To wonder if its whooping cough?

[Sparklymommy]

6 year old ds is poorly. He sounds like a sea lion when he coughs. He's having bouts of uncontrollable coughing. He has a slight temp (although he's always hot) and a very slight runny nose.

Is the doctor going to laugh me out the room if I raise this concern? I cannot remember if ds had ALL of his immunisations (I had severe pnd when he was a baby).

I am dreading it being whooping cough. I do not think I can bear it if he has to have a whole week off school! I love him to bits but he's a bit of a handful at the best of times!!!

[crimsonwitch]

When you said he sounds like a sea lion I immediately thought croup. Its more common in babies bit my ds (6) has had it every winter since he was a baby. It isn't usually very serious, but definitely worth a trip to the gp.

[crimsonwitch]

But, not bit.

[winklewoman]

Whether it is whooping cough or not, you can hardly send him to school in that state, can you?

[StrattersInTheTARDIS]

It sounds more like croup to me, but it's worth taking him to the GP, just in case.

Incidentally, a week off is unlikely with WC. DD2 had it last year, and was off school from July to January.

[Faithless12]

Sounds like Croup, whooping cough is when they whoop when they breathe in after coughing.

[Sparklymommy]

I am Praying its croup! I just have a gut feeling that it isn't :(

I wasn't planning on sending him to school today, but according to the nhs website if its whooping cough I will have to keep him off for a week... stratters you have just confirmed my fear that whooping cough could easily ruin ALL my plans for the forseeable future!!

[Rosa]

I had whooping cough as a child and you literally can't get breath after coughing you are gasping (as in you swim under water come up and want to take a deep breath) but with whooping cough this horrible sound comes out and often you can't get air in. I was off school for 3 months and my sister longer .

[Sparklymommy]

He is whooping with the cough. And it's a very dry cough.

[StrattersInTheTARDIS]

The week is until the antibiotics he will be prescribed if he has WC, make him no longer contagious.

Unfortunately with WC, by the time they start whooping, the damage is already done, and antibiotics do nothing to ease it. Back to school is when the child is fit enough to cope with school, in some cases it's quite quickly, in most cases its ages. The only thing that DD and I found helpful, was ice lollies to soothe the cough. It is horrid, I was given ABs as soon as DD was diagnosed (which was pretty quickly, thanks to Mumsnet), but I was still quite ill. DD was very ill, as up until she started coughing, I'd assumed she'd just got a summer cold. By then it was too late to do anything but ease the symptoms.

[puntasticusername]

Google it - t'Internet has audio files you can listen to to compare the coughs and help you decide if yours is really of the whooping variety. Good luck, hope lo feels better soon whatever it is!

[StrattersInTheTARDIS]

The 100 day cough is considerably more accurate than whooping cough. Not everyone whoops, I only whooped a couple of times, but I was still fairly poorly with it, even though I was given ABs before any symptoms presented.

It's a fucker of a disease, and it's damaged both my lungs and DDs lungs. My asthma is out of control now.

[Sparklymommy]

Miaow tell me about it! Ds1 had asthma from a baby. I fought for 6 months to get a diagnosis! I knew what it was, the drs knew what it was, but wouldn't diagnose because he was a baby.

However dd1 (who didn't have asthma) they continually tried to label her with it because she had bronchililis at 6 weeks old! Crazy!

[PeppermintBark]

I had whooping cough last year (caught it in hospital!) and I never really had the whooping sound. It was about 3 months before I finished coughing and it really knocked my stamina about. It completely knackered my pelvic floor, however, and a year later it's only just about better after much exercising of it.

[mumtobealloveragain]

Whooping cough can be very serious and may mean months and months of illness and time off school.

More likely to be croup but this too can be serious. Croup is the sea lion bark, usually with a high temp, and more likely to present at night. It can worsen very quickly my stepson had it last year and he went from a bit of coughing to hysterical in just a few minutes. He was hardly able to breathe and was turning blue around the lips, we rushed him to A&E where they put him on a nebuliser.

Don't ignore it, get it checked by the GP at least.

[Metebelis3]

If it's whooping cough hell be off for more than a week!!!! DS was off for 12 weeks.

[BoJolly]

Both my DC had whooping cough (at the same time!!) when they were little despite having all immunisations. DS1 was about 4 and DS2 was 2.

We saw 7 different doctors who insisted they had asthma, despite me telling them about the distinctive "Whoop". I still feel guilty about trying to get them to use prescribed inhalers which just seemed to make them worse.

It was a terrifying time. They mainly had coughing fits at night where they would cough until they vomited. During the day they hardly coughed, but sometimes eating would trigger a bout of coughing.

I hope your DS is feeling better soon

[OhDeanna]

Yup, I had whooping cough in the summer. It lasted for almost four months and I still have a trace of the cough now. The cough would come on suddenly and there were literally times I could not breathe; I ended up crawling round the floor desperately trying to take in air - it was very scary. I was utterly exhausted.

I coughed so hard that I often vomited and I actually fractured two ribs.

Like Stratters, my asthma is also very bad and, like Peppermint, my pelvic floor is damaged.

It's a nasty old fucker.