Urgent advice please.

[Jakeyblueblue]

Ds is 18 months. On Tuesday am he had a temp out of the blue, no other real symptoms. This persisted throughout weds so I took him to the gp and he said his ears and throat were quite pink so most likely a virus. Thurs the temp went and he appeared a bit better. More himself and eating more. He now seem to have now developed a stuffy nose and when I say stuffy, I mean stuffy. It's not blocked but sounds like air isn't getting in, if you know what I mean. He's got a minor runny nose and a matching cough. Been quite tired today as had a bad night last night but has eaten and played as normal, maybe a little on the quiet side.
I've come to bed ( we co sleep) and I can't help noticing his breathing a quite fast. I've counted and when he was in his side it was 45 breaths per minute. He's now turned on his back and it's slowed down a bit to 35. He's done this twice now and both times on his side it got faster.
I've been googling and it says babies with resps over 40 should see a dr. Do you think I need to call the out of hours dr or do you think it can wait til the morning. Do you think it's because his nose is blocked and he can't get enough air in or do you think it's something I need to worry about. Just asked dh and he said ' I don't know, you're the nurse' ( I'm a Macmillan nurse so know nothing about kids! ) so he's no help.
Lying here listening to him breathe, don't know what to do!

Call out of hours if you're worried. There's no point being up all night worrying if it can be sorted and I think the general view is it's never a waste of time if it's a baby or child.

You know in yourself what he's usually like, especially if you co sleep with him.

Hope your DS feels better soon x

This thread www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/1638077-Rapid-breathing-in-a-four-year-old-Anyone-had-this-before-please-Sorry-possible-wrong-place

And this one www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/1613438-Docs-or-not-for-crunchy-breathing-in-DD might help.

Is he grunting on the outward breath?
I'd call out if hours if you are worried.

Sorry, meant to say - nhs direct, OOH / A&E if worsens etc - just wanted to point you in the direction of those threads before I forgot! It comes up a lot this time of year unfortunately :( it's not something to hang about with - close monitoring is needed either way. Hopefully those threads will help anyway.

have you tried karvol ?

• Either way = if you stay at home and monitor or go to get checked out :)

He's not grunting or wheezy. And it Is much slower when he's on his back. I wouldn't say he was struggling but he's certainly more wriggly, like he can't settle. He hasn't been breathing like this during the day, I did notice he was breathing quite quickly last night, gave him calpol and it slowed down so didn't think anymore of it.
I think I will call nhs direct. They will send me to some ridiculous out of hours place in the arse hole end of nowhere but it's better to be safe than sorry.
Thanks for all your support and links!

It's the quality of breathing - if he has his chest, base of neck (just below where the adams apple would be) stomach / diaphragm doing the work and having exaggerated movements (i.e. laboured breathing) that is a concern too - are you able to check that? NHS direct will give you a lot of questions that helps to rule things out which can be helpful. (If there is a rash etc). Can you check his pulse rate too? I'm not sure what relevance it has but might be useful to tell them if you think it is slower/faster than it should be.

His little chest is going up and down quite heavily. I've propped him up and given him some ibuprofen to see if this helps. If no improvement in 20 mins, I will call.
Dh sleeps in another room because of his snoring and I've just gone into him and told him that google days resps over 40 aren't good and what did he think we ought to do and he sighed and said 'I've no idea' in the most disinterested tone ever. Clearly rather be asleep and thinks I'm being daft.

How is he op

Morning.
His breathing settled after I gave him the medicine and propped him up so I didn't call but I'm still not happy about it so im going to take him to the walk in centre when he wakes up. Thanks for your help

My newborn had grunting and laboured breathing one day and it turned out to be pneumonia. I'd never really have guessed and the drs weren't sure but my instincts made me demand an X-ray and low and behold.
Hope he's ok.

Well I took him to the walk in centre first thing and they were so packed they couldn't see anymore people.. I have to say I was quite relieved as the amount of coughing and spluttering in the waiting room was awful! He'd have probably ended up with more than he'd gone with! Took him home and he was actually better than he's been all week this am. Bright and cheerful, ate all his breakfast, running and playing. Thought I'd book him in with own gp tmrw as a precaution. Put him down for nap at 1pm and woke at 2 with a 39* temp! He hasnt had a temp dince this all started last week! So took him back to the walk in centre, this time only one person waiting was seen straight away. Dr examined him
And couldn't really find anything. He wouldn't let him look in his throat and his temp was still up. Chest clear and O2 levels perfect. Dr said probably upper respiratory tract infection and gave antibiotics. I told him about the resps in the night and he said that kids can get fast resps on response to a temp and it may have been that and that's why it settled when I gave the ibuprofen. Although I wasn't aware he was hot in the night. He asked some other questions and seeing as there's a family history of asthma and he does sometimes cough in the night, even when well, he also gave him a salbutamol inhaler and spacer and says to try it if happens again tonight.
Not sure what to make if it as I know asthma is very over diagnosed. He has no wheeze and is never out of breath after running etc. think I will see how he goes with the antibiotics, If it all clears up then its prob infection related. If not, then will take him back to own gp and discuss the whole asthma thing.
So far tonight, with two antobiotic doses down him, his breathing is fine. So fingers crossed. Thanks for all your help.

Do try Karvol, it's extremely good & no harm in trying it. Hope he's soon better.

It doesn't need to be asthma for ventolin to be effective. Some people (especially children) are prone to asthma type problems when they are poorly.

My DS does have asthma but when it is bad doesn't always wheeze!

I came on to say that children sometimes breath faster when they have a high temp, but I see the dr already said this. I've certainly noticed this to be the case with dd1. Hope your son feels better soon.

My dd has a similar virus (were on day 2) and her breathing is fast when she's asleep, we started with the very high temp yesterday and now the snotty nose.

Just wanted to say what Marne said, my DS (2 yo) just had a v similar virus and had rapid breathing at night for a few days. All fine once the temperature came down. Hope your LO feels better very soon.

Thanks guys, he slept really well last night. No fast breathing and temp stayed down so I think the antibiotics are working.