Worried - antibiotics not working?

[RedPandaFluff]

DD is 3 and on the advice of 111 we took her to GP OOH on Saturday night. She had a persistently high temp (over 40 deg in spite of alternating calpol and nurofen), lethargy, refusing even her favourite foods/sweets, and one episode of vomiting. The doctor could see red spots on DD's tonsils and prescribed antibiotics. DD has now been on the antibiotics for 3 days and I thought she was starting to feel better yesterday (Monday) but she's been really quiet today and has just woken up crying, trembling with fever (40.1) and clearly very unwell again.

Shouldn't the antibiotics be working by now? I'm worried about IGAS. Should I call 111 or wait until morning?

Call 111

Were swabs taken? It'll indicate which AB's are required. It should be grown by now. If you're on the incorrect antibiotics they need to be highlighted and potentially changed.
Ring non and see if E they can access the info (no idea) if not tomorrow first thing get onto GP (I'm non medical, if a medic says different between now and then, revise!)

Trust your instincts, if you're worried, get her checked out.

I'm pretty laid back in general when my DC are ill, but with the symptoms you've described I'd be wanting her seen tonight OP.

No swabs taken, so we don't know for sure if it's even strep/bacterial, apparently they're being very conservative and treating with penicillin as a precaution at the moment, which probably explains why there's a shortage.

I'm trying not to overreact due to the media coverage, and it looks like normal viral tonsillitis can take a few days to recover from, so it might not be unusual to still be ill on day 4.

We've given her calpol and we'll check her temp in an hour. If it hasn't come down, then we'll call 111.

I am exhausted with relentless child sickness at the moment

My experience of tonsillitis in children (which is pretty extensive as both of mine have now had their tonsils removed for recurrent infection) is that if they are on the right antibiotic then they usually respond within 24-48 hours. Very occasionally it can take longer, but it’s not the norm.

so the options are 1) wrong antibiotic and best to change to something like co-amoxiclav or 2) actually viral in nature.

If you can wait until tomorrow might be worth contacting your GP. If you’re very worried you might be best to go to A&E where they can take blood and see what’s happening. BUT at the moment you might well wait all night to be seen so it’s a tough call.

Did you mean white spots on tonsils? Red spots might indicate something else eg hand foot and mouth which is viral and nasty

Do call 111 but remember if it's viral antibiotics don't work

Call 111 I think

Hi everyone, thank you for the advice. We got her temp down to 38.5 so decided to wait until morning. Just about to phone the doctors surgery to see what they say. Figured we'd be waiting for hours for a 111 callback anyway, and agree that it could be viral and this is a normal timescale for her still to be unwell.

It's so hard seeing them so ill, and god knows how we're going to manage work today

Hope DD feels better soon. Did you manage to get through to GPs? X

Hi @Sameshitdifferentdayx - we did, thank you so much for asking. He asked us to bring her in to the surgery, which we did (naturally she perked up massively ) and he checked her over. He thinks that it's probably a viral infection rather than bacterial as the penicillin would have her well recovered by now, so it's just a fluids-and-rest thing.

I do feel slightly sheepish for being so worried last night but she was roasting hot, trembling, crying . . . and everything seems worse at night, I guess.