[eastkygal]

DD woke last night coughing and with a fever of 104.6. We gave her a lukewarm bath and reluctantly Tylenol. Her fever broke and she slept through the night. This morning her fever was 102.3, so DH and I decided to take her to the doc to see what was up - just to be sure. No swollen tonsils, or lymph nodes. Bloodwork came back that it was a bacterial infection and not viral, and out came the script pad for Amoxicillian. This makes only the fourth time in her 19 months of life that we have given her Tylenol, she has never had any antibiotics. The doc said to give it to her for 10 days to prevent pneumonia and to let the fever run its course unless it gets above 105. Should I give her the antibiotic, or is there something else I can do? Thanks mamas.

 

[Meiri]

Bacterial infections are exactly what antibiotics are for. Your doc has done exactly what they're supposed to do in terms of running tests to make sure it's not just viral before prescribing antibiotics.

Now I know research has shown that waiting a few days to see if an ear infection clears on its own is better than jumping to abx right away, but from what you've typed, I take it that this is not an ear infection.

I would wait if this was an ear issue, but I don't fool around with lungs. We've been down the pneumonia road before, better to hit it early.

Did they test for exactly what bacteria your wee one has? Amox is not effective for everything. If you're going to use them, the very least to be done is to be certain that the antibiotic is going to be an effective one. In my, nondoctor, experience, if pneumonia is the concern, Amox is not what's given.

 

[eastkygal]

Her ears were perfectly clear. Her cough is hacking deep and very wet. The doc could here it all in her lungs. Her nose is slightly runny. He just said he was prescribing the antibiotic because it wasn't viral and he hoped it didn't become pneumonia. Our doc isn't quick at all to prescribe anything. I wonder if he chose Amox because she's never had anything before and the risk of being allergic? What is your experience with antibiotic and pneumonia? Thanks so much.

 

[my3peanuts]

With bloodwork confirming a bacterial infection, most likely in the lungs, I would give the antibiotic.

 

[Meiri]

My experience with antibiotic and pneumonia is that treatment beats feeling like I'm dying. Breathing trumps everything else until it's under control.

Seriously, DS tested faintly positive for Strep back when he was 8, so Amox was prescribed. He didn't improve, so we were sent in for a chest x-ray, which showed a pneumonia in one area of one lung. So the Amox dose was doubled. He seemed to be improving, but started breaking out in spots. We did some reading:this happens sometimes with antibiotics, no big deal. Then the spots started running together into big patches. We took him back in. Doc looked at him, listened to his lungs, ordered him an immediate dose of Prednisone (a cortico-steriod, serious med), and sent us into PGH to Children's Hospital. Long story short, he had Micoplasm Pneumonia, which does not respond at all to Amox. He needed a very different antibiotic. In addition, he is allergic to Penicillins, which is the family of antibiotics that Amox is in. The only reason he had seemed to be getting better was that he's got a heck of an immune system. The pneumonia had diffused throughout his lungs instead of being localized. Once he was on Zithromax, he began to truly get better, and the spots disappeared without any further treatment.

A week later, I started having the same symptoms as he did, but the doc we saw that Saturday would not prescribe "based on history". The fool. I still chuckle that when my temperature spiked to 105 (though as rational as I was, I'm thinking the thermometer may not have been accurate) in the middle of the night Sunday, he was the doc on call. He called me in the same med that DS had been prescribed: Zithromax. Amazingly enough, I was starting to feel better after the next day.

Everyone's experience will differ though. I'm just leery of the habit of starting with Amox for everything. Once they know it's bacterial, how difficult can it be to see which one it is to make sure the med being prescribed will actually work?