broncolitis -when does it start to get better

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Ds2 - 5 weeks- has been ill for 10 days now on tues we were admitted to hospital with broncolitis -after 2 days he was released on thus.On release his sats were normal and he was feeding (though obviuosly not a huge amount but enough for his body weight). Three days later the hacking cough is as bad as ever, DS2 seems exhausted and so are we - we're feeding at least every 3hrs and getting the min fluid req. in but not a huge amount more. Just now it has taken me nearly 1hr to get about 45ml in -he sucks but not much goes in. According to the discharge sheet from the hospital he is meeting the min req not to go back but we are all knackerd and i'm getting increasingly stressed/tearful/ratty as i'm so tired - feel trapped in the house and poor poor ds2 seems exhausted. Please tell me when it might start to get better?- Sorry about typing dS2 in arms.

Oh the poor thing. You too. It does take some time to get over - is hw still very mucousy? You could try feeding him with a syringe - sucking is quite hard work for them.

thanks - might try the syringe again - yep he's absoloutley full of mucous and is sometimes sick when feeding because of it- i tried a syringe yesterday but most of it sat in his mouth and was spat - but i'll try again at the next feed. it dosen't help that i'm not that good at the newborn stage - and need to get out, i mean as in baby groups out - otherwise i start to sink and at the mo i can feel myself sinking in a heap of tiredness/stress and worry. still have ds2 in arms so sorry for the appaling typing!!!

Can anyone come and watch him for you while you go out and cheer yourself up? I don't need to tell you that baby groups are out of the question, so you really need to find some way of going out on your own.

Put the syringe against the inside of his cheek quite far back.

And agree about getting out for a while if you can.

Aaah - good tip about the syringe and putting it in his cheek.

The symptoms are normally at there worst from around day 3 - 5 of having it and then in most cases the symptoms start to improve, often pretty quickly. The cough can linger for quite a while though - when DS had it in January he was still coughing by the start of march.

I agree with the suggestion of getting someone else to watch him for a bit, even if you just got for a soak in the bath or something. It is tiring and you need to look after yourself so you can look after him (if that makes sense!)

I would head back to the GP tomorrow to be on the safe side....normally after 10 days there should be a little more improvement than this. It takes a good 10-14 days to be 100% again but he is tiny so I would get him checked..

Its awful I know, my dd's had it 3 times and you have my sympathy...

Just to say thanks to you all - DS2 seems to have at last turned a corner and though still has a hacking cough is now demanding milk (even though he can only manage relatively small amounts) and is generally much more his old self. Had our 6 week check today so the GP saw the cough but commented that he was well considering he is recovering from broncolitis. Am feeling much better in myself too - we had a lot of probs having DS2 so the stress of of being in hospital last week really got to me (together with the total knackardness!!).