To not take DS to the hospital?

[challengethethought]

I posted on a Mum page (Facebook) asking what I could give one year old DS to comfort him. By that I mean things like home remedies for soothing, like honey and lemon.

He woke up about an hour ago, crying like mad with a barking cough and loud chest. Finally got him to sleep and he's wheezing and making odd grunts.

NHS advice online is just to keep an eye and don't worry. Most likely Croup by the sounds of it, not serious unless he appears to be struggling for breaths.

I've been hounded by mums on the FB page to take him to A&E! Literally every one of them. Someone's even said "Take him to A&E for fuck sake, NEVER play with a child's life!"

AIBU to not take him?

@crunchymum yes croup gets worse at night.

www.nhs.uk/conditions/croup/

111 may have told you a resp rate of 20 is normal, but as a previous poster has already said

111 are not medical professionals. They are call centre staff following a script which is based on the NHS online advice.

So I wouldn't trust their judgement in this situation.

Ice We didn't speak to a NHS 111 call person for very long. They passed us over to a Nurse

The group will probably come back tonight ds1 has croup twice a year until he was about 9 he only ever needed steroids once and we were aware of when to seek medical help but like I say it was only needed once and he was fine. They did investigate further though because it was recurrent and went on until an older age than they’d have liked turns out he had mild asthma that didn’t really present unless he was ill. He’d had other health problems which had disguised it a bit because it is so mild.

@challengethethought I didn't really seek advice for his symptoms as such. Just wondered if I was really being that unreasonable not to take him A&E. Again, NHS website seems to be very blasé about it all and not list it as serious unless he wasn't able to breathe properly etc.

It still would have been better to check either with the nhs 111 symptom checker or call them rather than ask if you were being unreasonable not taking him to A&E on an online forum full of non healthcare professionals...

111.nhs.uk

Yes NHS 111 is answered by call handlers but this is the correct route to seek advice about healthcare matters out of hours from normal GP opening hours.

Sorry just noticed that the nhs 111 online service isn’t available for children under 5, this is probably because children can deteriorate quickly and best to get advice/care for them quickly

Please let us know if it's croup

Don't know if you saw my post a few pages back op but my 16 month old the other night was struggling (breathing through mouth quite heavily) she has a cold and her nose was blocked up.

I Have given you some suggestions you can try to help clear the congestion. They work for us so could be worth a try. If it's just a cold then doc won't norKelly give anything just suggest the stuff you get on the shelf.

If you use the Calpol plug in you can get the refills much cheaper off Amazon. I like the plug in myself.... I find rhe smell quite relaxing.

It is available to under 5s, I've used it a few times for my kids. The last time was three days ago for my 2 year old. Sorry OP but I find it baffling that you have health concerns about your young child, but fail to do anything until you have posted all over Mumsnet. Your child is your priority and their health is your responsibility.

@Chocolatecoffeeaddict the nhs 111 online service states that it’s not available for children under 5, it states to call 111 for children under 5.

Sorry, not the online service. It was the phone service. You speak to a call handler, answer questions and then wait for a GP to ring you back and they advise you what to do.

Anyway OP you do have my sympathy my DD had an awful hacking/barking cough since being about 6 weeks old, We’ve has lots of sleepless nights with it and been back and forth to a&e/GP and eventually saw a paediatrician for her to be diagnosed with likely asthma.

It’s only just now at age 8 that she doesn’t get the cough as regularly as she did. We’ve had many sleepless nights and trips to hospital and I would say to always call 111 in the first instance out of hours if you need advice.

We have a great 'nurse on call' service here. I have rung it many times, they usually give pretty sound advice.

I completely understand the hesitation to take your child to a place that is full of extra germs where you will need to sit for hours on end before even being seen.

From what you were describing (apart from the noises) I would have rang nurse on call but not taken the child in, that being said my child has been admitted to hospital twice with cold type symptoms as a baby so I am not the kind to avoid hospital if we need to go but hate the fact you can easily catch something else on top of what they already have.

How is your ds OP? Hope he is better today.

Thanks for all the support

DS was seen by a GP today who said it was probably croup. He's been given an asthma pump and a tube thing to take.

Ironically, I now can't inhale without being in extreme discomfort because it feels like unbeliever effort. It's horrendous, I've never known anything like it. So back to GP for me tomorrow, I hope it isn't a misdiagnosis. Seems too ironic for me to have a funny chest the following day

Is it one of the ventolin mask thingys? They're a bugger to keep on their faces

Croup is contagious though!

When he gets bad take him outside in the cold ,it works wonders .
My dd still gets croup at 7 and going outside helps as does a humidifier in her room

The tube sounds like a spacer, which I use. Very good when you are short of breath.

@challengethethought

That’s good that that your son has received treatment, though but I would still have seen OOH with those symptoms.

I would say- how you’re feeling now? That horrendous? Is very likely how your son has been feeling. Except he was unable to understand why he felt like that, or to
tell you. Does that maybe suggest to you that you should have sought more urgent help sooner, even just get the medicine sooner to relieve his discomfort?

Although all seems to have worked out fine this time, small children can go downhill very fast, and you are their main advocate.

thesheep if you read all the updates the OP might have been slower than some of us would have liked but she did phone 111 and they told her to take him to the GP the next day, the nurse didn't allow them to get OOH treatment as it wasn't necessary.

croup itself isn't contagious, all it is, is a normal cough/cold virus that affects the voice box rather than just the sinuses or chest... its why you get that distinctive barking cough.

So you cant catch croup, but you can catch whatever caused it.

I agree with calling 111 in the future. They an pass you on to a nurse who will give better advice. It's really better safe than sorry with babies.