Pertussis - Tell me what I need to know! Experiences, advice, remedies!

[lightheartedmom]

We live in a part of CA where pertussis is becoming quite rampant and I am concerned my 4yo DD may have it. I have no idea where she got it, since we home school and, to my knowledge, no one we know has it...
But...anyway...while I'm waiting for her ped to call back, I figured I'd try here.
She is not vax'd, nor is her 16mo sister. DD2 was sick first, but she literally had a runny nose and mild cough for a day and then was better. DD1 has been sick since Monday and her cough has been building over the last 24hrs. There's no "whooping" yet, but it's going in an ugly, chesty, painful, spasmodic direction.

I'd like to hear from you moms who have already been there, done that with pertussis. Especially if you have kids around this age (12mo-5yrs) and are non-vax'd. How did you treat it? How serious did it get? Any advice you can offer would be so hugely appreciated.

Right now I've been putting her in the bathroom w/ steam to try and break up the phlegm, we've been running our cool-mist humidifier all night and I'm making her drink some tea I made from steeping ginger in boiling water, plus honey and lemon.
I've read garlic is amazing for helping w/ pertussis, but...how in the heck do you get a picky 4yo to eat raw garlic?

We do not have a confirmed dx yet from her ped, but since it's going around so badly, I'm almost expecting we'll get it at some point this year, if not now.

Thanks so much for any advice you can offer.

[Juvysen]

[lightheartedmom]

Originally Posted by Juvysen

hi :-) Jenna is my DD's name.

So...went to the ped this afternoon after consulting w/ his office on the phone. Over the phone, I talked w/ our normal ped (who's been with us since the day DD1 was born - we love him), he recommended we do the test, just to be safe (especially since there is another younger one in the house) and encouraged me to have DD1 vax'd TODAY. I decided to go in just for the test, but the only person available to see us was another ped in the office I've never seen before.

Everything was okay up to a point. She came in, listened to DD's chest, lungs, etc. Looked in her eyes, ears, nose and throat. Pronounced the cause of the cough to be "post-nasal drip" and acted like we should go home now. I said I would prefer to have the pertussis swab done now, since that was the whole reason we came to the office in the first place. At that point she looked me in the face and said "Do you want to vaccinate her today?" and I said "No, I'm not prepared to do that." (dumb answer, I know)...and she said "Oh, but you're prepared for her to have the disease." And walked out to get the swab...
bleh.
The swab itself sucked because we had to hold DD down while she held the thing in her nostril) for 30 seconds. My poor DD has never had a bad experience at the peds office, ever. She was SO upset...crying, scared, and giving that Dr. suspicious looks like I've NEVER seen her give to anyone. Meanwhile the ped was looking at me like I was the worst mother EVER, refusing to give my kid a "little shot" but forcing her to undergo a barbaric swab test.
The whole thing sucked...and you know that feeling when you walk out of a room and know that the second the door shuts behind you, they'll be talking about you? Yep, that's how it felt leaving the office.
I've done more research since getting home and feel even more confident in our decision to forego vaxing our kids, but, it's infuriating to be looked down on as a bad parent for not doing it...Even more infuriating is that I know if I'd said "Oh, I'm a physician and I don't think vaccinations are warranted" (or something like that), it would have been the end of the discussion because I'd be in the Dr club. But because I'm just the parent, I have zero credibility. Of course, when a child has a severe vaccine injury, you don't see the Dr stepping up to take responsibility for it, or the drug companies...only the parents are stuck with that responsibility, it should be our decision to make, right? Right??

Anyway...
We won't know about the official dx for a week. I'm glad we did the swab, even though it was hard for DD. Dr's misdiagnose pertussis frequently and this way we'll know either way.

In the meantime, here's what I've been doing to help her get better, based on research and the advice of friends whose kids have survived pertussis (without antibioitics no less!):
- humidifier
- propping her head up more than normal at night (her cough only gets worse when she lays down)
- Homemade tea made from steeping candied or raw ginger (she really doesn't like it w/ raw), plus a bit of honey and lemon
- Homemade cough syrup - honey + enough lemon to make it the right consistency
- 2000 IU/day Vitamin D drops (theyu're in an olive oil suspension)
- 2000 mg/day Vit. C (we have little kids Vit C chews)
- 1/2 tsp elderberry syrup 2x/day
- a few drops of oil of oregano on the back and a few drops of eucalyptus oil on the chest before bedtime. My friend who's children both had WC said this helped a lot.
- Warm steam in the shower as needed

I'm bf'ing my 16mo so today I pumped off as much as I could (1 oz! 1 measily little oz!) and gave it to DD in a cup. She thought it was funny and drank it right up...and then asked for more. I don't think I'll be able to keep doing that. I just had a miscarriage a few days ago and my body is already so completely exhausted and my milk supply is low. I will try though...I'm a big believer in breastmilk. :-)

Anyway...any other advice, remedies would be appreciated, like I said. We're still in the very early stages of this...I'll update when we get the results of the swab next week, or sooner if things change.

