Please tell me what you know about pneumonia in babies and small children [sad]

[CoteDAzur]

DS just turned one and has been diagnosed today as having "the beginning of pneumonia" (whatever that means). He seems to have developed this while on antibiotics, which worried his paediatrician such that she doubled his dose. There is a black patch in his lung x-rays and blood test shows bacterial infection.

Can anyone tell me it is going to be alright? Any experiences?

[sanfairyann]

sorry to hear that cotedazur. is he in hospital or being treated at home with the antibiotics. ds1 has had pneumonia quite a few times and has always bounced back within a few days of antibiotic treatment - tons better within 24 hours in fact. it sounds awful and scary but with antibiotics it is easily treated ime, esp if it is just 'the beginning of'. hope he's on the mend soon

[Lulumaam]

no experiene but sounds like it's been caught early and he is being treated, so hope he is on the mend soon

[sanfairyann]

oh just remembered - you actually are in France as well aren't you? hope I don't get my head bitten off by anyone here now but ime the paediatricians can tend to the overdramatic eg 'beginnings of pneumonia' might be French GP speak for 'a bad chest infection' in the UK

[Chaotica]

DD has had a horrible chest infection (or two) which the GP thought was 'the beginning of pneumonia'. She was fine with treatment (a couple of days in hopsital and extra treatment as she has asthma plus a long recovery at home. It's very scary, so I hope your DS starts responding to treatment soon.

[CoteDAzur]

Thank you. He is at home.

He has been coughing for three weeks. What is worrying is that he developed the fever 36 hours after he started antibiotics. Paediatrician said something about "possible antibiotic-resistant strain".

[CoteDAzur]

We did an x-ray today and you can clearly see the dark patch where lung tissue has "thickened" (?) which apparently means pneumonia.

[sanfairyann]

aww poor lamb, hopefully the double strength antibiotics will do the trick or else a different type of antibiotics will be available. ds1 used to have iv antibiotics for pneumonia so I know that sounds awful but it was fine really - there will always be a treatment for him and he'll soon be fighting fit again. is he sleeping ok?

[CoteDAzur]

I'm quite , actually.

I've been wanting to start DS on anti-biotics for over a week but his paediatrician said "No need, this is a viral infection. If it were a bacterial infection, he would have a fever and would look/feel ill". Finally on Wednesday evening, three full weeks into his cough, she relented and DS started anti-biotics.

Yesterday morning, he had 40 C fever, which dropped only to 39.3 C an hour after paracetamol AND lukewarm bath. I took him to paediatrician. She says "Stop anti-biotics, this looks like another viral infection". I said "No. I'm not stopping his ABs until you know exactly what is wrong with him".

She has been falling over herself today to make things happen for us at the hospital, calling every hour to see how things are going, calling me to her home to give me the extra AB prescription

Never trust doctors and always question their judgement.

[Strawberrycornetto]

We had similar experiences with my DS. He had pneumonia while already on antibiotics the first time, when he was 9 months old. It turns out after a lot of investigations, that he has reflux which has led to chest infections and he also seems to have asthma.

Pneumonia is really just a medical term for a type of chest infection I think (others may correct me but that's what my GP said) so although it is serious, its not uncommon and is very treatable. So try not to worry, I am sure he will improve really quickly now he has the right treatment.

[CoteDAzur]

Strawberry - I'm very interested to hear what you mean by "reflux which has led to chest infections". Could you explain that a bit?

DS had terrible reflux in his first 6 months, such that half of my breast milk was vomited back all over me after each feed. He got better, and now is on anti-reflux formula.

How does reflux make chest infections? He does seem to be prone. This is our third round of antibiotics for persistent cough. He is only 1 year old.

[Strawberrycornetto]

This is what happened with DS, I hope its helpful.

DS had reflux mildly as a baby. He was prescribed gaviscon but we stopped it because it didn't help and he was never unhappy, just sick a lot. He turned out to be allergic to dairy so we thought it might have been that.

When he was 9 months old, he developed bronchiolitis and then pneumonia a couple of times and was very poorly. Since then, he's had lots of chest infections and despite asthma medication kept getting them. He had been on antibiotics about 13 times in a year and a half.

Our paediatrician tested for lots of things, including reflux. Apparently, what happens is that some of the food/stomach contents which is brought up by reflux can be aspirated into the lungs. This then sits there, leading to infections. DS has a pH study done and also an upper GI barium xray. These showed refux and a CT of his chest showed debris on his lungs which was consistent with aspiration. He also had a bronchoscopy which showed something consistent with reflux aspiration. He's been on 2 lots of reflux meds since and since January has only had one chest infection.

