Anyone awake - anxious about my son

Antihistamine might help a bit with the cough. Hope he feels better soon.

OP, tomorrow morning please go to the GP and get help with your anxiety.

Your son has a nasty cold. He is fine.

Honestly, vomiting with flu is quite common especially in children. All you need to do is read the threads on here about this year’s flu to see that it’s making loads of grown adults vomit too. Could also be that he’s managed to catch norovirus at the same time although I hope not for your sake!

And hopefully OP now you've gone through this experience you'll feel more confident moving forward with situations like this

Ibuprofen needs to be given not in an empty stomach

But with the children's one that's in an oral soultion it's different

So OP you've been doing the right thing

www.nhs.uk/medicines/ibuprofen-for-children/how-and-when-to-give-ibuprofen-for-children/

And I'm delighted for you that he's turned a corner with your caring skills

You've done really well and helped him and yourself through what was a stressful medical time

This does not say children under 7 should not be given Ibuprofen. It says there are certain situations but for a generally healthy normal sized child it’s perfectly safe to follow directions on the bottle. Babies can have ibuprofen it just needs to be prescribed between 1 and 3 months.

You don't need to keep his temp down. You really only need to treat it when it gets too high and makes him uncomfortable. A temperature is just the body trying to kill the infection. You still need to contact someone now just in case it is the ibuprofen that has caused this. More than likely it is just a bug, but because this started after he's taken multiple doses of ibuprofen it needs to be ruled out.

Remember that a temperature is the body’s natural way to fight infection, so by reducing the temperature you are taking away that protective factor.

Not including this episode of sickness, if your son is otherwise ok, eating and drinking and playing on his iPad then don’t worry too much about the temperature unless it goes whopping high, which you would be alerted to by the change in his behaviour and temperament.

I was always told to look at the child and not the thermometer 🤣

Ok now you should contact someone and tell them you've been giving your son ibuprofen and he's started getting stomach pain and vomiting. That can be a serious side effect of the drug.

Empathising with you OP as I’m currently sitting with my poorly 7 year old who has had 30 hours of occasional high fever and 5 episodes of vomiting. He’s only required paracetamol twice during this time as his temperatures come and go. He always picks up after his medicine and then starts to flag again about 5-6 hours later.

He hasn’t managed to keep any food down since Friday night but he’s still drinking so I’m reassured by that. He’s obviously not urinating as frequently as normal but that’s to be expected.

When he’s having his good periods he’s sat up chatting away and watching films on his iPad so I’m happy that there’s nothing seriously wrong with him. There are a lot of tummy bugs going around his school at the moment.

If he was having persistent fever, unable to keep fluids down and appeared flat and exhausted I would be a lot more worried, but as it stands I’m just letting him ride him out.

I won’t be taking him to the GP as I think that would make him feel worse, however, in your son’s case with his bad cough, if there’s a potential for a chest infection then it’s worth getting him looked at in case he needs antibiotics.

It could be flu, there’s a lot going around. Throwing up (and stomach pain) is quite common with it as well as the high temperature, sore throat, headache, cough.
People often say they have the flu when all they have is a bad cold but actual
flu is nasty. My DDs temperature was constantly so high she was hallucinating at times. It was scary
Plenty of fluids and rest. Plain food where possible. Drs can’t do anything, antibiotics don’t help. Day 3 is usually the worst but then it usually improves. Not going to suddenly just feel better though.
However still phone 111 if you are really really worried just in case it’s something else. As people have said though, if he’s eating, resting and peeing and his temp can be controlled they will probably tell you to keep giving him paracetamol and ibuprofen and wait it out. Dont just take him to the surgery, if it’s flu they will not be happy

You sound like a lovely caring mum. It's hard to say don't worry because you will. Flat cola (the NON diet stuff) helps

Also, my sons couldn’t be ill without vomiting copiously! I stopped using calpol or tried different brands in case it was part of the problem.

One of mine was hospitalised a couple of times for suspected meningitis, because the vomiting gave him petechia on his face and even down his arms.

I’m on the sofa watching traitors, feeling queasy and gripey, not sure if I need the loo or a bucket.

i’m belchy and windy and generally miserable. So yes, I expect he feels like me!

Do you have any cola? I find it helps- a little caffeine, and encourages the release of gas in your stomach!

He might feel brighter now it's out

Yes absolutely it would. It can curdle and then he will be sick. It's horrible but normal with some children x

You can get sickness with these kind of viruses. It's all the yukky stuff from his cough /nose going into his tummy. It's better out than in

it sounds as if he’s managing well, and giving age appropriate meds are reducing his temperature as expected.

if he continues to eat,drink and wee as described today I’d only see a gp if he’d had a temp over 38 continuously for 5 days or more as per nhs guidelines.

its scary when our children are unwell and you’ve both been very lucky he’s not experienced fevers before but he’s doing well.

please don’t send him back to school until he’s had a Normal temperature for 24 hrs clear, he will be very easily tired for a few days after this

Think about the last time you had proper flu. Were you feeling better within 72 hours? No. Flu takes a long while to improve. He won’t be well enough for school on Monday but he doesn’t need to see a doctor unless he is not drinking enough or weeing enough, is struggling to breathe well, has a fever that paracetamol and ibuprofen aren’t touching, develops white spots on his tonsils, has a rattle chest and coughs up orange mucus or develops any of the signs of sepsis. Just like it you had flu you would have to stay at home and wait it out - you wouldn’t see a doctor for flu unless you were convinced that you’d got a secondary infection. And it is very likely to be flu because the rates of it are sky high at the moment. Did he have his flu vaccine at school? That can lessen the symptoms and the chances of catching it but unfortunately it hasn’t been very effective this year for some reason. It usually is.