B12 Shots for difficult child

cmdh

New Member
Can you tell we just got back from the DAN this morning????

So for the second question....

Has anyone gone through B12 shots? difficult child is so deficient in B12 that they were really pushing the shots vs the supplements. The kicker is I have to give them to her

I did read they are much more effective than the supplements buttttt gosh poor difficult child :grief:

has anyone been told of a very bad B12 deficiency... did you do shots??? Help... I just always second guess my decisions when I know how hard it is going to be on her.
 

cmdh

New Member
So the lab tells me today that difficult child has to take them every 3 days for 2 mo- the needle is smaller than an an insulun needle and most parents give it to their kids when they are sleeping and they don't wake :rolleyes: :eek: He said the amount they get in a shot is VERRY little

I will probably cry harder

They did warn me that she will get very hyper in the beginning then stabilize..

just in time for her IEP meeting next week
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
Vit. B-12 is very poorly utilized in the forms absorbed from the GI tract. I am assuming that her diagnosis of deficiency is based on a blood panel showing some sort of megaloblastic (oversized red cells) anemia.

What tests have been done on her to determine if the causes of the anemia are malabsorption or some problem in development or production of red cells that require additional vitamin B12 above and beyond normal intake? (PM if needed. I know way more than I want to about erythropoeisis or the formation and development of RBCs due to the nature of husband's illness)

Specifically, has a 'Schilling' test been done on her to determine if she actually has a B-12 deficiency anemia able to respond to oral B-12.

husband was on the shots for years. husband had ADHD (inattentive/impulsive), the shots made him bounce off the rafters for about two days after including not sleeping. They did not increase irritability but he was not prone to raging in general. They did make him eat anything that wasn't red hot or nailed down.

The injections are to be given deep IM (intramuscularly) and should be given into a large muscle like the buttocks or frontal thigh. In an adult male they can be administered into the deltoid in the arm/shoulder as well. (or in a well developed muscular female)
While the solution is not viscous and does not 'sting', it is a pretty large volume of fluid and needs to be given deep. A fact of deep IM injections is that they not only hurt at the time but can hurt afterwards as well. Light exercise like walking and gentle stretching help disperse the material and prevent knots and soreness.

The injections should be given in the AM at waking (after breakfast if the victim is prone to passing out from shots). Full tummies help prevent faintness and giving the darned thing in the AM prevents the victim from being up all night.

The BIG thing with any sort of potentially B-12 dependant (or folate dependent) anemia is to make good and darned sure it is just deficiency. Usually it is, but there are a few nasties that can masquerade that you want to catch early.

With husband the shots made him higher than a kite...totally euphoric, bouncing off the walls, yakking my ears off...and starving. He didn't rage or get irritable but he wasn't prone to that normally.

hth
toK (something is rattling around in my head about 'seizure' medication and excessive B-12 that maybe SaraPA has an answer to...since mood stabilizers are usually epilepsy medications...I dunno...Sara...could you pipe in here?)
 

cmdh

New Member
She has had several now. It's working great.. I give them to her when she is sleeping and she just wakes a little and turns over and goes back to sleep. She actually asked me the other day when we were going to start the shots :wink:

She hasn't become overly hyper but she is MUCH better with stamina and isn't always tired looking. The amount of sleep she is requiring is much more in the normal range for her age... good news, bad news.. before it would be nothing for her to take a 3 hr nap in the afternoon. I got used to having this catch up time
 

Misty M

New Member
In the olden days (You know when I was a kid...heeheehee) B-12 was given to people that were experiencing too much stress. It was said to have lowered stress levels. My dad started taking the sublingal version of B-12 about 10 years ago. My husband and I started taking it about 8 years ago. I can tell you that our stress levels have fallen since then! I really don't know if this is a proven kind of thing, but it has worked for us! My dad and husband both use it as a pick me up in the middle of the day adn say it works great. It doesn't have that affect on me though (at the same time I can drink 6 esspressos and go to sleep with no problem).

I feel really bad for you having to give the shots! How are you taking it now that you have given difficult child a few of them? Lots of hugs sent your way!
Misty M
 
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