Omnicef and augmentin

My daughter is 18 months old. She has a bad ear infection that doctor thinks that it is lingering since it has started a month ago. Omnicef was her 3rd dose of antibiotics that we tried after amoxicillin and augmentin. After her 2nd dose she started getting red in her cheeks and had loose bowels, after 4th dose she was covered with hives and rash all over her body, worst on her cheeks. After taking her to the doctors office, we were told that she has allergic reaction to omnicef. She was given benadryl (4x 1tspn per day),doctor said it might take a week for the rash to disappear and for the ear infection she was prescribed with zithromax ( 1tspn per day for 3 days). If anybody has experience with this kind of problem, I would appreciate some feedback.

My 9 month little girl took omnicef and developed a rash after her second dose. I took her to the doctor - they thought she had either roseola or hand foot and mouth.....By the time I got her home that afternoon and some time had passed - it developed more and looked awful. I called the doctor back and she informed me that with roseola or hand, foot and mouth it would get worse before it got better. That night my baby was very uncomfortable, could not sleep and kept trying to scratch the rash through . The next morning, I called the doctor back because by this time she looked like she had a horrible sunburn and it continued to worsen. The pediatrician then thought she was having a reaction, suggested benadryl for two days and then switched her to augmentin. We will begin taking that tomorrow morning - I am a little nervous because I hope not only that it will work but that she will not have any side effects like she had with ominicef. As far as taking omnicef, my other children have taken it and they were fine -but as for my baby I had it documented on her chart at the doctors office and at the pharmacist so that they will stay away from all medicines that are in the omnicef family. I hope that I will never have to see this again nor deal with it. Jenifer

Omnicef is actually one antibiotic my 2 year old has little trouble with. The red stools are alarming but at least they are solid. Currently he's on Augmentin which has caused horrible rash and loose stools.
The other nice thing about Omnicef is the dosing schedule.Usually once or twice daily depending on the infection. The 3x daily with Augmentin is way too much stress for me to bear,and for him even more so. Seeing his poor little red butt makes me cry with him. Since the two drugs can be used for the same infections, I will be asking for the Omnicef first from now on. Omnicef seems to clear his infections very quickly. The Docs really should forewarn about the red stools though, they are quite scary,even though they are typically harmless.

My 7 month old daughter was prescribed omnicef for an ear infection. It was her 4th antibiotic in 3 months for an ear infection that would not go away. After taking her second dose, I found this site and prepared myself for what might occur. A week after finishing her 10 days on omnicef, we were told by her doctor that her ears looked normal for the first time in 3 months. She never had any side effects except the reddish stool which we were warned about by her doctor. She is such a happy baby now that she is no longer in pain and discomfort from her ear infections and I thank God that she was healed and for this medication.
There will always be side effects for certain people with any medication taken. We were just lucky our baby didn't suffer any that so many on this site have suffered.

Started my 2.5 year old son on Omiceff 6 days ago for ear infection. Has been having very weird bowel movements, dark and clumpy and liquidy at the same time. Worst is his behavior extreme changes in personality, showing aggression and anxiety. Hitting, tantrums x10 ( not the typical terrible 2's kind) crying, irratable, and will not nap. Finally today all of a sudden he began screaming in pain saying his groin area hurt. He would not let me look let alone touch. After 30 minutes of inconsolable crying, I put balmex and he calmed down I hope it is nothing worse than a diaper rash. Called the DR advised me to finish the 10 days, did not respond to behavior concerns. Want to hear my prognosis: STOP TAKING OMNICEF. I will not continue to put my son and our family through this horrible ordeal. If his ear infection returns they can put him on Augmentin. Enough is Enough. Sometimes we have to listen to our own intuition Dr's only go my want the Pharm Co. has to say.
Concerned Mom

We also had two terrible experiences with the drug Omnicef. It was prescribed to both of my sons for double ear infections about one week apart. On this medicine, my 18 month old had very strange loose stools and wouldn't sleep at night at all. He woke up about every 30 minutes screaming and I could tell he was uncomfortable & in pain. I wasn't sure what to do. My doctor extended the length of time for him to be on the medicine...from 10 days to 14 days, because the ear infections would not clear up. I should have known it was the medicine, but I just found this site, and I will never put my kids on this antibiotic again! It was torture for both of my kids.
My three year old had a very similar experience. He had very odd loose stools throughout the entire time he was on this medicine, he had no appetite, wouldn't sleep, was extremely moody and uncomfortable throughout the entire 10 days. He would wake uo screaming in pain and had constant night sweats. We went back to the doctor and even after taking the medicine for the full 10 days, his ear infections weren't gone. He was prescribed Augmentin and is doing much better on it.
What a frustrating ordeal! And I have always heard Omnicef is such a "good" antibiotic...not to mention outrageously expensive!!! But, I will never use it again! EVER!

