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Does anyone have a child on Methotrexate?? I may be facing a medication change for my son that is 6 years old with UC.  He is currently on Imuran and if his labwork tells us that we cannot go up on his dose then we may have to switch him to Methotrexate injections. I know that some people do not agree with immunosuppresants and everyone is entitled to their opinions but please dont reply with...SCD, LDN, Paleo etc.  I would appreciate some feedback from people who have some knowledge on Methotrexate :)

 Reply posted for Wendyking27.

Wendyking,

 Reply posted for jcraig007.

Hi Sandy,

I'm 35 but have had Crohn's since I was 15.  I have been on just about every med out there, including 6mp.  I just started Methotrexate three weeks ago and so far no negative side efffects, it has not really kicked in either.

I will keep you posted, please do the same

Good Luck!

PS Glad I'm not the only hearing about LDN, SCD, ETC...

 Reply posted for jcraig007.

In case you do switch to methotrexate I wanted to say that after only 3 injections (only 2 weeks and a day) my daughter is doing much better than she was.  It looks like it is getting this flare under control.  Best wishes finding a med that works well for your son!

 Reply posted for IBDaMom.

Thank you all so much for sharing your stories :) We can only increase Conor's Imuran dose by 10 milligrams but we are going to try it and see what happens.  The strange thing is that he used to be in the therapeutic range and his last labwork showed that he has now dropped down to 77 which is way below therapeutic..it is very puzzling to both his doctor and I.  I watch him swallow his pill everyday so I do know that he is taking it, anyone else ever experience this???

 Reply posted for jcraig007.

My daughter (12) has been taking Methotrexate for 1 year now.  She has been in full remission since then (Crohns colitis since age 9). Experienced terrible side effects from Azothiaprine, Pentasa, and Imuran. Remicaide worked great for a while, but developed an allergy and had to stop.  It is dosed once a week -oral form with anti-nausea med 1 hr before. Since she tolerates it and she feels good, we didnt need to go to injections.  She is heavily into sports, so she has either practices or games almost daily.  The best part - no missed school this year!

 Reply posted for jcraig007.

My 7 year old daughter had to go off 6MP a month ago because her liver enzymes skyrocketed. They were back to normal as of this week so she started methrotrexate yesterday.  We went to the hospital to learn how to give the injections but the nurse actually gave the first one.  My daughter experienced no side effects in the first 24 hours.  I'm giving the shot next week.  Not looking forward to it but I think it is easy to do...just not fun.

 Reply posted for jcraig007.

jcraig - Claire was on Methotrexate injections years ago for her arthritis.  We haven't used it yet since her CD diagnosis.  She did really well in terms of no trouble fighting infection, etc.  The big thing that we had to plan for was the nausea.  We finally figured out to give it to her on Friday night just before bed so she would sleep through most of it and not have to get up to go to school.  If nausea is an issue for you guys after you start it, definitely call the doctor.  They can give him something to take the night of the injection to lessen it. 

Our current GI has indicated that if 6MP starts to fail us, he would prefer Methotrexate as the next step for Claire.  The first words out of my mouth were about the nausea and he agreed to write her some Zofran or something to give with it if we have to go that route someday. 

Hugs,

Claire's Mom

 Reply posted for jcraig007.

It was about 2 weeks into that he started coughing and we had originally thought it just a cold but we took him in to his pediatrician when he was complaining about his chest hurting.  They told us his lungs sounded clear and to bring him back if it did not go away, the cough continued for about 2 months we brought him back to peditrician and he was diagnosed with a bad case of bronchitis and put on an abuterol inhaler which really helped the cough, talked to his GI that same day who decided it was too much of a coincidence that all this happened just when he started to take the methotrexate and that there was the potential of the lung side effects and maybe he just didn't tolerate and within 2 weeks of stopping the methotrexate the cough and post nasal drip stopped.

 Reply posted for jmrogers4.

Thank you so much for the heads up.  How soon did your son develop the cough and post nasal drip after he started the Methotrexate and how quickly did it resolve once he stopped it???

 Reply posted for jcraig007.

My son was switched from Imuran to Methotrexate for the same reason we could not quite get to theraputic levels with the Imuran.  The methotrexate worked very well for him in regards to his CD.  Inflamation was gone and he started gaining weight and growing unfortunately he developed a horrible cough and post nasal drip that we could not get rid off, one of the possible side effects of methotrexate (although it is way down on the list) is lung infections and scarring so we had to take him off it and his doctor put him back on Imuran which he always tolerated well but added allipurinol to it.  He lowered the dose of the Imuran down to 50mg a day.  The way I understand it is the allipurinol makes the Imuran more potent and doesn't allow the body to metabolize it as fast.  His labs on this look great so far and in fact we just had to go out and buy new pants as he has finally outgrown all his pants that he has been able to wear since 4th grade he is in 6th now.  Hope this helps.  We would have stayed on the methotrexate if not for the side effects because it really was working.  So hopefully your son tolerates it well and puts him into remission. 

Smiles,

Jack's Mom