Baby in hospital on holiday, hand hold needed

[glassofbrancott]

Background - DS was born at full term, he didn’t cry/cough/take a deep breath when he was born and SATS were quite low so he was taken to resus table (never resuscitated) for some oxygen for 45 mins then we were discharged as normal the following day. Milk intolerance like DD who is 3 and grew out of it by 15 months.

I had the RSV jab in pregnancy, it hadn’t been rolled out when pregnant with DD. DD has had RSV/bronchiolitis twice in 3 years, hospitalised once.

DS who is 9 months has been hospitalised 4 out of the 6 times he’s had it. Sometimes for a few days of oxygen/nebulisers and observations.

We’ve been in Majorca since last week, 2 days ago, DD & DS started with snotty nose, little coughs, DD complaining of feeling achy, been giving calpol and nurofen when needed.

Last night, DS started the pattern that usually ends up with him in hosp. Awake every hour, coughing so much he vomits any milk, water or food he’s had. By this afternoon, he hadn’t even managed to keep down 20% of his usual intake of fluids. Seen by on call hotel dr who did full exam, COVID and influenza swabs which were negative. DS sucking in at ribs so he said he wanted to call an ambulance. DH gone with DS, I just stood in reception crying as I watched them leave. I hate this.

DD asleep and I’m sat on the balcony sick with worry, he’s had steroids in a syringe and rectal paracetamol for his temp, also inhaler and he’s now started grunting too.

I’ve asked so many times to be seen at home by the Paediatric Respiratory Team but they refuse saying he just catches it off DD from nursery (DD comes home with a snotty nose and mild cough she gets over in a couple of days). The GP finally gave me an inhaler for him a few weeks ago but couldn’t test for or diagnose asthma until 3 years old.

What do I do now? I am so worried that something bigger is underlying and it’s being missed. He’s never had any blood tests during these hosp stays just swabs and treatment such as oxygen/nebulisers/antibiotics when it turned into lower respiratory infections.

We are supposed to be flying home Wednesday. I feel so
sorry for him, even today as he was pulling in at the ribs he was smiling and clapping at the dr examining him.

Anyone ever attended Porto Cristo hospital?

Really struggling with anxiety.

Posting in AIBU for traffic.

Dd has the exact same start in life @glassofbrancott although no hospital admission abroad.

I knew in my heart she was asthmatic, she has always had silent asthma as do I so I knew it when I saw it. She was diagnosed officially at 2, keep pushing for the referral. Don't let your GP fob you off. Tell them they are failing in their duty of care, that if the refuse a referral you will report it as a safeguarding concern.

Sending love & hugs but be prepared for one of you to remain with him in Spain for a few days because I cannot see any airline allowing him to fly when his breathing is that brittle.

💐 hopefully hes on the mend soon....
Your intuition sounds good and I would also suspect something underlying.

This won't help you now...But once back in the uk get your gp to give you an open referal - do some research and find a great private pediatrician.
Once you get to the bottom you can switch back to nhs...

It isnt cheap but it isnt as much as you think.
Might be as little as £200-400, max £1k should get you answers.
For me it would be worth it and i'd rather skip a holiday abroad and know i did what I could to get to the bottom of it.

If it’s any comfort, Spanish healthcare -
especially for children - is very good. Fingers crossed for a speedy recovery for your little one.

This sounds very stressful, I hope he recovers quickly and you are all reunited soon.

My son had repeat infections, inc chest infections as a baby/young toddler, he sounded similar to your son in that he seemed to get quite poorly very quickly (with very high temps, off food, lost weight and dropped centiles due to not eating enough when he was poorly, persistent coughs in-between illnesses, etc).

He was referred to general pediatrics due to this, who did a chest x-ray, and various tests, including bloods for iron, and immune system ones. His iron was very low and they established he also needed the pneumococcal vaccine repeated.

The x-ray showed a bit of shadowing on his lungs, likely to be from the infections. He also had a persistent night time cough, which also got worse when he was running or if it was cold and he was given the blue inhaler initially, and later also needed the brown inhaler for a year or two. He no longer needs that now he's 4 and a half, as some children so grow out of the wheezing/cough symptoms/
(The pediatrician called it pre-school asthma).

When you are home I would go back to your GP and ask them to do blood tests, and also see if they would consider referring to pediatrics again.

Hope he gets better quickly.