My son is 15 months. He has been on Omnicef 2 times prior to this with only great results. Where other drugs had failed to cure his infections, omnicef wiped it out. Yet this time I have a different story. I am an RN and have enough education to know that the problem may not be omnicef at all but yeasterday I swore I knew it was. Four days ago my son begain running a temp (102/103). I don't like to rush to antibiotics everytime he gets sick so I decided to wait a while to see what happens (because this was really the only symptom he had). After about a day and a half I noticed a little sinus drainage. My sister in law who is a Family Nurse Practitioner took a look at him and said he has a bit of an ear infection and inflammed throat so she decided to put him on omnicef. The next day his fever broke and seemed to be feeling better. Of course I noticed the usual reddish colored stools but this is normal (as well as some abdominal discomfort and runny stools). Anyways after about 3 doses of omnicef he began to develop a rash on his trunk. This same rash had appeared the last time he had augmentin and thus his Drs weren't sure if he was allergic or not. The rash isn't hives or the type of rash associated with allergies so it was a bit confusing. But, after his 4th dose the rash got 10 times worse. Naturally I started to freak out but this morning I took him to his pediatrician and he thinks its roseola. After reading more about Roseola I am fairly certain this is it but I'm still quite confused about the coincidence with this rash appearing after augmentin and now omnicef. I know that there is cross-sensitivity between penecillins (augmentin) and cephlasporins (omnicef) and so I was really convinced he was having some sort of mild allergic reaction to both. After educating myself more on the signs and symptoms of roseola, I am 99% sure that it is the real culpret. I do wonder however if antibiotics such as the ones I mentioned can aggrivate it??? Anyone else out there have any similar experiences??? By the way, because I am a mother and a nurse, I find it hard to discredit other parents beliefs when it comes to things like this, but you must always stop and ask yourselves if some of these strange "behaviors" aren't due to the fact that your kids are already ill? My son kept me up all night long too and I admit it is tempting to blame the drug but who really knows. My advice is to take the severity of the situation into strong consideration. Like I said, I have had wonderful results with omnicef in the past. but just because a drug works, doesn't mean it doesn't have consequences. Its when the risks outwiegh the benefits that another option should be sought after.

My four year old son was on omnicef for the very first time. He had a re-occuring ear infection that would not go away with the normal treatment, which was augmentin. The morning of his last dose, he awoke several hours prior to his norm, screaming, crying, and could not get comfortable at all. I awoke to get him a quick drink of water, and he followed me. At that time I had noticed blotches all over his face, neck, hair line, torso, legs, arms, yeah, everywhere. Being that I work in the early childhood field and have a 7 year old as well, I had thought it was just the begining of the ever so popular chicken pox. I gave him a bath in the oatmeal mix and noticed after that the blotches did not come to a head but had now gotten what seemed to be even worse. I called the doctor, at this point extremely concerned, he had never had an allergic reaction to anything before, and he was nearly done with the meds, why now was he having a reaction? I took him in and upon the doctor arriving into the room she peeked inside and yelled to the nurse to get 2 1/2 teaspoons of orapred immediatley, he was displaying an extremely severe allergic reaction to the omnicef. Apparently it takes days to be in thier systems in order to then have the reaction. That was yesterday morning. He is now doing fine, but on benadryl and orapred for several days, I just hope all the hives go completely away. So, what I could say is you never know how your child will react to a new medication, you need to be aware when your child is taking something new all the possible side effects, becuase unfortunatley it can happen to anyone or any child.

My seven month old son was prescribed Omnicef for an ear infection four days ago and it was the worst experience we have had yet...worse than colick and worse than reflux. My son who is normally extremely happy and easy going became a monster. He wouldn't eat, wouldn't drink and wouldn't sleep. He would throw a tantrum and swat his bottle out of my hand he wouldn't let me rock him or put him in the bed. He acted like he had gone mad and was very aggressive. It was a horrible experience. I called the doctor back after only one day of being on the medicine and they told me that these weren't side effects of the Omnicef and it was probably just his ears hurting to give it a couple more days. This behavior continued until today when I refused to give him another dose and told the nurse so...she asked if he was on any other cold medicine etc...and he wasn't so they prescribed him augmentin which is what we normally take and have never had a problem. I will never give this medicine to my child again and am not sure I will ever take it myself for sinusitis again either. He also experienced red looking stools but I can't swear that it was bloody but it was definitely a rusty red.