Is there a doctor in the house? (Yes, it’s one of these)

[holdingoutforagptiltheendofthenight]

know MN hates these types of posts but please bear with me:
It’s past 6pm on a Thursday so GP is closed and I have 3 small children in bed so trying to work out what to do for the best/if this is urgent or simply something that needs a walk-in centre tomorrow (or not even).

My 2 year old has had a fever for 3 days and a shocking cough/lots of snot etc (delightful). Yesterday evening (it’s always the evening when everything is closed isn’t it) he started to cry a LOT about his ear hurting which he’s never done before. There was no visible issue/he said he hadn’t put anything in it and I was alone with all 3 juggling bathtime so I thought it best to assess when DH came home an hour later. By then he was asleep. He didn’t mention his ear at all today and was happy. At bathtime I noticed quite a lot of blood in his ear that wasn’t there before. Now I’m worried because Dr Google seems to think that’s v concerning but I am unclear on the level of concern as generally he seems to be getting better and he is saying his ear does not hurt? I tried to clean it gently though and he wouldn’t let me so perhaps it does still hurt…

If anyone has experience please advise!

not an AIBU more of a WWYD and I apologise for posting for traffic

I agree with everyone else that’s saying to wait until the morning if he’s now sleeping.

This is really helpful with child illnesses too. It’s quite nice to refer to if I get in a panic about something!

www.gateshead.gov.uk/media/3325/The-Little-Orange-Book/pdf/Little-orange-book-NHS-March-2017.pdf

@holdingoutforagptiltheendofthenight

Afraid I have no advice but even as an NHS employee I echo your thoughts about 111. (I'd love to hear who that service has really helped!) I've had to use them twice in the last week - once for DH. We waited an hour for the call to be answered and then after assessment they said take him straight to A&E. I did, and then drove home once he was in as we have two young children. Was home less than 15 minutes when he called to say they were already discharging him and said he shouldn't have gone.

Second time was at 2am this morning, as our 5 year old had a temp of 40.1 and was refusing to take ibuprofen or calpol. Went through a 30 minute phone assessment, I told them several times that he has flu (confirmed by PCR) and is 100% refusing to take any calpol or ibru, we'd tried neat, in juice, even forcing it at one point and were feeling utterly burnt out by it. I even specified that my question was "Is it safe to leave his temp this high- if he's got enough energy to fight me over the medicine situation- to see if it comes down naturally?" So they said a Dr would call me back soon, so keep my phone close and await the call. No one called back, all night. I couldn't sleep as I was on edge waiting to hear if I had to take him somewhere. Nothing. Then someone called and left me an answer message at 10am this morning saying that the case had been assessed, and the resulting advice was" his symptoms of runny nose and cough can be treated by a pharmacy. Take him there and they can prescribe him calpol or ibuprofen to help with this". I said to my DH I was actually glad I missed the call as I think to be honest I'd have found it hard to not be very upset with them over how utterly unhelpful and useless that experience was. Also, given I'd said it's confirmed flu, why on earth would I take him to a pharmacy to possibly infect others!?

Definitely wouldn't feel dreadful! If it hadn't been for her waking up screaming I wouldn't have known anything was wrong, she was saying it was her teeth so I assumed it was just an ear infection. Poor little bugs, she hasn't complained about it since though, and I wouldn't worry too much about one case of water getting in. Likelihood is they will issue antibiotics anyways, just let them know your concerns around it tomorrow if it is perforated.

Sounds like he’s got a perforated ear drum. If he’s had a cold then as well as snot coming out his nose it’ll be going via the Eustachian Tube to his middle ear (behind the eardrum). Because ear canals are small in little ones the pressure that causes is painful, pushes on the drum until it pops (perforates). All the gunk including blood comes out, child much happier as pain gone.
We generally give antibiotics just to cover things once there’s been a perforation but otherwise keep clean and dry (avoid submerging head) and it will heal itself.
If he’s been e&d ok today, ok in himself and now fast asleep you should be fine to wait until own GP opens in the morning. If he wakes in pain/unwell then call 111 and ask for review at your local out of hours doctors.
Hope that helps! (a tired GP)

DD had this once, GP didn’t actually see her as was quite deep snow. But he prescribed antibiotics. I think it’s fine to wait until tomorrow if he seems ok

Do you have an out of hours pharmacy nearby? Could you ask a friend or neighbour to go and ask them about it with the photo? Might help put your kind at rest about waiting for tomorrow?

