patients from all walks of life. While middle aged and elderly patients tend to rely more heavily on prescription medication, paediatric patients - especially babies and infants - benefit an enormous amount from the medications created by the modern compounding pharmacy. There are many fine examples of customised medications that have been developed for children and infants - more palatable flavours that make the medicine go down more easily is one - but it's the solution that's been crafted for reflux in infants that is perhaps the most intriguing. By examining how doctors and parents enjoy the benefits of compounding when it's time to treat reflux in infants; it's easy to see just how indispensable this process really is.

Reflux In Infants: What Is It?

Reflux is a very common condition and usually occurs in infants between ages zero to six months. Basically, reflux occurs when the contents of the stomach are brought back up into a baby's oesophagus after a feeding. Sometimes, those contents are regurgitated and end up coming back out of the baby's mouth. It is important to note, however, that regurgitation is entirely different from vomiting. Unlike vomiting, regurgitation involves no effort; food and other contents simply spill back out, but are not ejected or forcefully expelled from a baby's mouth.

Managing Reflux

For the most part, reflux is not a serious or chronic condition. In fact, most babies outgrow it by the time they are sitting up regularly - usually around eight to ten months of age. In the meantime, though, most parents become concerned and want to do something to put a stop to the regurgitation and other issues associated with reflux. In turn, many paediatricians prescribe Losec. This is a very effective drug for treating reflux, but there is one major drawback: it is only produced in tablet form. Obviously, infants are not capable of swallowing tablets, and the concept of crushing up such tablets isn't very appealing - or advisable - to most parents.

Compounding Losec Into Omeprazole

When a mum or dad needs reflux medication for their infant, the paediatrician has an excellent option: Compounding Losec tablets into Omeprazole. Omeprazole is a compounded suspension form using the same active ingredient found in Losec tablets. This is administered to infants with a syringe and therefore provides an accurate dosage of medication and comes in two flavours - banana and tutti-frutti. All in all, compounding comes to the rescue for infants with reflux on a regular basis, and helps harried parents breathe a little bit easier as well.