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Heart Disease (Expert Forum)
Child Age 5 with SVT taking Tenormin
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Child Age 5 with SVT taking Tenormin
by Jane, Jan 20, 2001 12:00AM
My grandson is age 5 and weights 45lbs. In July of 2000 he was diagnosed with SVT-he has been taking 12.5mgs of Tenormin once a day-recently due to illness (pneumonia and then stomach virus) he had breakthrough-the doctors at Childrens Hospital have increased his medication to 12.5mgs in the AM and 25mgs in the PM. Depending upon who you talk to, I have been getting different opinions on Tenormin and the life of the drug in the body and also on the amount to be given to a 5 year old. My questions are: How many hours does Tenormin stay in the body?? Is it safe to give 37mgs to a child this young??
Do you feel that taking Tenormin twice a day is ok 12.5mgs in the AM and 25mgs in the PM. If we give this dosage has the effects of the am pill worn off by the time we give the pm pill- I would like to talk to other parents or grandparents of children with SVT. It is very difficult to get a 5 year old to tell you how he is feeling on the medicine. Do you feel that a child that has SVT should have the flu and pneumonia shots-we have been told that he is not considered at risk so the shots are not necessary-yet he had pneumonia and the flu this year and perhaps if he had had the shots we could have avoided both and he would not have been in the hospital.
Do you feel that taking Tenormin twice a day is ok 12.5mgs in the AM and 25mgs in the PM. If we give this dosage has the effects of the am pill worn off by the time we give the pm pill- I would like to talk to other parents or grandparents of children with SVT. It is very difficult to get a 5 year old to tell you how he is feeling on the medicine. Do you feel that a child that has SVT should have the flu and pneumonia shots-we have been told that he is not considered at risk so the shots are not necessary-yet he had pneumonia and the flu this year and perhaps if he had had the shots we could have avoided both and he would not have been in the hospital.
Doctor's Answer
by CCF CARDIO MD - DLB, Jan 21, 2001 12:00AM
Atenolol when used for arrhythmias is probably best used as a twice a day drug, as your doctors are doing. For treatment of high blood pressure or angina, it is often used as a once a day drug. The dose of atenolol is highly individualized, though that dose itself does not sound inappropriate for his weight. SVT itself is not an indication for the flu shot, unless there is underlying heart disease.
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