6 year old with barking cough

[Retta1809]

Hiya, my DD developed a fever on Tuesday last week until Saturday. She also developed a cough from Wednesday night/Thursday. She's been sick a few times but mainly phlegm coming up.

I took her to the GP on Thursday who said her chest, ears & throat were all clear so it was viral.

I then had to call out of hours on Sunday night because her cough had become really deep sounding and she wasn't getting a break between coughs.
The doc there said she had croup & gave her a steroid. This did seem to ease the cough but by Monday tea time her cough became much worse again so I called out of hours, they checked her over and said they thought she has atypical infection in her lower right lung.
The doc could hear a slight difference between either side and wondered if there was a small pocket of infection so prescribed antibiotics.

I have had to sit with my DD at the back door to see if the cool air would ease her cough, which it has for just now.

Has anyone else's little ones suffered anything like this?
What is atypical infection?
I'm hoping the antibiotics work but until they start working I'm so worried about my DD and hate seeing her so tired because of the coughing.

Thanks for reading x

Typical infection just means an infection that isnt presenting in a typical fashion.
Without listening to the lungs, I can't comment further myself...

With a barking cough, I hope you're continuing to give the steroids (unless the dr specifically said to stop them).

The antibiotics will take 72 hours to start kicking in.

Try to ensure kiddo is sleeping propped up and not flat, so an extra pillow under the back of the shoulders, not just under the head. This is to help ease the breathing and the coughing, although isnt a fix all. But it is advice given for people with chest infections, long term respiratory conditions etc

Hope your DD starts to feel better soon, although coughing is tiring!

We only got one dose of steroid on Sunday night for what they thought was croup.

When doing my dd oxygen level & pulse rate on her right hand the oxygen level was 96 bit on her left hand it was 98.
When tapping on her back there was a slightly different sound on the lower right compared to the lower left.

Dont stress over the alight difference in oxygen in both hands - can be entirely normal/transient, especially such close figures. In fact, it is common that if we arent happy with/sure on a reading we will try another finger/the other hand!

And dont go tapping backs - without knowing the correct place to do it, and reliably repeat positioning and timing for comparison... well.
It may be the infection, but equally you may have tapped on a bone, the liver, at a different point in the breathing cycle..: you get my drift.

Fair enough re the steroid - we dont deal with prescribing, so never 100% on doses and treatment courses. And with kids it varies based on age as well.

Give the antibiotics the 3 days (worth of doses) to kick in, and if theres no improvement or change at all, call up or go back...
(Obviously if she deteriorates between now and day 4, dont just wait for day 4, get her seen sooner)