Possible Pertussis infection - wwyd?

[peilover010202]

My unvaxed 16mo son has some symptoms of pertussis. He's not making the "sound", but is having coughing fits that lead to vomiting, esp during meals and at night. Coughs until he's absolutely red-faced and usually has a fair or moderate amount of drainage that he coughs/spits out after the coughing fit.

He's eating and sleeping pretty well overall. The severity of the cough has become increasing worse this week (week 3), which led me to thinking it *could* be pertussis. The dr wants to start zithromax and wants a pertussis lab test just to confirm.

What else should I do? I have Aviva Jill Romm's book with herbal remedies in it, but man!, there are alot of options. Not sure what would be best for him.

[Mosaic]

Moving to Health and Healing...

[EVC]

Do you have sodium ascorbate? If not, get some ASAP. You *might* be able to find it in health food style stores, but you may need to order online. Get a hold of some as soon as you can and start giving it to him to bowel tolerance. It might take a day or two to kick it, but it should help him significantly once it does.

As for the antibiotics--it may help in preventing transmission to others, but it will not help his symptoms. It may even prolong his cough. So that's up to you.

[peilover010202]

Shoot! The sodium ascorbate I have exp 6/09. Would it still be okay, just less effective? I'm doubtful I can find it locally. :/

[entiti]

You might want to call a few local health food stores. I was doubtful as well, and went into a local one in my area, and sure enough they had some stocked! Maybe you'll be lucky too.

We had the same problem when my dd was 9 months old, I took SA to bowel intolerance twice in the same day, and nursed her frequently. Sure enough, all symptoms were gone in two days! Hope your little one gets over this as soon as mine did.

[Marnica]

Originally Posted by peilover010202

Shoot! The sodium ascorbate I have exp 6/09. Would it still be okay, just less effective? I'm doubtful I can find it locally. :/

I would think taking expired SA for a few days until you can get your hands on some either locally or expressed shipped to you online would be fine.

Also there is evidence to suggest abx do not help WC, and can actually makde the clinical course of the disease longer and worse. What it might do (not enough evidence to support this IMO) is make your LO not contagious quicker than without.

[peilover010202]

Thanks everyone! I started the exp'd SA today and will look tomorrow at our local HFS.

[californiajenn]

My 11 yo and several of her friends have it right now or are just getting over it. I put her on antibiotics b/c everyone else did and I didn't want her infecting babies. I don't know if I would now.

I went to an ND and this is the course of action:

• Sodium Ascorbate to bowel tolerance
• Drosera (homeopathic) 30c - 1 dose right before bed
• Wet sock treatment - http://www.naturedr.com/naturedr.com...0Treatment.pdf
• Constitutional Hydrotherapy treatment - http://www.digitalnaturopath.com/treat/T252969.html (scroll down. Also, my directions add a warm towel on top of the cold one)
• Tap down back on sides of spine to break up mucus and get energy moving
• Slippery Elm - 1 tsp in water or juice/applesauce
• Probiotics
• Cough tincture - Once every 3 hours - Included Wild Cherry, Coltsfoot, Thyme, Licorice, Horehound, Elecampane
• Probiotics

We started and stopped the drosera and that was a big mistake. The symptoms showed up after we stopped. (Several friends were diagnosed a few weeks ago.)

Also, don't stop this protocol even if he's feeling a bit better. Continue until he feels great. We made the mistake of forgetting the socks and not doing the hydrotherapy yesterday and she is paying for it today.

Anecdotally, I've read antibiotics increase the chance of pneumonia developing. The ND said her lungs are completely clear but if she's not feeling better within 5 days, bring her back in and she'll refer us to an Oriental Medicine doc.

[Iucounu]

http://www.cdc.gov/pertussis/clinical/treatment.html

"The earlier a person, especially an infant, starts treatment the better. If treatment for pertussis is started early in the course of illness, during the first 1 to 2 weeks before coughing paroxysms occur, symptoms may be lessened. If the patient is diagnosed late, antibiotics will not alter the course of the illness and, even without antibiotics, the patient should no longer be spreading pertussis."

I'd do my best to remain calm, and do whatever the doctor recommends, with whatever herbal remedies etc. may appeal to you and won't conflict with the doctor's orders. You will most likely make it through this just fine. I would hesitate to agree to antibiotics if they won't have any beneficial effect; talk to your doctor.

[peilover010202]

I've decided not to do the abx at this point. He's already started the paroxymal coughing spasms by the time I talked with the dr. I also did not want to make his recovery any longer. So, given that ds didn't develop the coughing paroxysms until week 3 (he's now at 24 days since onset of cough), is he even contagious??

californiajenn - THANK YOU! I'll be researching everything.