Whooping Cough?

[TheMacs2020]

Hi All, new joiner here ;)

Our little boy just turned one this weekend, and the weekend before had been to another baby's 1st birthday, first party he'd been too because of covid.

Anyway, a couple of days later he came down with diarrhea which is just beginning to clear up, and also what initially looked like a cold.

On Friday he started coughing and on his in breath making a whooping noise which we didn't think much about at the time because his cough wasn't bad, just a few seconds of coughing every now and then, certainly not a coughing fit. Also happened on the Saturday but Sunday onwards just a bog standard cough.

Anyway, worried now that we should've paid more attention to it and it could be whooping cough.

Trying to contact his doctor this morning which has so far been impossible, but in the meantime just wondered if anyone had experienced similar?

Hi @TheMacs2020

Did you manage to speak to a doctor? How is your son now?

My boy had whooping cough from 3 weeks old and was diagnosed at 5 weeks old. This was back in 2012 which was the year the numbers increased and they introduced whooping cough booster jab for pregnant women just as he was in hospital with it. Did you receive the whooping cough jab during pregnancy and has he had his usual immunisation programme jabs over the last year?

A whooping cough fit is very distinctive. You cough and cough and cough then gasp for air which makes the ‘whoop’ing noise.
You are usually fine between coughing fits. Although it does start off with cold symptoms. It can last a really long time - my son had it for three months. Hope you get to speak to your GP.

Unfortunately unless diagnosed and antibiotics prescribed within 7 days they are ineffective and the virus just has to run its course which is approximately 90 days. It is awful as an adult so I have the utmost for any child who gets it.

If you can't get hold of your gp ring the out of hours service and explain the whooping sound. It can kill in young children so don't let them fob you off with the "it's probably just a virus" bollocks. As an adult in my 20's I coughed a small hole in the outer lining of my lung and in my 30's I cracked a rib due to the coughing from whopping cough.

Yes, but even if taken after that period the antibiotics course means the person can’t then pass it on to someone else. So is still worth taking. DS was given the antibiotics and oxygen and was on the verge of being tube fed but wasn’t necessary in the end.

Thanks for replies, he's actually fine now, just the remnants of a cold.

The doctor wasn't particularly concerned from the info we gave, he was more concerned about the diarrhea which has cleared up, we were just worried that a few coughing episodes had that particular noise but the cough otherwise was not bad at all, it's pretty much completely gone now. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) due to Covid he's not been ill much at all since birth so we're belatedly now getting used to his ways when he is under the weather.

Thanks for looking 😀