19 month old not sleeping or eating

[wingingmumlife]

DD (19 months) developed a cold/cough last Wednesday and since then it has turned into the worst chesty cough I have ever heard. She's hardly ate in days.

For reference, yesterday she had an orange all day despite me offering her regular meals and today so far, she has had half an orange. She is still drinking fluids but not a lot. She looks absolutely exhausted in her face and is barely sleeping at night. My heart is breaking for her and I'm at my whits end too with the constant crying and lack of sleep, we're both exhausted.

She is normally a massive eater and a brilliant sleeper so this is completely out of the ordinary for her. I know something is wrong but I just can't pin point what it could be. I'm unsure as to when/if I should make a phone call to the GP?

She has no temp. She did have a temp of 38 on Friday evening but since then all has been ok temperature wise.

I've had a look to see if she might be teething but can't see anything that might be coming through so unsure if it is that or not. Calpol/nurofen does not seem to help at all really.

If anyone could give me some advise on what it could possibly be and if I should ring the GP, that would be great.

TIA

Call the GP today

And insist that she is seen in person today

You should definitely have her seen by the GP today.

Does her cough sound like a seal?

I would ring GP to get seen today

Thanks all. I have rang them, they have placed her on a triage list, just waiting for a call back from the GP.

@RainyDayzs no it doesn't, but she has had the hoarse voice from time to time

The GP has rang back, they are seeing her at 14.30 today. Hopefully we will get some answers. I'm really worried about her...

Great, dont be fobbed off. If she isnt drinking much she is at risk for dehydration. She needs her ears checked for ear infections, throat looked at for tonsillitis and chest listened to for pneumonia sounds at an absolute minimum.

How did her app go?

GP was brilliant and did all of what you said @SeaToSki

She seems to think it's her chest that is bothering her and all the coughing has possibly given her a sore throat.

She has prescribed some antibiotics for DD. (Amoxicillin) so I can only hope that it's onwards and upwards from here.

Since coming home DD has ate a few chips, half a banana and a couple of segments of orange and I couldn't be any happier tbh.

Thank you all for your advice, I'm really glad I got her checked out today.

Pleased you have some meds for her and she's managed some food.
Hope she starts to feel better soon!

Great work OP. Push the fluids, ice lollies can be a good option

How is she doing today? Have the antibs kicked in yet?

I feel like I have a brand new child today!

The difference in her is amazing. So, I'm guessing that means the ab's have kicked in, although they have given her diarrhoea which has given her nappy rash

She's still not 100% but she is 10x better and the chesty cough is slowly fading. She ate 1/2 of her breakfast & lunch today but no dinner so overall I'm happy as it's progress and shes definitely on the mend.

I've been really trying to push the fluids & nipped to the shop for some ice lollies this morning @SeaToSki and they went down a treat! She has a lot of catching up to do when it comes to food/drink but the colour in her skin has come back and she doesn't look as washed out.

Thank you for asking

Yay. So glad.

So pleased your little on is doing so much better amazing how quick they can bounce back . If you haven't already got any would recommend some bepanthum for her nappy rash we call it magic cream!!!

We seem to have gone backwards today.

It's nearly 2pm and she refuses to have any sort of fluids whatsoever, even goes as far as her having a complete meltdown when I try to offer her a drink. I've dried offering her water, juice, milk. She won't have any of it. I've tried every form of beaker/glass and she point blank refuses.

She seems well in herself other than that and the chesty cough has improved.

Her diarrhoea is getting worse, though.

She ate 3/4 of breakfast this morning but thats it, she's not eating anything else I try to offer her. Should I ring the GP again or see how she gets on?

I would ring.

2 minutes after I wrote that and she had a few sips of juice asked for a banana!

How is she doing now?

I honestly don't know @SeaToSki

She has periods where she will be really quiet and cling to me but then 5 minutes later she's off playing again. It's seems to come in waves but it is really strange.

She didn't sleep great last night again either - woke up crying at 3am and wouldn't go back to sleep.

I have so much anxiety atm and just really want her to get better.

I ink you should go back to the GP. She may have an infection with a couple of types of bacteria and the antibiotics are only addressing one. That would explain why she was a bit better initially but isnt really turning the corner. Does she have a temperature? How is her eating and drinking over the course of the day? Does she prefer being upright..so being held to rest/sleep rather than lying down?

Yes maybe. I will give them a call.

Nursery have said that they are riddled with children that have whatever this is that is going round and that DD is the fourth child to be on antibiotics.

She has no temperature. She is barely eating anything to be perfectly honest. Just bits and bobs here and there. If I put a meal down for her she will have a couple of spoonfuls and then be done but sometimes she won't touch it. She has gotten better with fluids and seems to be drinking enough.

She's not fussy when it comes to sleep but does wake up frequently in the night wanting me. Her naps during the day are normal.

Hi @wingingmumlife how's your daughter now? Hope she is feeling better. I just posted about my son who's poorly, I thought it was a side effect of his vaccinations but the symptoms are actually just like your DD.

Started with sore throat/cough, only one evening with a temperature but really pale in the face since then and increasingly losing appetite. Yesterday he only had a bit of soup at lunch. He's up now and not even keen to have breakfast even though he's not eaten a thing in over 18hours.

He looks exhausted but also waking a lot at night which is unlike him, something is clearly bothering him.

He's also the same as your DD in that he'll be absolutely fine playing one minute, then clingy and lethargic the next. Really up and down for the last few days.

If you get to the bottom of this let me know, it's horrible seeing them like this! Especially as DS is usually the kind to bounce back really quickly.

Hi @Poorbaby sorry to hear about your DS, there’s nothing worse than when your little ones are poorly and you feel helpless, that’s certainly how I’ve felt the past week or so.

I must admit, the past 3 days she has really turned a corner and is much better.

I took her to the doctors on day 6 of being poorly as I just wasn’t happy with her. Like your DS she wasn’t eating, drinking or sleeping. The GP never actually told me what the problem was but she checked everything and prescribed antibiotics for DD. She did say it was probably a mixture of a virus and teething which made sense as DD was pulling her ears from time to time (I only noticed this after taking her to the doctors though).

The antibiotics did help to a certain extent, they reduced her chesty cough but she still wasn’t 100% even after a few days of taking them.

Nursery also said a virus was going round in children and that all of the children there were coughing. My conclusion of it was (and I’m no expert by any means) that it’s a virus that seems to be doing the rounds but is affecting babies/children worse than it normally would because people have been isolating for months and therefore there is little immunity to it.

DD, like your DS normally recovers quickly from colds etc so when this went on for as long as it did I worried a lot and brought myself to tears a couple of times because nothing I was doing was helping and the lack of food/fluids was really worrying me.

Anyway, 11 days later and she still isn’t sleeping great but her appetite has picked up massively and she seems her happy bubbly self again with colour in her face. She’s not eating how she was before becoming poorly but she’s eating a lot more now.

I hope your DS gets better soon.