Omnicef and pediatrician

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

Our 3 year old son took Omnicef starting on a Friday. By Sunday, we were at the end of our rope. He was screaming constantly, we could not get him to go to sleep, he started being VERY aggressive.... kicking growling, hitting and just acting out in ways we'd never seen. My husband finally started looking online after our son had a fit and screamed in a corner of our house for 30 minutes, then looked at us and started laughing and acting like nothing had happened. We found this web site, and to our relief, realized our son was not just acting out. I have NO DOUBT it was the antibiotic and I can't believe this medicine made it onto the market!!! I threw the bottle away and intend to talk to our pediatrician asap.

My one year old daughter was prescribed this medication 4 days ago for an ear infection. I will never give her this medication again. Over the course of 4 days she developed worsening gastrointestinal symptoms similar to a stomach flu including diarrhea and vomiting. Today she projectile vomited all day long and was unable to keep down food or liquids. I called the pediatrician who informed us to cease using the medication immediately. Using Omnicef has been a horrible experience.

My daughter is 10 months old and on her third day of the omnicef. She has been in a terrible mood since she has started. (as someone else noted a demon child). She has horrible cramping and diarrhea. She no longer wants to eat or drink. This morning she broke out in a pimple type rash all over the trunk of her body. After reading these post I am stopping this medication it not fair to anyone to have to suffer like this when there are plenty of other meds out there. Today is Sunday so I will be contacting her Pediatrician in the morning.

My son was recently diagnosed with a sinus and eye infection. The doctor prescribed omnicef and since his initial dose he has had diarreah along with a horrible diaper rash. In addition to that he has been vomiting within 1-2 hours after taking the medication. I called the doctor to switch meds and I am horrified to report that they told me to continue to give him the medication that these were normal side effects. I don't need a PhD to know that my son is not ok after taking this medication. Unfortunately, our regular pediatrician is out of the office for two more days. I cannot believe that these doctors whom we pay could make our children worse. DO NOT GIVE YOUR THIS MEDICATION!!!

My cousins 5 year old daughter had a horrible experience with onmifef. She also had a terrible ear infection for which the antibiotic was prescribed. She woke up on the 10th day swollen from head to toe, terrible rash all over her body, fever, etc. Took her to pediatrician and he immediately sent her to children's hospital. There they were told by 3 different physicians, serum allergy. I cannot believe a physician would prescribe this after I had seen all the comments on this site. This is just horrible and to hear what all these young children have had to suffer just irritates me to no end. Something must be done about this medication!

Wow am I glad I found this site! My son has had blow out diapers with brick red stools since he started this drug. It looked like he was bleeding to death! Three or four stools a day. We will inform our pediatrician immediately.

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 3 YEAR OLD SON WAS GIVEN OMNICEF FOR AN EAR INFECTION, HE WOKE UP THE MORNING AFTER HIS 8TH DAY OF THE 10 DAY ANITBIOTIC WITH A LITTLE BUMP ON BIG TOE. WITHIN AN HOUR I NOTICED ANOTHER BUMP ON HIS ELBOW. THEY RESEMBLED MOSQUITO BITES. WITHIN THREE HOURS HIS HANDS AND KNEES WERE VERY SWOLLEN AND HE ALSO HAD SEVERAL MORE BUMPS ON HIS FACE AND ARMS. I TOOK HIM STRIAGHT INTO THE DR BECASUE WE WERE ALREADY IN TOWN. THEY SAID IT WAS A REACTION TO THE OMNICEF. WITHIN ABOUT 30 MINUTES AT THE PEDIATRICIANS OFFICE AND HIM HAVING HIS SHOES OFF, HIS FEET SWELLED ENOUGH THAT I COULDN'T PUT HIS SHOES BACK ON. THIS ALL STARTED ON MONDAY MORNING. BY TUESDAY EVENING HE WAS COMPLETELY COVERED IN HUGE WELPS AND THERE WERE CIRCLE SHAPED WELPS OVER THE ALREADY VERY RED SWOLLEN WELPS. I TOOK HIM BACK IN BECASUE HIS SKIN APPEARS TO BE BRUISING AND HIS EYES ARE SO DARK. HE IS ITCHING AND HIS SKIN HURTS HE SAYS. BENADRYL IS HELPING BUT FOR ONLY A FEW HOURS AT A TIME. THE PEDIATRICIAN SAYS IT IS REALLY BAD HIVES AND COULD LAST FOR UP TO 6 WEEKS. MY LITTLE GUY IS IN WAY MORE PAIN THAN BEFORE THE OMNICEF EVEN WITH HIS EAR INFECTION. HE DIDN'T HAVE ANY DIAREAH OR STOMACH PAIN THE FIRST 8 DAYS, THIS JUST CAME ON SUDDENLY AND UNEXPECTEDLY. NEVER AGAIN WILL ANY MEMBER OF OUR FAMILY USE OMNICEF.

