whooping cough...any experience?

[fairyfriend]

2 year old DD has had all the usual vaccines, including whooping cough. Is it possible for her to have it anyway?
She has a pretty nasty persistent cough which has now started coming in 'fits'. The last coughing fit lasted for a couple of minutes and made her vomit. I've been on a couple of whooping cough websites and the sound is similar; although it's not a very distinctive 'whoop', there is definitely a noise at the end of it.
She has no temp, just a runny nose.
Any ideas?

Shamelessly bumping!

Yes, vaccination gives 90 per cent protection, so 1 in 10 vaccinated children might get it. This year there is a lot of whooping cough (comes in waves). It is nasty and some GPs are reluctant to diagnose it (it is a notifiable disease, so they have to notify the Health Protection Agency).
Vaccinated children often don't have the characteristic whooping sound.
It is a horrible disease, and unfortunately there is a large chance that you and your husband will also get it. It is highly contagious and the protection from the vaccination wears off over time, so much so that they now recommend all teenagers to get a booster (TDap).

This website may be of interest

I am fairly sure that my innoculated son, then 14, had WC last summer. A consultant paedaetrician friend told me he thinks there is a lot around in immunised children, either because their immunity has worn out or because the strain has changed. My son went on coughing for eight weeks but the GPs we saw assured us it was not WC.

Don't want to scare you, but my own DD had something that sounds similar when she was 5 - Does she sound something like a seal when she coughs ???

Mine did & it wasn't hooping cough - thankfully a medic friend was around & pointed me in the right direction not to take it lightly (GPs insisted it was nothing more than a virus - In my DDs case it turned out to be caused by Pneumonia, so if you feel worried, trust your instincts & get her seen by a paediatric A&E nurse/doctor

good luck

Thanks for your response, dikkert. Interesting that there's a lot of it about this year, I didn't know that.
The website you linked to is the one I looked at earlier, my DD sounds a bit like the 6 year old girl without the whoop. There is a little noise, but it's not as distinctive as the others.
I've given her calpol as she was complaining of a sore throat, and she's perked up a lot at the moment. Some coughing still but not as bad as earlier.
If she vomits with the cough again I will call OOH doctor.

Ooh, a couple of x-posts. Rockinhippy, I don't think it's pneumonia, as she has so few other symptoms, but I will keep an eye, so thanks for the heads-up. Hope your DD is OK now.

Abra, did your DS get better on his own?

Pneumonia is a potential complication of whooping cough, so it is very important to remain vigilant.

Children with pneumonia tend to have a very bad cough and high fever or they take 40 or more breaths per minute even whilst sleeping (for accuracy you have to count the number of breaths during a full minute - this is for five years and older, I think for up to 2 years the cut off point is 50 breaths, would be good if there is a nurse/doctor around on Mumsnet to check these figures).

It is hard for doctors to diagnose pneumonia by just listening to the chest, X-ray is the preferred method for many paediatricians, but of course you don't want to expose your child to unnecessary X-rays either.

Keep a close eye and if unsure contact your A&E department if you suspect pneumonia rather than the GP (unless you have a very good GP).

Good luck, hope she gets better soon!

I've just had it!
I had a cold and cough just after Christmas, as it still hadn't gone properly by March and I was due to visit my DB and his newborn DD, DH insisted I went to the Dr - she sent me for blood tests. When the results came back I had a level of 18 - a 20 is apparantly an active infection (I'm in France so it may be different measurements in the UK) she concluded I'd had it and fought it off myself.

My Mum assures me I was vaccinated as a child, and the GP confirmed it can sometimes "wear off".
I never "whooped" it was just a regular annoying cough, sometimes I struggled to speak or catch my breath.
I'd get your DD tested for your own peace of mind. I hope she's OK.

Apparently the vaccine is not as effective as originally thought and protection can wear off quite quickly. I would ask the doctor to take a swab. As an earlier poster said, it is a notifiable disease.

Thanks :)- DD is now 9, so thankfully she recovered well :) though it was touch & go & left her with problems for a long while as a result of it being missed for so long :( - thanks to NHS helpline giving me the following info on how to spot breathing difficulty in small DCs & I trusted my instincts & fought her corner & ignored the 5 GPs & A&E nurse who said there was nothing wrong with her - the first Paediatric trained nurse who saw her, took one look from the other side of the room & sent her for an emergency chest Xray & organised an IC bed for her - but that was years ago now, these days she just keeps us on our toes by being kamikazee kid

Keep an eye out for "drag" on breathing, this is where the skin pulls in when she breathes - look at her clavicle & worse still - inbetween her rib bones - if this sucks in when she breathes in then she is in trouble & needs emergency treatment - knowing this info saved DDs life,

Also the fantastic Paediatric Nurse who spotted the emergency told me that our taking her out into the icy cold November air to get her to A&E had helped her breathing & why she could still talk. laugh etc, so was fooling the none Paediatric staff - He told us that against popular belief the best thing to do for breathing difficulty, was icy cold air - so hold her to breath in freezer air is a good thing to do

HTH & hope shes properly better real soon

Fairyfriend, yes, after seven weeks the cough went. He was ill for about a week but not really desperately ill (he had pneumonia as a baby, and also has asthma, so we are used to coughs, though).