Strep bacteria, babies and BM

[Penny4Them]

Hi, Does anyone know if BF babies can get strep throat? My 8 yo has a really bad case of Strep with rashes, and now my baby has similar rashes (has also been sick for 2 weeks). I thought that BM kills Strep bacteria so how could they accurately test my baby?

[Peony]

It is very rare for a child under 2 years of age to get strep throat, it so rarely happens that even if the rest of the house is infected, they won't even test the baby usually. We had strep in my house this winter, I had a severe case and I had a 8m old at that time, nothing.

[Penny4Them]

Originally Posted by Peony

It is very rare for a child under 2 years of age to get strep throat, it so rarely happens that even if the rest of the house is infected, they won't even test the baby usually. We had strep in my house this winter, I had a severe case and I had a 8m old at that time, nothing.

Thanks Peony. This particular strain of it is verrrrry intense. My DD was on abx and still having probs with rashes and fever 4 days in. My baby is not eating as much now and sounds hoarse, plus the rashes so I just wondered.

Do you know if BM kills strep?

[jecombs]

I can only give you my experience, so here it is:

My DD got strep at 8 mo. old. I was trying to teach her to drink out of a cup and I was demonstrating, then allowing her to try. I'm sure that's how it was transmitted. She tested glaringly positve at the ped's office and was still BFing at the time, so the BM had no effect on the test.

If you have a feeling something is wrong, get it checked ou. Sounds like you are dealing with a very serious strain of strep.

[2goingon2]

Yes - babies can get strep. Strep comes in many different strains/forms. Now if you had strep - you would be passing on the antibodies so your baby may or may not get a weakened strain. But, since you said your 8 year old has strep and your baby has similar rashes AND is acting sick...you need to have the baby checked as soon as you can. Staff infections are a form of strep and are very, very contagious. Hope that everything is okay.

[Penny4Them]

Thanks for the replies. I took ds in and explained about my dd's illness and trickiness for dx (neg rapid test on sat, pos rapid test today) Im so upset ... my ds's ped wouldn't do strep test saying that babies do not get strep and that if he had it he'd have a really sore throat as that's the sign in babies. (ds and dd have different peds.) Ds is hoarse today and eating /peeing half his usual and still rashes all over, black circles around his eyes just like my dd. Last week he fever of 102.5. Anyway, this was our 2nd doc visit and co-pay since last Friday and he's been sick for 2 weeks. Rash only appeared on sunday in ds.

jecombs --- can you tell me what your baby went thru? how sick? rashes and where? fever?

If he's still not well tomorrow I'm taking him to the doc who's treating my 8 yo. This is ridiculous. I really hope I'm wrong, but regardless, it upsets me so much when doctors do a half-hearted exam (she didn't even check his lungs/heart) and not listen to mom's concerns. She kept telling me strep is a sandpaper looking rash, but tell that to my dd-- she's had hives, sunburn looking rashes.

[jecombs]

I'm so sorry your LO isn't well and that your doc isn't listening to you! My DD's case of strep was fairly because we caught it really early. I wasn't feeling, so I went to the dr. and tested pos. DD had been acting a bit "off", although no fever, so I took her to her ped. I explained that she had been exposed to strep through me and the tested her with no problem, but did tell me that it was very unlikely that she had strep (and implied I was being a paranoid FTM). Of course DD didn't like the test! But she was fine and it was glaringly positive. She took a course of Zithromax, which cured the strep.

Strep can become very serious if left untreated. It's my understanding that it can start to effect the heart. I would listen to your Mama-instincts and seek out a doc that will do the test.

One of the best decisions I ever made after DD (and my DH and myself) had strep was to transfer our medical care to the same group of family practice docs. The next time we got strep, DH went in and tested pos. and the doc just wrote prescriptions for all of us. It only cost us one co-pay, plus the cost of the drugs. That was much better than the first time when we all got sick and had to pay 3 co-pays.