horrible chesty cough in 9 month old..when do you take to the doctor?

[missytequila]

my 9 month old has a horrible chesty cough. wheezing, lots of junk dripping down from nose...rattling...

she has just cut a tooth and another one is about too. she is eating fine and generally happy... but my mum keeps insisting that i should take her to the doctor because of the way her chest sounds..

i am not sure and hate to give antibiotics... is there anything else I can do besides steaming in the shower room?

should I go to the doctor? when is a baby cough serious?

How long has she had the cough?

How does her chest look? Are her ribs being drawn in when she's breathing (you'll know it when you see it I think),

Have a look at bronciolitis symptoms

Is she drinking normally?

I think you have to trust your instincts on this one, but getting it checked won't do any harm. Any signs of struggling to breathe or 'sucking in' as breathing get her seen straight away.

Re antibiotics, at this age it will most likely be treated as bronchiolitis so I doubt antibiotics would be given.

thanks for the symptoms link.

thing is she doesnt have those symptoms, just few.

no fever. eating and drinking fine. chest not sucking in...

its just that when she coughs, its sounds wheezy and full of junk that she cant seem to cough up.

she breathes fine, except just before a cough.
maybe will get checked out anyway. thing is I am in america at the moment and it will cost money.

Personally I think it would be worth the money to know that all is fine. The chest isn't something worth taking risks with, its probably nothing but better safe than sorry

You don't always get a fever with bronchilitis, in fact everytime my dd has had it, she's never had a fever...I would get her seen.

DS has never had a fever with it either. When he was on CPAP the nurses were amazed that when every other reading they were doing was haywire his temp remained constant!

took baby. they have given her a breathing machine type thing that mists medicine in via a face mask... am meant to do this for a few days to help with wheezing. also gave me script for some sort of allergy medicine to use as needed.

thanks for all your advice.