
January 6, 2005
Other
Question from Inwood, West Virginia, USA:
My 10-year old son was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when he was 10 months old. Recently, he was diagnosed with a very bad ear infection in both ears. The infection did not seem to raise his blood sugars, but every time he takes the amoxicillin chewable tablet, his blood sugar gets high shortly afterwards. Do the amoxicillin chewable tablets contain as much sugar as the amoxicillin liquid does? Should I ask his doctor, in the future, to give him adult-type penicillin that he can swallow?
Answer:
While you can certainly ask the pharmacist about the amount of sugar concentration in the chewable amoxicillin, the amount compared to everyday food (because I would be surprised he is on a completely sugar-less diet), would be negligible. But, if he can swallow pills, then great!
DS