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Sick son - voilent, hysterical at nights

6 replies

gladis · 29/10/2010 14:41

Hello

My son is very unwell. He has:

  • had a temperature since Tuesday, which I bring down with Calpol and Nurofen but which pops up everytime
  • very congested, streaming nose, slightly infected ear (says doctor), sore tonsils (says doctor) but not coughing really
  • wakes repeatedly betewen 11pm and 6am, for up to 3 hours, screaming, hurling himself against me, against the wall, refuses to lie down at all, is hysterical, and so loud the whole house is awake, including step son two floors down. He will scream for up to an hour at a time.
I am giving him Calpol and Nurofen around tea time and then at around 10:30 at night, to try and get him through the night painlessly but often I need to give him even more Calpol around 3-4am. I hate giving him so much medicine. He's had an awful lot of Calpol and Nurofen since July (molar teething was bad) and I just hate having to administer it on such a regular basis.
  • I am unable to console him which is unusual
  • bites and chews as if teething, but his eye teeth are just through and only the last four molars are left and they are miles off by the looks of it.

This follows a two month period of an infection in the sinus passage leading away from the nose, which took 2 weeks to be picked up and was treated by antibiotics, a nasty coughing/congested cold that seemed to come to an end at the end of last week that left his struggling to breathe at nights but was nowhere near as bad as now, and also the four eye teeth came through which caused discomfort.

I have never come across such hysterical behaviour at night, along with a four day temperature. The doctor says 'viral cold, will pass, may take up to six weeks, use decongstants a lot'.

Anyone have any thoughts?

p.s. and yes, I am the poor sod whose daughter just had chicken pox, who is expecting son to come down with it next week, and whose husbands special birthday is this weekend!!!!

OP posts:
oricella · 29/10/2010 15:13

o heck - that sounds awful. When did you last see the doctor? If not today, I'd be tempted to take him back now, before the weekend

First thought is that ear infection got worse -that can be incredibly painful and account for him being hysteric. If it has been going on for 4 days it sounds like he might need more AB's

Also - do you give calpol and neurofen at the same time? Better to alternate... but really, if he has been having so many painkillers for 4 days, take him back

hope it all picks up soon

dikkertjedap · 29/10/2010 22:17

Would see doctor again. Also, with ear infection I would make a schedule of maximum amount of calpol and nurofen spread evenly over 24 hours, to keep even level of pain killers in bloodstream. (I set alarm to give dd painkillers during night in these situations, she has just had earinfection, very very painful!). Also use Sterimar nose spray, they don't like it but does loosen the snot which causes the ear infection. I also give her a cup of luke warm chamomile tea when she wakes up and then either read her a short story or let her listen to an audio CD and then she drifts off to sleep again, maybe something like that helps because it distracts and he may calm down quicker (not if he has earache though)?

oricella · 03/11/2010 20:34

Gladis - how is your DS? Hope all's well and not gone downhill...

gladis · 04/11/2010 13:52

Oricella - I look back and still cannot comprehend how bad it was. After four really bad nights, I resorted to giving him a dose of Medised at 10.30pm (as he was waking for these night time episodes at 11pm) and it helped a lot. I slept in the same room as him, at first you could hear the moaning of the pain (I assume the congestion in his head and passages) and struggled breathing at times, which gradually eased up until about 75mins later he was sleeping peacefully and happily, at which stage I nodded off.

I did this for four nights and last night he slept through from 7pm till 5am with nothing at all. Today he is the happiest and calmest I have seen him in many weeks.

I am assuming it was a combination of virus cold/congested passages/lots of plegm giving him breathing problems, combined with molar teething. And as he does have quite a temper at times, assume the lack of sleep was pushing him over the edge into 'hysterical'. The temperature only lasted another day after I emailed.

It was quite scary. Thank you for asking. Now just waiting to see if he caught chicken pox from his sister two weeks ago!!! But it seems that the cold has all but passed, I HOPE!! Now just four remaining molars to come through.

OP posts:
ColdComfortFarm · 04/11/2010 13:54

I am pretty sure he is having night terrors - a kind of dream in which the child appears awake but is really asleep. They are scary and can be triggered by high temperatures so good to keep him cool and his temperature down. Children with night terrors are very hard to wake - cold water and a bright room can help.

ColdComfortFarm · 04/11/2010 13:55

sorry, see he is better now. But i would still guess it was night terrors.

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