The interesting thing with DS was that the chest infections started really as the obvious reflux in terms of regular vomiting disappeared, at about 9 momths. So we thought he was better, but actually he had just stopped being so sick and instead was aspirating. TIming wise, sounds like it could possibly be similar with your DS.

[CoteDAzur]

Interesting. DS has not vomited at all in months, though.

However, he has a favourite bunny and he loves to chew/suck its ears. And those ears are rather furry on one side.

Could he be aspirating the fibers on those bunny ears?

[SofiaAmes]

Ds had multiple ear infections, chest infections, pneumonia and infected eye sockets before he was 2. He spent a lot of time in A&E. Antibiotics and ibuprofen (paracetamol never worked on him) cured it all. And he is now a healthy (ish) 9 year old. he still gets several chest infections a year, but it doesn't seem to interfere with his normal activities (still manages to do well in school, torture he sister with gusto and read voraciously).
Ds had reflux too, and now that someone mentions it, I remember reading somewhere that there is a connection.

I found it helpful to put a pillow under one end of ds' mattress to prop him up so that he was sleeping with his body tilted upwards (helps with breathing and coughing). And quite often would just put him in with me so that I could make sure he staying in tilted up position.

Good luck.

[OmicronPersei8]

Sorry to hear your DS is unwell, and that your paediatrician hasn't been more helpful.

DS had pneumonia recently (2 years old). IV antibiotics seemed to do the trick in terms of clearing it up (in hospital), also we found ibrupofen rather than paracetamol was the only thing to bring his temperature down.

Once his temperature was under control we were sent home with a 5 day course of oral ABs. It was amoxicillin and clavulanic acid, the clavulanic acid makes the amoxicillin more resistant to bacteria. It was pretty strong stuff, DS had dark stools (ie blood) for that week. I got the impression that for an infection like this they like to really knock it out.

Cote, how is your DS responding to the ABs now? If it's any reassurance, my DS was back to himself within a week or so.

[kreecherlivesupstairs]

My dd had pnueumonia three times. On each occasion she had IV antibiotics and nebulisers. She is now a healthy and very lively nineyear old. The first time she got it, she was so dehydrated she couldn't cry. That was horrifying.

[FairyMum]

2 of my children had pneumonia. Both times they had a cold and then went downhill very quickly and became very ill. Took them to A&E as too ill to wait to see GP and both were admitted straight award and put on antibiotics as hospital not sure it could be meningities.
We stayed in hospital 3 nights as far as I can remember and they recovered fairly quickly.
IME you are realy very ill with pneumonia.

[FairyMum]

Forgot to mention they were 18 months and 2 years when they had penumonia.

[mumbar]

yes there is a link with reflux and chest infections. You can silently aspirate when refluxing too you don't need to be sick. (this is from experience).

May be helpful for you to know that a reflux instigated chest infection generally presents worse or only in the right hand side of your chest and it's advised to sleep on your left hand side as the natural curve of your spine and the layout of the digestive system it can ease symptoms.

Hope this helps. Best of luck

[Strawberrycornetto]

Agree with mumbar - particularly re the right sided issue. That is certainly true with DS. The good news I guess is it hasn't caused any long term damage and he is expected to grow out of it.

[CoteDAzur]

mumbar & strawberry - DS' x-ray stain is also on the upper right hand side. And he has been sleeping on his left side, holding on to the railings of his cot.

Do you know what the link is between aspiration and the right lung?

[sanfairyann]

how is he today? hope he's doing better. remembered last night that dd has also had possible pneumonia - they never could agree on whether it was bronchiolitis (no antibiotics needed) or pneumonia so started her on iv ab in hospital then onto oral ab at home. anyhow, don't hesitate to go to a and e if you're not happy with how he's doing. they can stick a monitor thing on his finger to measure oxygen levels in the blood to check he's doing ok.

[CoteDAzur]

He is doing better today. He still coughs a bit but has slept through last night and had no fever today. Antibiotics seem to be working, so I have calmed down quite a bit. Paediatrician talking about "antibiotic resistant strain" scared me witless yesterday.

[Raksha]

hi cote - ds1 had double pneumonia (both sides) at 11 weeks, caused by RSV. he was on a nebuliser 5 times a day for 20 minutes each time - it was v scary. i only took him to the doc because his crying sounded funny - like he had lost his voice. the gp listened to his chest and said he was fine, but because of his age she had to refer him to the paed for a check (any baby presenting with unusual symptoms under 6mos was being referred on). so we went straight to the emergency room and a cxr showed two huge dark patches...

we were warned that it might cause scarring and potentially make him more at risk for asthma etc. you'll be pleased to know he's 8yo now, with no asthma or anything in sight

hope he's feeling better soon x