I think My 22 month old has whooping cough and I'm terrified

[bkosten]

Friday i took my son to the ped after a week of a 101 fever. They did a strep test and finger prick but sent me home saying it was just a virus. The next day, his cough was much worse-the past two nights he has coughed incessantly, barely sleeping. Some research makes me think it must be whooping cough. We just got back from disney world, so i can easily imagine him picking it up there. My son is not vaccinated, and I'm feeling like a horrible parent for letting this happen to him. My relatives are going to be horrified, my friends will get that "I told u so" look, and I'm dreading fAcing the ped. I've already been crying nonstop and fretting over my sons every breath- how can I make it through weeks of this torture? I really could use a little support and crave the advice of anyone who's been in this situation before. I read that antibiotics are unnecessary and perhaps even harmful to the healing process...I'm doing a vaporizer but don't really know where to go from here. I'm sure the hubby will insist on a proper doctor diagnosis monday morning...does anyone have any Advice for talking to the doc about the situation?Also, I've tried propping the babies head up at night but that doesn't seem to bring any relief. Any suggestions from those who have been here before?

[SuburbanHippie]

Have you started sodium ascorbate to bowel tolerance yet?  I would get on that asap.

[chaoticzenmom]

This is a choice that's been done.  You didn't make this choice assuming that he'd never get any vpd's, but admittedly, the chances were on your side for that.  Don't let embarrassment (or fear of it) make the decisions for you here.  You make the best decisions for your child with the best information you have at the time. (I'm a non-vaxxer as well, but this one vax is the only one that really pulls to me sometimes, which is hard because it's also so reactive). 

When you talk to your doctor, explain that you are not comfortable with the practice of vaccination.  Explain that you believe that your child may have wc.    Do some research of your own about treatments (I'm not sure why antibiotics would be harmful, so find out what's being said about antibiotics and ask your doctor to explain why it is or isn't true)  Ask honest questions, but don't feel guilty over making a decision for your child that you believe to be in your child's best interest.  

How is your doctor in supporting you?  Do you have options for finding a licensed naturapath or a natural minded physician?  Right now, it may be best to stick with someone that you know, but if your doctor is condescending, rather than helpful, then it will be time to look for a doctor that doesn't intimidate you.  

I hope your little one feels better soon. It sounds aweful:(

[chaoticzenmom]

Also, I know of 5 people who recently had a horrible coughing flu.  Two of them got pneumonia from it, so don't assume that it's WC and keep taking him to the dr, just in case it does turn into pneumonia.  The people I know who got it do vax, most were adults, one adult and one child got pneumonia and the other two who had it just never bothered to get looked at, but they looked horrible.  

[japonica]

My DS had it at 23 months old. I agree on the SA to bowel tolerance. If it is pertussis, and you're spot on with the dosing, you should notice a difference with the coughing in a couple of days. With my DS, once we got the right amount of SA into him consistently, the whooping and vomiting stopped and we just had the paroxysmal coughing to contend with. But it became a lot more manageable and less of a nightmare.

He recovered without complications in about 5 weeks. His father (who had a booster and was up-to-date) was the one who brought it home and passed it on to him and he took a lot longer to recover...

[bkosten]

Interestingly enough, my ped diagnosed my sons condition as "a virus" though I've been there 2x inthe past week. She also prescribed Xopenex to help control the severe congestion + an antibiotic, but I didn't get the ab filled yet. I have found the SA quite effective --it's really amazing! I had some nightmarish nights with no sleep befor I started that. Immediate difference. My sons now been sick for two weeks and we're only having about 1 coughing spell per night now. I am wondering now if he truly has wc or the croup. I've read up on both but I'm just not sure... Whatever it is, it's been horrible. Terrifying. Thanks guys for your support in getting through this!

[SuburbanHippie]

I'm so glad to hear that the SA is working well for your DS!  Great job, momma!

[haitimom]

Croup and whooping cough can sound similar. When we were young my brother had whooping cough. It sounds like a bark but croup makes a similar noise on the intake of breath. I have treated croup many times in my kiddos. The relief for the coughing spells is cool air. Mine have usually gottenin the fall or spring so I just bundles them up in a blamket and sat ont he porch until they calmed and fell asleep works great. We also use,with great success, homeopathic drosera and spongia. Excellent results, restfull slepp in about 3 days. Make sure to keep an eye on their skin color to adequate oxygen.

[stik]

My dd had RSV and pneumonia at 22 months.  She looked fine to me, with just a persistent nagging cough, until she took a sudden turn for the worse.  Her O2 saturation was about 86 percent when she was admitted to the hospital.  Her color was great, she just wasn't getting enough oxygen.  Now she has a reactive airway and almost any illness can lead quickly to pneumonia.  It's always possible that she would have developed that without the illness, but it's also possible that it's a result of the severity of her original illness.  I really wish I had pursued treatment earlier.  