So sorry OP. Only silver lining I can see if potentially Spanish healthcare has their shit together better than us and actually gets to the bottom of it?!

Will be thinking of your ds

Wishing him a speedy recovery OP, it sounds awful but I am sure the hospital will be fine.

My son was in NICU for oxygen when he was born and I remember having to take him to the hospital a few times when he was a baby for respiratory related illnesses. A normal cold always seemed to go on his chest and he ended up having the brown and blue inhalers. Winters were AWFUL.

He is 7 now and he is fine, he gets the odd cold but it is nothing like when he was a baby/toddler. It is awful , but most do seem to grow out of it as they get older. He no longer has/or needs the inhalers.

Big hugs and hope you’re all home soon.

My boy was hospitalised for pneumonia at 2 weeks old and had a lingering cough for several months after. As the cough never cleared, we were offered the following tests by the nhs:

• sweat test for cystic fibrosis (not all types are tested on skin prick)
• blood tests for autoimmune issues
• chest xray for any abnormalities
• ecg for heart conditions
• urine sample (think this was standard rather than specific for his symptoms)

All came back normal - bugs just seem to hit him harder. Perhaps some of these you could ask your gp about and fingers crossed nothing more serious going on x

I would say that he's in a far, far better place in a Mallorcan hospital than in the UK. Son Espases in Palma is the best, but any hospital there is a very safe place to be.

A friends DC was born in Mallorca and had health problems and the care was far in excess of anything in the UK. They take no risks and are shit hot on anything paediatric (adult care too, but...).

I don't know about how you go about obtaining that level of care in the UK though. Maybe a private referral?

This sounds exactly like my 2 children.it always followed the same pattern. Runny nose for a few days, then coughing, then sucking in at the ribs and throat. They were eventually diagnosed with asthma and have inhalers and are doing much better.

Hand hold. Step-GGD had similar problems and in and out of hospital. Has grown much stronger and came 7th in race (primary school sports day - last year this would have been almost impossible) this week. Long ago DD in hospital with bronchiolitis but grew out of the chestiness too. It will be okay.

Hi 👋
my ds was in that exact hospital at 18 months old. They were so thorough. In the end we self discharged and caught our flight as we felt he had stabilised enough to travel (gastro bug, dehydrated etc), it was a horrendously stressful time and I really feel for you. He was on a drip and everything. We got off our flight and went to a&e, all was fine in the end. He’s almost 14 now. Hope all goes well xx

I have always had great paediatric care in Spanish hospitals. I think everything will be ok. But you do need to push for more tests at home.

Hand hold

This won’t help you now but when you get back home, please speak to your gp and insist on an asthma review. It is absolutely not the case that they have to wait until he is 3. My boy had a similar start to yours and gets a very bad viral wheeze, almost every time he picks up a bug. He is on brown inhalers twice a day, has a blue inhaler and when it gets really bad he also need oral steroids (Predisnolone) and antibiotics. We know the signs now and as soon as he starts getting a snotty nose we start him on the brown inhaler. There is also a powder caked Montelukast that he takes every night during the winter months to help prevent a full on outbreak. They do grow out of it as they get older but in the meantime, this combination of meds helps massively to prevent hospitalisation.

I hope he gets better soon. Feel free to message me if you need any more info xx

I've worked as a HCP in the NHS for over 30 years and given the choice I'd absolutely choose the Spanish health care system over ours.
Have you got decent travel insurance OP? If so that should cover your extended stay and flights home as well as medical costs.

My son had very similar bouts of viral induced wheeze as a baby/toddler where he would cough for hours and end up gasping for breath. Many many trips to hospital for the nebuliser! Every cold seemed to massively affect him and we were given a blue inhaler to use regularly and also more frequently when he started to wheeze. It definitely helped but he was still very prone to coughs and had lots of episodes of croup that always needed treating with steroids before it would shift. We were seen by an asthma nurse when he was 2 or 3 but they said he was too old for a formal diagnosis - lo and behold about a year later he grew out of it completely and has not had an episode in over 3 years! He has had the odd cough and cold but they don’t affect his chest at all anymore and he doesn’t need an inhaler.

