Had to call ambulance for my 4 month old. Hand hold

[firsttimemum987]

My 4 month old has had a cough for about 3 days now. Today it turned really nasty. I gave her some cough medicine as recommended by my pharmacist. As soon as I gave her the medicine, she came up in hives, her lips and face started to swell and she was struggling to breathe. I called the ambulance straight away. They got to me in 3 minutes. They injected her with adrenaline and we were blue lighted to the hospital. We are now in paediatric resuscitation unit.

My DH is in another country on a work trip and I cannot get hold of him. So it's just me and the baby. I feel so guilty. It's all my fault.

I know the Royal childrens hospital guidance in Australia also says there is no effective cough medicine for under 6s and some may be harmful, so I too wonder what this one that’s apparently advised for babies is.

but either way, you have done nothing wrong op!! Amazing the ambulance arrived so quickly, makes me tear up a bit!!

This was the medicine for those that asked.

Holy crap, it's possibly the Glycol - make sure you don't leave without a letter for your GP asking for an allergy referral.

Have then done the tryptase tests (ask them now, as they need to).

And it will take a year plus in most places for an allergy referral.

Can you afford to go privately? Keep the cough medicine as you will need to take some in for the skin testing along with various other things...

It took me a strangely long time to find the full ingredients list. I didn't see any clear outliers for allergies. I did however find a warning from the FDA about cough medications for children under two. This cough syrup is not available in my country probably because of the FDA warning.

Ingredients
The Active Ingredient is: Glycerol 0.75 ml, Other Ingredients are: Purified Water, Maltitol Liquid (E965), Citric Acid, Hydroxyethylcellulose, Sodium Citrate and Sodium Benzoate (E211), The Flavouring is Apple

It says that slowed breathing is a common problem with cough syrups for children under two which is why they aren't recommended. Where there other allergy symptoms such as hives? Even I didn't know this. I would have given it to my baby without a second thought. Though I think it irresponsible of the manufacturer if they were selling the medication knowing this is a common effect.

www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/should-you-give-kids-medicine-coughs-and-colds

she came up in hives, her lips and face started to swell and she was struggling to breathe.

@PissedOffAmericanWoman OP clearly describes an anaphylatic reaction in the first post.

OP - please tell me they gave you epi pens before discharge and a rescue pack?

It looks like glycerin (which is apparently the same thing as glycerol just packaged differently) is highly unlikely to be the cause as according to research it would be like saying you are allergic to water.

www.aaaai.org/allergist-resources/ask-the-expert/answers/old-ask-the-experts/glycerin

@OhWilding they haven't given me anything unfortunately!

Please speak to your GP - ask for an urgent appointment.

And ask for a rescue pack / adrenalin.

Sodium benzoate can, rarely, cause sensitivity reactions like this.

This may also be useful to you. www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg134/chapter/1-Recommendations

Babies are a blank canvas when it comes to allergies. Nobody is gonna know until it happens. You were helping your baby, it's not your fault.
This is why weaning gives me the fear.
Hope your baby is doing good today and feeling better. Hope you are both resting.

Glad you dc is OK op. Be very thankful you got dc there... My dc 18 was ill last night. 111 wanted an ambulance sent out but there wasn't one. I rang 3 local A&E departments for a waiting estimate. 2 told me not to bother bringing him in as he wouldn't get seen before 8 this morning and 1 didn't even answer the phone. Thankfully ds managed to improve during the night. Absolutely sick with worry all night.

That sounds awful! Glad to hear he improved and hope he makes a full recovery soon!

This!

GP for a referral to paediatric allergy, and ask GP about epipens while you wait - I have struggled to get them for none anaphylaxis reactions but you have had one so you need this.

Allergies are considered chronic so if you have private medical cover you'll only get the first testing appointments and no follow up. Alternatively it would have cost us about £350 for the consult and testing. I highly recommend this as the waiting list are long and we are getting more and more allergic as a nation

@firsttimemum987 sorry about what happened with your DD. Glad she is better now.

As per @OhWilding please request an urgent appointment with the GP

my dc (10) had a mild reaction to some nuts in school just earlier this year. First time reaction. Has never had any prior to that

the blood test that was done afterwards seemed inconclusive so the GP prescribed Epipens just to be on the safe side.

the reaction your DD had sounds really severe and you must get a proper diagnosis.

take care and stay safe.

I just want to be clear I'm not trying to dismiss OP'S concerns rather I am trying to narrow down the cause by eliminating the least likely case scenarios. I am not a doctor though so it's best presumed that my comments are merely theories at best.

Really not impressed as the doctor has said to me her reaction was "mild to moderate" so he won't be referring her to allergy testing!
Will be ringing gp tomorrow morning.

My niece had bad allergies as a baby and my sister had an incredibly difficult time getting her tested because she was under 1. They also didn't want to test her for asthma even though she had some pretty bad attacks. This was in the United states so you can imagine how awful it was taking her to the ER and getting 20k bills everytime and the doctors are just like "just bring her in again if it happens." She had multiple pediatricians gaslighting her saying "babies don't get allergies until they are 1." No one was really honest with my sister. I suspect perhaps it's not that they actually think babies don't get allergies obviously they do. But perhaps they couldn't be bothered to explain that maybe the tests don't work as well for infants or they try to avoid them because their are risks involved in testing a child so young? I wish I knew. My mother had the same issue with all three of us.

Did you ask the dr what the definition of mild to
moderate is?

OP - that's a serious allergy - any allergy that causes swelling to the face is serious. Please, please do get a GP appointment.