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Seriously worried about toddler

65 replies

Widget123 · 03/03/2019 03:43

My daughter is 2.5 years old. I posted on here a month ago saying she had an unexplained temperature... eventually after 2 GP visits a GP said her eardrum was red and prescribed amoxicillin, her ear cleared up and her temperature lowered slightly but remained around 37.5 within 3 days it’s went back up to 39+ and stayed there, at this point she started looking pale and was occasionally complaining of stomach pains. Needless to say I took her back to the GP who checked her urine (dipstick only) said that was clear, checked her over (ears, throat, tummy) evrything checked out except they recorded a high temp again, GP said next stage was to do a blood test so gave me a form. I went off and her temp went down again so I thought she was on the mend, a few days later it all starts up again, she woke up in the night crying her eyes out with a very high temp she looked so pale and by this point had lost a substantial amount of weight (mainly I assume due to the fact that she had barely eaten since all thisbstarted) so I drove her 45 minutes to the nearest hospital first thing to get her blood test, the GP didn’t tell me but apparently I needed to prebook this as it’s not straightforward with toddlers and their next appaoibtment was on 11th March. I pleaded with them at the children’s ward but they said no so in desperation I took her over to their a&e department. I asked for a blood test there and the paediatrician on call Just told reception no without even seeing her and put us on the GP out of ours list. He checked her over and said she sounded like she may have mild croup from the way she was breathing but otherwise was fine. I suggested anaemia, he said she would look even paler than this if she was anaemia, he suggested coeliacs but said it doesn’t quite fit and would need a blood test. He said although I’m saying she’s lost a lot of weight (which she seriously has, clothes I was about to take to the charity shop are now hanging off of her) she’s still within the range of her age. Since then she’s developed a slight night time cough over the past week, she just has bouts of coughing, several times now she’s coughed so hard she’s thrown up. In the day she’s all over the place one minute she’s got energy then she’s asking to go to bed. She still has a very high temperature especially at night. My other daughters had croup and this doesn’t have any of the telltale signs. Yesterday she woke up and had bloodshot eyes, I mean actually bloodshot with flecks of blood in them like some of the vessels had burst. The white of the eye was very red, again I called triage and visited the GP. I got a female GP this time who said she looked pale and suggested that her blood vessels in her eyes could possibly have burst from coughing but it was clearly concerning her, she wasn’t happy with her colouring or the fact that once again her temp was coming up at 38.8 in the office. She called the on call paediatrician and said my daughters colouring was off, her eyes were blood shot and she’d been to them several times in a one month period and each time she had a high fever, she said she wanted to see her blood test results so she could get an idea of what was going on. All the paediatrician could offer was to try and pull the blood test forward from the 11th March. So, it’s now 3:30am Saturday night and I’m in the spare bed with her now, as usual she’s woke up crying, saying her stomach hurts, coughing, high fever, blood red eyes and her weight... she’s barely eaten a thing today! (The GP said not to worry about the weight she will get it back on but how can I when she’s lost so much, they didn’t see her a month ago!). The last thing the GP said was if I haven’t heard from the hospital by next Wednesday to chase them... Wednesday?? So I’ve now got to carry on like this with her like this for another 4 days and even once the test is done we will have to wait for the results. I’ve never had to have a child’s blood test done before, I appreciate it’s harder than an adults and can see why no one wants to do it but to wait 3 weeks when she’s this unwell?? Surely GPs are only issuing these if they are absolutely necessary, god knows what can happen to a child in that time if it’s urgent. Her temp is 39.7 right now, she’s cuddled into me and she is SO poorly, from what I’ve read a temp this high could only be associated with her cough if it was a chest infection and everyone’s telling me her chest sounds fine, but she’s had all this before the cough anyway so it doesn’t add up. She’s spent most of today sleeping on the sofa. I’m getting so worried about her now and I feel like I’ve hit a brick wall, she’s not showing any signs of improving and doesn’t have much more weight to lose... if anyone’s reading this and has any ideas please help me.

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
NewYoiker · 09/03/2019 15:33

I'd take her back to a&e Is there a children's hospital near you? I'd go to a children's hospital that has an a&e department. Tell them about the temp and bright lights and not liking being touched. Sounds like a neurological thing

justasking111 · 09/03/2019 15:39

Can you please film these episodes and show them to anyone you have to see. Keep a diary times dates

AmIOTTconcerned · 09/03/2019 15:49

Your poor little girl and how stressful for you OP. I hope the blood tests come back asap and provide some light into what's causing this. Flowers

GoodStuffAnnie · 09/03/2019 16:00

I thought Kawasaki’s too. My ds had it. At the time we had a similar nightmare to you. FYI for us, and I think others, the symptoms didn’t all come at once, they come one after each other. The peeling hands and feet came at 6 weeks for eg.

Have you actually seen a paediatrician?

GoodStuffAnnie · 09/03/2019 16:01

Have you got a clear concise bullet point list of what is happening. And 2/3 videos.

