I wrote last week about a 6-week-old baby who had a fever, had the work-up
at Children's Hospital, all tests were negative, antibiotics were
prescribed anyway, and Mom was wondering about thrush.  (The hospital trip
was on Saturday, Aug 28) Doc said that abx given intramuscularly didn't
reach the gut so there wasn't a risk of thrush.

Well, I called Mom to tell her that we'd better take steps to prevent
thrush, because doc hadn't remembered about the abx being absorbed into the
blood stream, which traverses the entire body, including GI tract.  I
called several times and left messages, with no return calls.  I grew
concerned.

Mom called on Friday, Sept 3, from the hospital to say that they had been
there since the Sunday before. The doctor had written an order for Tylenol
for the baby's fever.  The parents gave it to him Saturday and into Sunday.
 By Sunday afternoon the baby wasn't feeding well and didn't seem well.

They went back to Ch. Hospital and baby was found to be in distress.  The
parents told what was recommended, and found that the amount of Tylenol
prescribed was 10 times what an infant his size should have taken.  He was
on IVs for a couple of days, after which he was given breastmilk by tube.
It was a real scary few days.

He has liver damage, with measurable elevated enzymes.  As of Sunday
afternoon, he was eating better (sore throat for a few days) and was smiling.

They haven't been given clear information as to the prognosis for a
restored liver.  The hospital staff were being rather evasive, and said
that there were no studies on the effects of overdosing on Tylenol in
infants, only in teenagers.

Their Ped is working with them to see what is out there, but if any of you
have any information that might be helpful, please let me know. What she
wants to know is, simply, will her little one be able to restore his liver
to the health that it was before the trip to the hospital, and how long
might it take.

I don't know much about livers and their healing, but I assured her that
her milk was certainly the best assurance of his return to health.

What do you folks know?

Pat Gima, IBCLC
Milwaukee, Wisconsin




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