To think my baby has whooping cough?

[Ifyourawizardwhydouwearglasses]

Posting here for traffic. Sorry but I'm worried.

She's been to docs last week, going again tomorrow and I've called nhs direct.

4 month old, been unwell for about a week and now has these awful coughing fits at night ending in gagging or vomiting.
All the symptoms sound like whooping cough and I'm so worried.

She's had immunisations but I didn't get the pregnancy one as my midwife forgot until it was too late.

Any experiences?

Thank you.

How'd she doing OP?

I found this site very useful when DD had it - lots of information about length, symptoms.

I haven't read all the replies so sorry of this has been suggested but it could be severe croup which my dd has had and can be very serious. Your dd would need to be seen asap by a doctor.

Of course if everyone vaccinated then the vaccine would be more effective! That's a whole new thread!

But the herd immunity threshold for whooping cough is quoted (by the CDC and WHO) as 92-94% uptake, and DTaP has a 94.7% uptake rate in the UK, so I don't think "if everyone vaccinated" is a particular issue. The main trouble is that immunity wears off relatively quickly (and also that it initially presents as a mild cold/slight cough for a week or so, so you can infect shedloads of people before you realise what's wrong with you).

Thanks for the replies.

Took her to docs today, she was bouncing and smiling and happy and didn't cough. He said she looked 'too well' for whooping cough. I said I thought that they were well between coughing fits after the acute phase, but he brushed this off.

He said it's probably just a cough, but that if it went on for weeks then it might be whooping cough. He said to come back in a week if she's still coughing. He didn't want to take any throat swabs or blood tests.

So we'll see! She's fine now but it's the nights that are bad. I really hope she's better tonight.

It does annoy me though - if it were a pet they'd have done bloods and the lot. I sometimes wish you could have the option of paying extra and having whatever tests you want!

A lot of GP's have out of touch with diagnosing whooping cough. My extended family visited 3 different doctors in the same surgery and all said he wasn't whooping cough. In the end I phoned these partner of health who said the test should be done and asked the urgent to call them! Within 6 hours nasal swabs and blood tests were arranged and came back positive.

Phoned the department of health - blimmin auto text!