Help, please! Pertussis in 14 month old???

[MrsRudy79]

Hi there. I have been a follower/stalker on mothering.com for a long time, and now I'm finally joining. My son is 14 months old as has been sick for 2.5 weeks. Here's the timeline:

Weekend before Christmas- both my kids had a mild cold. My unvaxed and breastfed 14 m/o ds was over it in about 48 hrs. My partially vaxed 4 y/o dd had it for about a week. Then, they were totally symptom free the whole week before Christmas, until Dec 27. My ds just randomly had this big cough while he was eating. I thought he had just gagged on a bite or something. Over the next day, the cough dramatically elevated. He was coughing huge and then making this awful gagging-from-the-depths-of-him noise. He threw up once after a fit. It seems like his cough was nonstop, day and night, for about a week. And very junky/mucusy sounding. Sometimes he'd have a rattle in his throat, and his nose was just pouring clear mucus. Sometimes it even bubbled out a bit. His nose would drip even more during/after a coughing fit. 

So that was week 1 of the coughing. Then, it seemed to get a little worse even, for 4-5 days, before it slowly started getting better. His nose stopped pouring as much around day 14. We are now at day 19. His cough is MUCH better durin the day. He goes for hours at a time without coughing, especially when he is up playing and running around. At night though, he still has the fits. Usually one every hour or two. He coughs til he's out of breath, sometimes gags, swallows, and breathes. Sometimes it wakes him, sometimes it doesn't. The mornings are the worst. It takes him 2-3 big fits to clear out his airway, and then he's good. 

He has vomited probably 5-6 times total in the past 2.5 weeks, and I've heard a whoop 3-4 times total. 

First of all, does this sound like WC? I really didn't even start to consider it until he'd been coughing badly for 2 weeks. Then the more I researched and thought about it, the more I thought that may be what we are dealing with. 

Secondly, my dd developed a bad, nonstop cough and had fits at night (although not as severe) about 3-4 days after my son started coughing. I should also mention that her cold the weekend before Christmas developed 2-3, maybe 4 days after my son's. Anyway, she had one day where she could not catch her breath from coughing so much. It got better and by a week into it, she was mostly just blowing tons of stringy mucus out of her nose, and coughing (mildly) mainly to clear her airway- the cough always sounded mucusy. She was totally recovered in about 8 or 9 days. Is there a chance she just got a touch of it? Or should I be prepared for her to still get sick, after 19 days?

I gave both kids tons of vitamin C, probiotics, vitamin D , and my dd drank ACV with honey a few times. 

Third, I have SOdium ascorbate and have been giving it to my son. My only concern is that the high salt content will adversely affect him. He is breastfed and will not drink from a sippy cup. Normally that would be fine, but I worry about him getting enough fluids right now because my supply has suffered with his illness. 

Is the sodium content something I should be worried about? I give him about 2 grams a day and have not reached bowel tolerance with him. He is 19 pounds. 

Am I giving him enough? Too much? Will all the extra salt hurt him?

Any insight, advice, or other info would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!!

[raquelita]

 yuck! so sorry your lil muffins are sick.

ds and i both had pertussis when he was around 16 months.  i'm not an expert but these symptoms certainly sound like WC. maybe go get a swab? it's good to know for sure.  neither ds nor i developed the trademark whoop sound but the coughing til gagging and vomiting was most definitely present-this lasted for nearly 3 months, sigh.  this was several years ago now, but at the time i found much valuable info in the archives on both WC and it's treatment (including using vit c and i believe the common consensus if you're going to treat with high doses is to use ascorbic acid and not sodium ascorbate but do research this for yourself) 

as far as advice goes, i found frequent sitting us in a hot steamy bathroom worked well and then sometimes bundling ds up and taking him outside for cool air also seemed to ease fits.  i did regular firm pats(think baby bongo drums) on his chest and back to help loosen the mucous. all the standard stuff applies,  heavy on the fluids, rest and keep the diet simple.. and ideally minimal to no sugars and dairy. 

i have to look bath to see but there were some homeopathics that seemed to work well even though i was skeptical :) 

good luck and hang in there!