Absolute bloody disaster!! We're supposed to go to Disneyland in a few hours

[Sneakysloth]

We have to leave at 9am to drive to the eurotunnel and go to Disneyland and I've been awake since 2am with a sobbing 4 year old really distressed that his ear hurts. We've all had horrible coughs/colds this last week and I think his has developed into an ear infection. He keeps asking if we can still go and I'm telling him not to worry and just to rest but then he gets distressed that he doesn't want to not go. I phoned 111 at 3am but not heard back yet (I know that might sound dramatic, but it is the weekend and it seemed better than A&E?)

He's had calpol when he first woke, ibuprofen not long ago, got a warm flannel on his ear. I'm sat up so he can rest on me and be a bit more upright to try ease pain. We wait for the doctor to call. But in the mean time.. gonna have to shatter all my kids excitement about Disneyland aren't I?

I feel your pain..a few years ago we were meant to be getting the ferry to france. My son was super excited and then very sick 😫 hoped a one off but carried on all night..phoned 111 and they said to get arrowroot and just get on the ferry. Was impossible. Just me and a puking child..he was ill for 2 or 3 days so am glad we didn't try and go. He'd have probably given the germ to others on the ferry and we'd have had a terrible holiday. Insurance was amazing and paid out and we went a week later...which was actually quieter and cheaper as was week after half term:)
The French health service is brilliant. Last year in france he got earache and had to go to walk in place and he got drops and was better v quickly

I hope the op comes back

We just had a baby falling ill and car breaking down before Eurotunnel trip. First of all they are really flexible to change time of the ticket, they aren’t that busy now so you should be fine.

second, you also can:

• go to private a&E if you are in London (St John & St Elizabeth Hospital in St Johns Wood for example)
• Go to private GP first thing tomorrow
• go to NHS urgent care centre (which is different from A&E)
• go to a French doctor/hospital while you are there if it really gets worse (obviously get travel insurance)

it would be more worrying if you needed to fly, but driving I would definitely go

If you need antibiotics the medicine usually has to be stored in a fridge. You could ask for the capsules and then can empty them into yoghurts etc. we had to d this last Xmas when everywhere had run out of kids medicine due to the scarlet fever outbreak. We were told we had to have the capsules and told they were fine to empty into food.

I’m a bit cautious about ears as my daughter ear drum burst on holiday. She had run a temp a couple of days before flying and we had her checked and gp said it was viral. Flew to the other end of the weld. She struggled with the flight and was very restless and cried a lot. Arrived at the destination and took her to a GP who prescribed antibiotics to take with on on the next part of our trip by road in a camper. They weren’t to take immediately but in case she got worse. However our fridge wouldn’t work and we couldn’t store them. We returned from that part of the trip, daughter got very ‘naughty’ and went to bed early. She was playing up and not her usual self and was tired. Woke up the next morning with gunk all over her pillow and in her hair. Went back to the GP who confirmed her ear drum had now burst and he too a swab and gave some antibiotics to take and called us back a couple of days later to confirm they were the right kind for the infection. The pain did immediately go though and our flight home was no issue. The infection cleared up pretty quick. I suspect if our GP had given some antibiotics in the uk before we went it may well have prevented all that happened. And if not that, had we actually used the ‘just in case’ dose when they were given we may well have prevented the burst ear drum. We would have had to find a way of storing them too.

You say that, but trying to get a GP appointment is horrendous!…. When I tried last year for my DD who had ear ache their attitude was “if it’s that bad take her to A&E!!! So 🤷🏻‍♀️

Hope you went and hope you’re all having a lovely time and sons ear is ok

@Meagainnewname

shes not scared to wake him up! She's wary of waking him up because he then won't be willing to drive to Disney, that's all.

@SamPM we DO pay for it. We pay into the NHS, in advance, not at point of use. I don't think anyone in the US, has any right to criticise our healthcare.

I think she’s right - if people had to pay they would think seriously about going.

I’d go and find a pharmacy in France - they tend to be far superior to ours and can often give antibiotics over the counter

This.

Also if you have GHIC you can get free continuing care in France.

All that’s needed is antibiotics and pain killers.

Shame to not go and/or lose all the money.

Sounds like holiday panic to me. Toughen up don’t let everyone down I know you think you are the worst off and don’t want to go but I think you have to be very brave. And I hope you went.

A & E is not the place to go for an ear infection. Antibiotics are not necessarily indicated either (look at the NICE guidelines).

Hopefully the OP has been enjoying her holiday and DC's ear has sorted itself out.

Did you end up going? I hope you did and are there having a lovely time.

What strange advice. It's her child that's ill. How can she toughen up.

How Is your child now? Did you get away?

I hope the op comes back. There's lots of us here hoping they got away and her dc is ok.

@Reprobatecake Where we are there is an out of hours service associated with the a&e for non urgent cases, it runs until about midnight. Outside of this I've had to use A&E in the middle of the night - mainly because the GP service is oversubscribed and for days on end the phone line is unavailable.

I do not think the NHS is running 'normally' at all at the moment - if this were the 1980s I would agree with you.

God no wonder antibiotic resistance is becoming such a serious problem.

A colleague's child was left with permanent hearing loss after mastoiditis following an ear infection. Sometimes ear infections do need treating. The problem these days is not being able to get medical attention.

We could have written this post last week except the ear problem started on the night they arrived at Disney. They phoned a doctor but he wouldn’t prescribe an antibiotic but told them to keep putting in drops.
while there, there is a place you can pick up a buggy for free and she slept in it when she got tired. It was a godsend.

@Signalbox

It is becoming a problem because we haven’t had a new class of antibiotics reach the market since 1987.

There was for a time a lot of overprescribing and people are generally crap at adhering to treatment regimes.

On top of this, a lot of our antibiotics are used for farm animals also and farmers - due to the financial pressures on them relative to yield - use them as prophylaxis where they aren’t actually needed. Which contributes massively.

In short, a child needing antibiotics for an ear infection is pretty standard, required and not the route cause of the problem.

Exactly this.