My daughter had an anaphylactic reaction to the Pfizer covid vaccine and ended up spending the night in the hospital afterward. She was subsequently tested and found to be allergic to both Polysorbate and PEG.
Does anyone have any suggestions for antibiotics that do not contain Polysorbate or PEG?
thanks!
I am very sorry to hear that your daughter had a severe reaction to the shot. It may seem harsh, but people who are allergic to the glycols need to be wary of conventional pharmaceuticals. My advice is to go with holistic medicine as much as possible. Do everything possible to improve your daughter's immune system through a healthy diet, exercise, lots of sunshine and quality sleep. Best wishes.
The only thing I can think of is to go to a compounding pharmacy, which it is unlikely that insurance will cover. But if it's life or death that's all we have left to us.
I was told that compounded ones were my only option. Same goes for just about every other medicine.
I am highly allergic to PEG and have coded during a Heart Cath as they started injecting the dye into me. Here is a list that i know that i can take without any reactions.
Cephalexin 500 Mg (Keflex)
Cubicin
Z-Pac (Azithromycin) 250mg
Clindamycin 150mg capsules
Fexofenadine 180 mg Compounded without PEG
Cetirizine 10 mg Compounded without PEG
Benadryl Compounded without PEG
Silver Sulfadiazine cream 50gm
Celecoxib 200mg Capsules
Wow, you can take Cephalexin? It has PEG & Polysorbate 80 in it. I break out in hives and throat swells somewhat.
Ingredients
Keflex capsules:
Keflex capsules contain cefalexin monohydrate equivalent to 250 mg or 500 mg of cefalexin as the active ingredient.
They also contain the inactive ingredients:
dimeticone 350
magnesium stearate
avicel RC 591 PI (2530).
The capsule shell contains gelatin, patent blue V, quinoline yellow, titanium dioxide and colorcon S-1-8144 HV black ink PI (2807).
Keflex capsules do not contain lactose, sucrose, gluten, tartrazine or any other azo dyes.
Keflex suspension:
Keflex suspensions contain 125 mg/5 mL or 250 mg/5 mL of cefalexin monohydrate as the active ingredient.
They also contain:
sodium lauryl sulphate
methylcellulose
dimeticone 350
xanthan gum
pregelatinised maize starch
allura red AC CI 16035
sucrose
tuttifrutti 51880 TP0551 PI (1775).
Keflex suspensions do not contain lactose, gluten or tartrazine.
Thank you for this information. Perfect example of the generic version having different ingredients. Cephalexin (generic for Keflex) does have polyethylene glycol & polysorbate 80 as ingredients.
Keflex, like most other pharmaceuticals, is made by a number of different manufacturers. Because glycols are usually inactive ingredients, one company may use PEG or PG or any glycol, while another manufacturer of the very same drug may decide not to use it, and it's still considered the same drug.
This is good news and bad news for us.
If the Keflex (or its generic) is made by Teva, for example, has PEG in it, it's possible the Keflex (or its generic) made by CorePharma does not.
Of course there are some things that do not work without a glycol, but it is sometimes possible to find a glycol free alternative of the exact same drug by a different manufacturer.
I had to look up the ingredients list for every possible drug in the hospital pharmacy that might need to be used during my two knee replacements. In some cases, they were able to find the same drug without glycols by a different manufacturer from their distributor. Some I had to bring in from home. But I successfully survived two separate knee surgeries and a gallbladder removal without a reaction - and I'm allergic to all glycols.
But you don't have to assume that if one version of a drug has PEG, then they all do.
It's a lot of work, but you can sometimes find alternatives. That's the good news.
The bad news is that when you do find a version of a drug that you can take, your local pharmacies may not be able to get it for you if their distributor doesn't carry that version. And insurance will often not cover any thing other than what is in their formulary. The formulary is built on cost and volume, not on ingredients, so you will pay more out of pocket.
That's the insidious thing about this allergy - I take Tylenol and get hives, so I think I am allergic to Tylenol. But as it turns out, I can take 8 hour Arthritis Tylenol with no problem because it doesn't have any PEG in it. The other Tylenol products all have PEG. I wouldn't have known that before I learned about inactive ingredients.
For more info on how to differentiate one drug from another when they both have the same name, learn how to use the NDC (see link below). For more tips on how to manage prescriptions, check out the second link below.
chickenlittleink.com/allerg...
chickenlittleink.com/allerg...
Amber
Be very careful, as I have found that some pharmaceutical coatings and ink (such as the coatings and printing on pills) contain PEG. A specialist compounding pharmacy is indeed your best bet, and depending on the medication required it really isn’t too bad price-wise. They aren’t covered by insurance, as others have stated, but it’s well worth the peace of mind.
Allergy to PEG scared!?