GoodStuffAnnie · 09/03/2019 16:02

Spring is also the season for Kawasaki’s.

justanothernameonthewall · 09/03/2019 17:18

[I'm the DH, @justanothernameonthewall got me to read your story, and asked my opinion. ]
My day job is a Consultant Neonatologist (of more than a handful of years standing), I trained as a Paediatrician for 8yrs before sub-specialising. In the spirit of full disclosure, it has been a wee while since I cared for the toddler crew, so I'm not up to date with current paediatric best practice....on the other hand, some things don't change. 😃
I'm so sorry for what you've had to go through. This sounds horrible for you and your family. Here's a few thoughts, and if any of them are useful to you then 😎, this is not medical advice or opinion, I could never give you that because you are not my patient. It is fact

  1. Cephalexin should kill pretty much ALL germs of interest, so if this has been a bacterial infections, that will fix most all of them
  2. Urine dip being clear makes infection very unlikely
  3. A full blood count will show if the numbers and proportion of cells suggest a diagnosis with increases/decreases in various cell types giving good objective evidence, eg bacterial or viral infections, cancers, anaemia, inflammation, parasites etc ....
  4. A blood film looks at the appearance of the specific blood cells. Certain appearances give further important clues to the diagnoses in (3)
  5. Good that you've had a blood test, and there would often be a system in place where any "worrying" results were flagged and reported to the ordering clinician as a matter of urgency. The results are always available in less than a day (less than a few hours in hospital) so you most probably have been informed of any concerning findings. It is always best to check though, because any system can fail. If it was an FBC your wee one had then the results should be available now if you call the GP.
  6. A "Monospot" test (blood)is for Epstein Barr Virus (kissing disease 😘) - not very serious long term, but will lay you low for a while, usually as a teenager, but can present in younger age groups.
  7. Night time cough is a common symptom of increased airway reactivity which can be caused by viral infections(but also a feature in other conditions), particularly if there is a family history of asthma. Persistence after resolution after other symptoms is not uncommon, but if causing disruption to sleep of concern a chest x-ray +/- trial of inhalers may be appropriate
  8. Kawasaki is a valid consideration.
  9. Weight loss is always concerning in children, and must be monitored, but is not indicative of any specific diagnosis.
  10. There is a slightly tongue in cheek paediatric axiom that "Getting over a bad cold takes about a couple of weeks, most kids get 2 colds a month in winter"
  11. There is another paediatric axiom that the mother is (almost) always right when she is worried about her kid.

So anyway, if any of that helps you, then cool, and if you do hit a wall and or struggle, then I guess that's what this place is here for.
🤗

SleepWarrior · 09/03/2019 18:25

If you need to take her to hospital again then do as a pp said, go to a children's hospital that has an a&e, NOT a regular hospital that had a children's a&e.

There is a big difference - a children's HOSPITAL will have a full range of paediatric specialists on site. A regular hospital, even with a children's a&e, will just have a general paediatric department within the hospital.

Stayawayfromitsmouth · 09/03/2019 20:18

I'm so sorry this hasn't yet been looked at let alone resolved. I'd be fuming at your Gp they appear incompetent.
I would seriously go private right now and push for tests.
Take pictures and videos.
My own son has a benign hernia. I was fobbed off that it was just the point of his sternum, because of course it disappeared at the Gp appointments. I took a photo and was referred to specialist for the next week.
Flowers

Nogodsnomasters · 11/03/2019 20:20

Did you get the blood results op, are you any closer to an answer for your children?

CottonSock · 11/03/2019 20:30

My dd had similar symptoms to this, and my dh. Gp diagnosed glandular fever, although did by symptoms rather than a test.
I hope your results are back.

Widget123 · 16/03/2019 08:34

Just an update, I took my little girl back to a&e again 2 days before her week on the antiobiotic cephalexin as her temp was 40 and she was in a hell of a state.
I got an amazing paediatrician who I literally handed her to and ordered him to fix. He did a thorough check on her and chased her blood results and got them back on the spot, everything checked out fine except bloods showed a bad infection. No surprise there.
He said wow when he looked at her throat and said yes she’s got severe tonsillitis but the cephalexin isn’t a good choice so he put her on penicillin and gave us a spray to numb her throat. Fast forward 5 days and I have my little girl back!!!

It’s been about 6 weeks of hell of what the paediatrician said would have been back to back viral and bacterial illnesses, so just a run of very bad luck.

She is now eating again, happy and I think a different toddler to the one I had 6 weeks ago she’s grown up during all this and is totally wild! 🤪

Thank you all for your support and hopefully this post helps anyone else going through a bad run at the moment.. x

OP posts:
Widget123 · 16/03/2019 08:35

Ps. That was meant to say ‘2 days before her week on cephalexin was due to end’

OP posts:
user1498572889 · 16/03/2019 08:49

I am so glad she is better. I have been following this post and was wondering how your LO was. It’s awful when they are unwell for so long and you feel that on one is listening to your concerns.

Nogodsnomasters · 16/03/2019 09:02

Op thanks for the update, so glad to hear your daughter is on the mend and I really hope this is the end of all this for you all. Hope your older dc has recovered too!

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