Sounds like an ear infection as mentioned they aren't contagious but do go to GP and don't be fobbed off it needs antibiotics. And if a regular happening need the ENT gp involved I say that because we struggled for 2 years to help our DS

our DS every time he got a cold which for the 1st 2 years of his life was pretty much every month it would be snotty chesty etc would take him to GP as always a pattern 3 weeks in ear drum perforated and gunk pouring out, without fail but everything gp would fo nothing until the ear drum had perforated, we tried everything when he got a sniffel from vicks on his feet with socks, vicks on his chest a vicks plug in diffuser thing olbas oil on sheets, cot propped. Nothing work by the age of 2 he had had so many perforated ear drums we lost count only saving grace he never screamed in pain hence only knowing when it perforated and that's when we noticed a pattern
Saw ENT gp he did 6mths antibiotics and it cleared up (mainly because we headed into summer) winter came happened again on 2nd time it perforated we tried to see the ENT gp, couldn't get an appt so the senior nurse practitioner saw us reviewed history of all his appts, the ENT appts and what we had tried at home then calmy said "his bronchial airways aren't opening properly at night and that's where your issue is" put him on a night time inhaler saw her again gave him a 2nd one to work along side after 2mths and he was on them for 1 year cleared him up and now he is 11.5 doesn't need an inhaler doesn't seem to pick up colds at all and when he got covid he lost his sense of taste for 3 days and that was it! Seriously she game changed his life for us.

Thank you for this - it’s always good to know what a bad version looks like/what help to ask for. I’m so happy that your son is fine now!

again thanks for everyone’s input. He’s woken up happy, no temp etc so will see what walk in says and update.

Likely his eardrum has burst, hence the blood and being pain free. He really needs to see someone, as the infection will still be there and will get worse.
Ear infections are serious. Also don't let him get water in his ear, can cause pain and also infection.

Burst ear drum. Doctor will want to check it's healed in 6 weeks. He might need antibiotics now. take him to docs

Afraid I have no advice but even as an NHS employee I echo your thoughts about 111. (I'd love to hear who that service has really helped!)

They helped me. I was lying on the bed feeling dizzy and faint, very low heart rate and blood pressure. DH rang 111. He was told they would ring our GP as they have a hotline whereby all calls from 111 are always answered.

She rang back shortly afterwards. No one was answering the GP’s ‘hotline’ so she was sending an ambulance. Upshot was heart diagnosed as not working correctly, pacemaker fitted the next day.

Three cheers for 111 from me and DH.

I’d absolutely let him sleep.

Slightly off topic but having read this I would say ask your pharmacy for paracetamol suppositories - we had this problem with calpol etc with young DS - suppositories were a complete game changer

Just to say to everyone who helped - but most especially the delightful poster who described it as “serious neglect” not to take my resting child with no fever and in no visible discomfort to a and e - he is fine!!!! Eardrum intact, everything great. Bit of inflammation but no infection. She suspects it’s a little inflamed from the virus and he’s probably had a bit of a scratch and made it bleed.

PHEW.

Oh that's fantastic news OP! Hope he feels better today

That’s a great tip, thank you. This thread has been full of v useful information - I feel quite confident now that if any of mine have an ear issue I will know what to do!

Interesting to hear you’ve had a similar experience! Some of the websites posters have posted here are much more helpful than anything 111 would say/much faster to access. I’m of the mind that it’s generally very obvious when a and e is required. What’s less obvious is the line between not getting seen/getting seen for things like bad coughs etc, and then the line between getting seen as soon as is reasonable/being fine to wait a day or two.

this thread was v helpful - I’m very pleased I went, otherwise I would have been worrying he had a perforated ear drum/his hair would not be it’s best after a few weeks no washing

So glad it's just a little bit sore and not a perforation! Hope he recovers quickly from the god awful cold, really is the worst one we've ever had

My stepdaughters one year old had a chest infection and temperature, rang 111, they sent an ambulance, she had three nights in hospital, oxygen and antibiotics, they were very helpful.