My one year old daughter was prescribed Omnicef as a "last effort" before sending her to an ENT doc when 4 other antibiotics tried over a 2 1/2 month period refused to drain her right ear. She's only been on it one day, and was up SCREAMING twice last night (about 12 hours after taking the meds), acting like she was having HORRIBLE dreams. Once in the middle of the night it appeared that she temporarily stopped breathing, and when regaining her breath wasn't herself, acting all floppy-like. I was up with her all night. Once up, she appeared fine. But after her nap, she had a MAJOR bowel movement...1/2 of which seemed REALLY purplish/red--almost as if it MIGHT be blood, but not sure. After reading what everyone else has written, think I'll be calling her pediatrician. Her second dose of this antibiotic has her SCREAMING again--almost as if she's having serious intestinal discomfort. I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS ANTIBIOTIC!!!!!

This is the second time in about a month and a half, that my pediatrician has perscribed Omnicef for my 10 mo. old daughter, and both times it either did not clear up the primary infection or caused a secondary infection. Besides not curing what it was supposed to, the drug caused a bad yeast infection and severe diarrhea. It's very difficult to clear up a yeast infection when you can't keep the area dry! I don't like this drug, and I will not let my daughter take it again.

My eight month old son was prescribed Omnicef for a double ear infection and possible strep throat. After one dose of the medication, he has had several bouts of rust-colored diarrhea which could be mistaken for blood. Since there is nothing in his diet that could turn his stool this color, I assumed it was the Omnicef. I called the pharmacist to see if there was a red dye in the medication, but he insisted that this was an abnormal occurrence. The pediatrician told us that it does contain a red dye. My son has been irritable, clingy, restless, and is displaying anxious behaviors. He is not sleeping well. I can only attribute it to the medication, as his ears and throat are getting much better. I still have another 6 days left of this; if it continues for another day, I will stop.

To those of you who are continuing to give/take this med, I have split the dose into two and this seems to be helping. I give it in the morning and evening after a full meal. The diarrhea is less frequent and less watery.

This website was the only thing verifying my experience. Thank you to everyone who has contributed their insights.

My 7 month ol son has taken Omnicef (Cefdinir) for the last 6 days. On day two he had his first "bloody red" diaper with diarrhea like stool inside. I rushed to my Pediatrician to make a stool test which came back negative. Today and for the last days his stool has had the same red color. I'm glad I found more people concerned about the red color in the bowels. I also found my son was very irritated and had a hard time sleeping at night as well as loss of appetite. Unfortunately I couldn not find the discolorization of the stool in the side effect list on the medication.

My 12mo old daughter began taking Omnicef two days ago for a urinary tract infection. She's normally a very happy child who takes about 4oz of milk and then crashes for the night. Both nights since starting Omnicef she has been extremely restless and doesn't want to sleep. When you hold her she wants down, when you put her down she wants you to pick her up and cries constantly. The only way to get her to sleep is to take a ride in the car....and then pray she doesn't wake up when we're bringing her back into the house. The red-ish colored stool happened after the first dose as well. She had one when she woke up the next morning and another a few hours later. These were the worst diapers I've ever seen. We're stopping the doses and consulting her pediatrician. Hope this helps.

My daughter is taking Omnicef for a sinus infection. She has had several soft, maroon stools every day and complains of stomach pain. I was told by pediatrician that the red color is because of the way the drug interacts with the iron in her diet. After research on the web, I discovered that I should watch out for fever, stomach pain and diarreah because these could indicate intestinal infection.

After 4 doses my six year old had bloody stools, when I wiped him, the toliet paper was covered in blood or "red" something .
Ive called the pediatrician who says it's the dye in the medicine... I told her the med is white. Her response was; it's the dye you cant see. I called the pharmacist, who tells me the med was changed several years ago and no longer has the red dye.
Patient First says they have never heard of this med causing blood or red stools and wants to run tests on my son.
I am finding many reports from mothers that state their child got bloody stools or red stools after using this med-- why do the doctors NOT seem to know about this side effect.

I will get a stool sample after today's bowel movement and have it tested, until then, I am very concerned and frustrated that I am getting so many different opinions from doctors.

My one year-old daughter was taking it for her double ear infections. Today was day 10 of her ten-day course and I pray that her side effects end quickly. She has been sent home from daycare everyday since she started taking Omnicef. She has had diarrhea the whole time and now has developed a fever during the last 2 days of treatment. And I don't think it has cleared her ear infections. Never again will I let our pediatrician prescribe Omnicef for us.

My 9 month old son was taking Omnicef for double ear infections. He was precribed 125mg/5ml oral suspension once a day. After we gave him his first dose, he began having almost a maroon colored stool. We thought it was blood. He had been having diarrhea for 2 weeks prior to beginning Omnicef. I contacted the pediatrician and they tested the stool for blood. Thank God it was negative. I called CVS pharmacy, and the only GI side effect listed that had to do with stool was "abnormal stool". My son is going on day 5 of this antibiotic, and his ear infections seem to be clearing, however I do think that this should be listed as a possible side effect. He has had approximately 10 diapers with the same maroon colored stool. It can be very frightening to parents. Thankyou for giving me the opportunity to let others know about this.