9 month old with terrible terrible cough - advice really needed

[Wills]

He's on atrivent, we've raised his cot, we've given him Medised AND i've broken open a karvol. This has been getting steadily worse since Xmas. I went to the doctors 5 days ago and she upped the atrivent to 2 puffs twice daily. But he's getting worse. Naturally he's not sleeping well.

What else can I do?

[hairymclary]

if he has had it since christmas and it's getting worse then I would take him to hospital

[TooTicky]

Homoeopathy!!!!! (I can elaborate/recommend if you're in the south-ish).

[Wills]

I'm Kent.

why hospital. He's bad but I hadn't thought hospital. Being a chronic asthmatic I'm sensitive and I hate hearing him almost choke on coughing but he does breath.

[bakedpotato]

Damp flannel on radiator?
Push for referral to paed?
Would expect it to improve as weather gets better.
dd was like this when tiny and it's horrible.

[hairymclary]

why hospital? because he;s only 9 months old and he's had a "terrible, terrible" cough for over 2 months?

[foxinsocks]

get a paed referral Wills if he doesn't have one already

is he on atrovent for any special reason (as opposed to ventolin and the other normal inhalers)?

[Aero]

Ds1 had a cough which wasn't improving. After three months of steadily worsening coughing and towards (eventual) diagnosis, significant weight loss and a high temperature, we discovered he had pneumonia! Probably wasn't that to begin with, but we were fobbed off with it's a virus, given iinhalers as it could be asthma, etc, etc for weeks and I never felt I was being taken seriously until he was sent to hospital for a chest x-ray.

[Wills]

When he coughs he keeps going struggling for breath. When he finally catches his breath he's really upset. I hate hearing him like this. As to why atrovent, I don't know. I have ventolin but wouldn't know how much to give such a young child.

[foxinsocks]

I think (don't quote me) that ventolin works quicker (but it's not the same type of inhaler as the atrovent).

I'd take him back (seriously) and try and see a different doctor and at the same time, see if you can get a referral.

I thought they always started with ventolin, then went down the steroid route (becotide etc.) but I'm not a medical person.

[Wills]

OK, I'll phone the surgery tommorrow.

[foxinsocks]

Dd had ventolin from a young age (through a spacer) but I have no idea if you can give ventolin and atrovent together.

I hope you can get an appointment tomorrow - let us know how it goes.

[Wills]

Will do. And thankyou to all.

[TooTicky]

I know there are a couple of v. good homoeopaths in London. Will get info if you are interested.

[Aero]

Def a referral to a paed. Paed knew straight away there was something serious wrong with ds1 and wasn't surprised he had pneumonia. He's almost nine now, but has has it three times and also a serious respiritory infection when he was just over a year old which never was given a name as such, but I think it all started then. The coughing you describe is very similar, and I was worried sick at the time.

[lemonaid]

Could be whooping cough, as another option. Babies tend not to have the classic "whooping" noise so it can take a while and/or a perceptive doctor to get it diagnosed (I had to take DS back three times and eventually he had to turn blue in front of the GP before we got a referral).

Mind you, if it is whooping cough there won't be anything they can do about it -- it'll be another couple of months of bad cough, getting gradually better. At least if it's whooping cough you'll know it isn't anything else.

(and it's not unheard of to get whooping cough even after being vaccinated)