It sounds like the Xoponex and the SA are helping.  If your son is still having coughing spells at night, he's still struggling.  Bacterial pneumonia is a pretty common consequence of a prolonged respiratory infection, even if the original infection is viral.  Please consider giving the antibiotics as well.  Once an infection is in the lungs, you've passed the time to "wait and see."  

[ladytigerfairy]

Dont worry yourself sick! look at it this way - if he does have whooping cough - he's well past the danger / could die from it / time of his life.. He'll be immune for the rest of his life too. You can treat whooping couch with homeopathic, which i would highly recommend.. Gaia's children cough syrup for wet coughs, and honey loquat syrup - eucalyptus in the humidifiers, there's alot of alternative remedies and it's not the end all be all of terrible death sentence illnesses - remember many many people use to live through whooping cough and now you wont have to deal with the vaccine if he has a natural immunity.. though you certainly need to stay home and NOT risk him exposing any infants (who could actually die from pertussis) ..  It can be scary, but you'll get through it and so will your little one!    if it turns out to be croup - potassium iodide seems very helpful for us (we got from our dr) - and croup cough will go away if you take them outside into cold, damp fog because it makes the larnyx less swollen....  whether its croup or pertussis - the little one's immune system will be stronger.. :) 

[stik]

According to the CDC, potassium iodide is for radiation emergencies and thyroid disease.  Potential side effects include intestinal upset, allergic reactions, rashes, and inflammation of the salivary glands.  Antibiotics can also cause all of those, but they actually kill the bacteria, which KI does not.  ladytigerfairy, did your pediatrician explain why KI would be used to treat croup?  

I hear that a lot of kids benefit from homeopathic remedies and all kinds of other things.  My experience has made me paranoid about lungs.  When I hear that a child has had a fever and cough for a week and cannot sleep, I worry.  My own dd went downhill fast at a time when I really did not expect it.  And, as it turns out, fighting off respiratory illnesses has not strengthened her immune system.  She is definitely more susceptible to a wider variety of things now that she's had one case of RSV and a bunch of cases of pneumonia.  

IMO, there is a time and place for western allopathic medicine, and that time and place is when a kid is struggling to breathe.  By all means, pile on the homeopathic and natural remedies, but I think it makes sense to give the antibiotics too.  In my experience, antibiotics are very effective in treating pneumonia.  I don't know for sure that the OP's baby has pneumonia, but the prescription for abx plus Xoponex sounds like a standard approach to pneumonia to me, so I'm guessing her ped thinks so.  

Given that the OP was super-concerned about antibiotics, I wanted to be really clear about how much antibiotics have helped my family.  My younger dd is a really adventurous, rambunctious kid who loves to play and explore.  Her health problems are really very mild and manageable.  And she probably would have died at 22 months if she had lived before antibiotics and inhaled steroids were widely available.  I absolutely believe in reserving antibiotics for infections that the immune system has failed to fight off.  I think there are a lot of fabulous public health reasons to reduce antibiotic use in order to cut down on antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria.  However, I have never seen any compelling evidence that antibiotics weaken the human immune system, and I feel pretty strongly that once an infection gets into the lungs, the immune system has failed.  

Edited by stik - 6/12/11 at 10:15pm

[Alenushka]

you need to seek medical help ASAP. If you are worried enough to post here....you need to call your doctor right now and decided it can wait or if you need ER. It is not about your fears of facing a pedi or your embarrassment, it about  life of your child. If you child has pneumonia, vaporizer is not helpful.  Yes,antibiotics have side effect but in cases of acute infection and breathing issues, the benefits outweigh the risk.

Please, seek professional medical help.

[ladytigerfairy]

potassium iodide is used to clear congestion - mucus - (this was prescribed for us way before the japan nuclear/earthquake incidence when everyone went razy over it) the cdc did start the warning about potassium iodide because people were panicking and taking huge amounts of it - which is certainly not a good idea!!

  - it was about 5 drops a day for 7 days.  here's a link from the american journal of pediatrics  http://journals.lww.com/amjmedsci/Citation/1854/07000/Membranous_Croup_successfully_treated_by_Iodide_of.96.aspx

[japonica]

If it is starting to look more like pneumonia, then by all means antibiotics should be considered. But they do nothing to alleviate the course of pertussis once the coughing has started. They only limit the spread of the infection to others. The CDC states this as well. 

When I had pertussis in my teens, I was on three different antibiotics and it didn't make the outcome of the illness any better IMO. I still coughed for over eight weeks and was pretty miserable. My parents didn't know anything about alternative treatments that might have helped mitigate the symptoms (ie. SA and the like).