8wk old on antibiotics for slight pneumonia, Tell me not to panic

[ANGELMOTHER]

At 8 wk check today gp tells me that dd2 has this in her right lung. She's had a bad cold for a few days now and has only just started to brighten up but I feel so guilty as last weekend she was at her worst and dh said to take her to doc's on Monday which I duly didn't as believed it was simple cold and no medication could be given.
Can anyone tell me how this medication (Erythromycin) might effect her as she has been quite off this evening?

[princesspeahead]

your poor dd angelmother! There is a lot of pneumonia around at the moment, there was a thread on it about a week ago. do't worry about the erythro - is a good all round antibiotic which should be well tolerated by her. my ds2 was on antibiotics (amoxycillin) at 5 weeks for an ear infection and it didn't really bother him in terms of being sick or horrid nappies or anything. But the antibs cleared his infection up very fast so he was much happier about 24 hrs after starting it. hopefully the same will be the case for your dd, she is probably off this evening because she is feeling rotten atm and will perk up considerably by tomorrow...
good luck!

[miranda2]

Don't panic.
She'll be fine.
Thank God for antibiotics.

[Beccarollo]

aww Angelmother, Im not suprised you feel like that - pneumonia is one of those words that seems so much worse than it is Hope the littleun feels much better soon - dont be hard on yourself, its drummed into us all the time that there is nothing can be done for colds
Hugs to you and yours
Becca
xx

[Jimjams]

angelmother- don't worry too much - pneumonia is used broadly and basically means chest infection- which doesn't sound as bad. Erythromyocin is a broad spectrum antibiotic. You can give babies probiotics (and it has been shown to decrease diarrhoea in babies on antibiotics). I did it myself with ds2 when he was given antibiotics at 6 weeks. (The HV- who was actually useful- found out about it for me). If you're bfeeding you don't need to worry too much about that anyway. At the time I was mix feeding (because he had an ifnection he was losing weight- he was skin and bone- but because it wasn't picked up everyone thought I wasn't producing much milk iyswim). Anyway I bfed as much as possible to get those friendly bacteria into his gut, and also out some probiotic (not much- tiny dose- 1/8 of adult dose I seem to remember) into his formula once a day.

And I was totally paranoid about ds2 and antibiotics and now at almost 2 he is absolutely fine. Hope she gets better soon.

[codswallop]

I had it too at 8 weeks pn wiht ds2 blinkin awful - but antibiotics worked in 24 hrs

[Ghosty]

Angelmother ... poor you and poor DD ...
DS was on a cocktail of intravenous antibiotics at 6 weeks due to a meningitis scare ...
He had no adverse reactions to the antibiotics and is a very strong, bright, healthy nearly 4 year old ...
Hope your DD feels better soon ...

[mears]

Definately don't panic Angelmother. Erythromycin will do the job. Could possibly make your dd2 grisly as erythromycin can give you a sort of indigestion sensation (personal experience). Do not feel guilty because if you had taken her to the doctor earlier, the pneumonia may not even have developed at that stage. You gave her a chance to get rid of the infection herself. She didn't manage to and now she merits being on antibiotics. You should see an improvement in the next 48 hours.

[zebra]

Hmmm... when DH had pneumonia he was originally diagnosed with a chest infection, and Erythromycin to clear it. It

A) didn't prevent progression to pneumonia;
B) caused DH to go off his food completely which was a huge problem as he is skinny and no food = completely lifeless in his case;
C) when he was later diagnosed with penumonia, they took a culture, found it was HIb, and pronounced that Erytromycin wasn't potent enough to clear pneumonia...

I wonder why the different experiences.....

[ANGELMOTHER]

Well I had a pretty rotten day yesterday. Gave dd2 the first dose at 4pm and with dh away all day only just managed to get dd1 bathed and to bed when dd2 started screaming, I could not comfort her at all. So I started crying after an hour of pacing around with her as she got worse when put down I called NHS direct.
By the time the nurse called back she had finally calmed down and was lying on her mat. We talked it all through with all the obvious checks and nothing appeared wrong.
By then it was 10:30 and dh finally came in, I was worn out. She appears to be unsettled still though but did sleep for one 5 hour stretch last night.
TBH I don't know if I sent her mad as I'm extremely stressed at the mo, things far from good with dh (possible trial sep) and it hadn't really been a good day anyway.
Thanks for the advice I just hope these antibiotics work quickly, she's meant to have her jabs next week.

[ANGELMOTHER]

Forgot to say she screams when put to breast but does eventually suckle ???