Hi @glassofbrancott
DS had bronchiolotis at about four months and had a persistent wheeze that got worse with a cold. He had the spacer with preventer and reliever inhalers (pulmicort and salbutomol I recall). Then he was given a nebuliser for ventolin in bad phases. He also had a cpl of doses of oral steroids. Every time he had a hospital apt, we saw someone different and we had him referred privately to the Royal Brompton.Best money we ever spent. A session with their asthma nurse was the turning point. For £25 we bought a turbohaler, a third of the size of the spacer and much easier to handle but not available on the NHS. That nurse also pointed out that counting to 10 wasn't good enough if the baby held their breath and that whilst 10 breaths was best, they got most of the dose in the first couple of breaths but they had to breathe. With the turbohaler and better advice he turned the corner and never needed the nebuloliser again. By 15mo we just started the preventer at the firsr sign of a sniffle. By 7, it was a memory.

He ended up playing front row, 6ft, very.

This too shall pass and soon you will be home. However, I'd recommend a private referral to a specialist.

My DD ended up in hospital at least once a year with bronchitis type viruses until she was about 4yo.

Thankfully, she (hopefully) appears to have grown out of it but I remember worrying that she might have cystic fibrosis. All sorts used to go through my head, I think it’s normal as a parent that wants to help their child.

I don’t know if they will asthma test as young as three, she had to wait until 6 and struggled with the test event then.

I hope your LO is okay, I’m sorry you’re all going through this 💐

Big hug.

it sounds very like my now 7 year old son. Over the years things have got better but I remember between the age of 1 and 2 was the worst - every cold would result in a chest infection, low oxygen and nebuliser if we were lucky or overnight stay on oxygen if not. He had 12 rounds of antibiotics over the course of that year for chest infections (basically every time he got ill!)

Like you we were prescribed an inhaler but told they can’t diagnose asthma that young - which didn’t really help all that much until we were put on an inhaler protocol - which says that as soon as they get a cough or cold you start giving them the blue inhaler - 2 puffs every 4 hours without fail and more if the cough gets worse. It really helped his body give it the bit of help it needed to start fighting off these colds on its own. He still suffered with them a lot more than his brother ever did but still better than hospital trips and antibiotics. He also got a brown inhaler for when things were bad. As time has gone on he has started to need this less and less - since the end of reception year I’ve noticed he barely needs an inhaler at all. I don’t have to use the inhaler protocol anymore for every cold but when he’s got a really bad one we revert to it still. Maybe ask the doctor about that the next time you’re in the hospital? May not work for you guys of course so just a suggestion.

In the meantime I hope your little one gets better soon. Sending him well wishes and positive thoughts.

Big handheld and sending lots of positive thoughts your way.

This was my experience too - except I saw an excellent asthma nurse at our gp after pushing, really advocating for my DD and not taking no for an answer basically. She explained why steroids help so much as their lungs are still developing until after age 5. We eventually got a combi(white/lilac) inhaler which was life changing. After multiple admissions up to age 3, her wheeze was then controlled and she has grown out of needing it just last winter aged 8. Totally understand the anxiety OP, hugs 🫂

Hi there OP I'm so sorry to hear about your son. My son is 18 months and we've been to hell and back with bronch, difficulty breathing each time he has a cold, nebulisers etc. Because he's had so many admissions we are under the respiratory team and he has he orange inhaler as the brown one wasn't enough to stop him being very dangerously ill. He is in the right place. We also have an older toddler and yes they do get ill from sibling but that doesn't mean there isn't underlying asthma/ viral wheeze etc. I know how anxiety provoking it is but you will all get through this. When you are back go and see your GP and push for a referral and or make sure they note this admission on his record. Sending lots of love and hand holds xxx

Hope your son is on the mend xx

I second other posters that have said if you can get him an echo (an ultrasound,) and an ecg for his heart, that will rule out any heart defects as sn underlying cause. Don't let that scare you, it's not as awful as it sounds!
Maybe take advantage of insurance to get it done in Spain.

So sorry OP! I’m sure you know that CMPA (milk intolerance) has put him at significantly higher asthma risk. My child was diagnosed with asthma around 2 because of repeated croup and nasty colds always going on his chest. I also have it, do you or your partner?

I had the RSV jab in pregnancy and my youngest is rarely unwell, just Incase you’re wondering if there may be a link there.

please dont blame yourself but I’d push hard when you’re back for an asthma assessment and more allergy testing. If your son has eczema (mine did too) he’s even more likely to have asthma.

The biggest tightest hug for you xx Im so sorry for everyone in this. 😞