Thanks!

[lovebug]

i dont really have any advice, but wanted to give s the way the ped treated you was uncalled for... so sorry!

[Bokonon]

I can't believe they wanted to give your already-sick daughter a highly-reactive vaccine when she is ALREADY SICK. That just boggles my mind.

It is my understanding that many of the "pertussis" cases here in California have been diagnosed by symptoms alone and not the test, so they could in fact be parapertussis.

My daughter had a cough a couple of weeks ago and was diagnosed with croup. I mentioned to our ped. that my son had a cough for a couple of weeks after cold symptoms, and he said "If he's still coughing in a week, bring him in. Pertussis is going around."

Say what? He knew that DS was acting and feeling ok and still going to school. I like our ped., but will never understand that "logic".

[Bokonon]

And I'm so sorry for your loss. Please be gentle on yourself, mama!

[coyotemist]

It does sound like what your daughter has could be croup. Which can get bad, but usually doesn't.

I like the regimen of natural supports you have set up for her. Also, you could add:
1 cup of bone broth per day for each family member,
a serving of a fermented food per day(kefir, sauerkraut, yogurt, etc),
eucalyptis essential oil (in a candle warmer),
mullein tea (or Traditional medicinals makes an Herbatussin tea that's good too),
the cold/warm feet treatment (warm feet in a foot bath, cotton socks soaked in ice water with wool socks over the top, then immediately into bed, lavender oil on the wool socks),
keeping the head warm all the time,
and lots and lots of rest.

However, even with all the supports in place, she could still get really really sick. Or not. Even with the best health some people get very sick and some don't.

We aren't anti-vaccine in our house, in fact my youngest was fully vaxed until the 1 year appointment when they walked in with 7 vaccines. Um, no, not doing that again. We found a new ped, and are going to slowly (maybe 1 a month) get caught up. It would take the full series of 3 vaccines for your kiddos to have any protection against pertussis, and even then seroconversion is around 85% I believe (meaning that 85% of people are immune after 3 shots, 15% are not). And not all strains (but most of the most common ones) are covered by the vaccine.

Very very few people have a vaccine injury from the vaccine, your kids most likely would be fine. But I agree with a pp, don't vaccinate when they are already sick!

Take good care of yourself, especially with your recent loss, everyone should be on an immune-boosting schedule, not just the one that is sick. What she has, everyone could get.

[Juvysen]

I've heard it's better to go with sodium ascorbate (over ascorbic acid) for vitamin c... and take it to bowel tolerance...

[ameliabedelia]

I'm sorry the doctor treated you that way. How awful. And, I can't believe they wanted to give a vaccine to a sick child. Crazy!

I think your supplements/vitamins sounds great..but I would do the sodium ascorbate instead of ascorbic acid to bowel tolerance.

I would also make a cough syrup using onions and honey (preferably raw). Core an onion. Fill the hole with honey and wait and hour or two. The brown liquid is your cough syrup. You could add lemon too to make it taste a bit better.

[lightheartedmom]

Thanks for all the tips, ladies!
Friday night, DD added a new symptom: puss pouring out of her eyes. Gag. I grew up in a family of five and have seen enough pink eye to know what I'm looking at. She says her eyes burn and itch and when she wakes up in the night (frequently right now), her eyes are practically glued shut with puss. Poor thing. Friday, Saturda and Sunday I tried using breastmilk drops in her eyes (sounds gross, I know, but she's had pink eye before and it cleared up quickly just using breastmilk) but we've had no improvement. I finally caved this morning and called her pediatrician for a prescription for polytrim.
Her cough continues to progress. Last night she only woke up once (vs. three times the preceeding three nights) and now it sounds more like croup than anything else. It sounds like the mucus in her chest is breaking up more, which I'm taking as a good sign...hoping it won't be pertussis after all.
At night I put her in the bathroom with the shower on hot and put some eucalyptus oil in a shallow bowl in the shower (to diffuse it in the steam), that helps her a lot and usually gets her back to sleep.

I am so wiped out. I hate seeing my kids sick...seriously, I swear, if your kids don't end up killing you, the stress from worrying about them most likely will. ;-)
We won't hear about the results from the PCR (pertussis test) until Thursday or Friday.