To treat or not treat 3 year Strep Throat

[SkyeBows]

My husband had strep really bad about 4 weeks ago, we thought we all were safe and neither me or the kids got it. But I think Texas is just known very badly for strep and little ones because it very well seems my three year old has strep. He has had three days of fevers, he has what we thought was a huge canker sore at first on his tongue, we thought that was the culprit for his pain in his mouth but now it seems when we can even get him to swallow he actually starts crying after the swallow. Between no food, maybe 8 oz of water a day I am a little concerned and thinking about treating it. I have been trying to treat it at home but he won't eat or drink anything, he spits EVERYTHING out. I can barely get vit in him, he just spit out the liquid vit d I gave him a min ago. The only thing that has stopped me now, is the first night he did not sleep at all, literally not twenty minutes but last night he was only up 5 times in a 11 hour time... I don't know if its because he is feeling slightly better or if he was exhausted from the night before... I really don't want him on antibiotics he has NEVER had them and strep is so so common here that I really want him to have an immunity to it.

[Banana731]

I think you can get strep more than once. As far as I know you don't get immunity by getting it.

Most of the reason people use abx for strep is because it's contagious for a couple of weeks after you get it, but once you're on abx for 24 hrs it's no longer contagious.

My kids both got strep a couple of years ago, by the time I realized what it was, the sore throats were just about gone and they were eating again (it's pretty painful, i did choose to treat that with ibuprofen, otherwise they wouldn't eat) and I didn't bother with abx. The illness really only lasted about a week. I did, however, keep them at home for 2-3 weeks because I didn't want to share our illness with others.

HTH!

[andaluza]

In order to know if it is strep, you need a culture done. Also, you cannot develop immunity to strep throat, so it does not seem that you are doing the child any favors by avoiding treatment.

If it is strep and you don't treat it, you may run the risk of the child becoming seriously ill with rheumatic fever or a kidney complication: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001663/

http://www.webmd.com/oral-health/understanding-strep-throat-basics

Antibiotics are sometimes necessary, even if you or I may wish to avoid them as much as possible.

[SkyeBows]

Yea, I can't even get him to take some advil.... I don't even know if I could force down some antibiotics he is being pretty stubborn. I guess my concern is the three day fever :/ Isn't there still a chance for RH even if they are treated with antibiotics? I thought I read somewhere like the chance is 2-3% without antibiotic and 1-2% with, so its not a huge difference. I am going to bring him to the dr tomorrow, would prefer to skip an urgent care visit. If I was going to treat naturally what are some things I should grab him? I was going to pick up belladonna for the fever and then some grape seed extract....

[Asiago]

Have you tried popcicles or sorbet?

If you can get a hold of Dr. Mendelsohn's book 'How to Raise a Healthy Child; he has an excellent chapter on Strep.

Strep, Cox Sackie and Oral Herpes infections have similar symptoms.

Good luck and I hope your child recovers quickly.

[crunchy_mommy]

Yeah you can get strep multiple times, I had it at least 10 times throughout childhood and as a teen had it 5 times in one year (we tested my cat to see if she was carrying it!) I don't think you can become immune.

I also think strep is one to treat with antibiotics due to the risk of complications. If you can't get him to take oral antibiotics, the doctor could give give it to him via injection.

But yeah, you really can't know that it's strep without a culture. A lot of sore throats are viral and produce similar symptoms to what you're describing.

As far as home treatment while you're waiting to get into the doctor... popsicles, ice cream, tea with honey & ginger, raw garlic if he'll eat it, pudding... If you can't get him to take ibuprofen you could try mixing it into ice cream or honey or juice to make it more palatable. They also have quick-melting pain relievers for kids that he might take more readily.

If you do end up going the abx route, give probiotics along with it and continue them for a week or two after stopping the abx. One of the biggest risks of abx is developing a resistance, but the resistance is only a problem when you can't treat something you need to treat... and this is one of those times (if it is indeed strep) that you'd want to treat. Does that make sense? They are not evil in & of themselves, just very much overused & misused. Using them for strep would not be a misuse of them.