Any GPs? 5 or 10 days penV?

[Greentomatoes21]

My 3 year old son has suspected strep infection (not scarlet fever, no rash). White spots covering throat and very enlarged tonsils, high temperature, bad breath, white tongue, wincing to swallow so won't eat/drink much.

GP yesterday examined him and gave 5 days of PenV.

Is this enough? Ideally so, as getting it into him 4x a day is hard - but my daughter has always been given 10 days of PenV for this type of infection. (She is 8 and has had it quite a few times unfortunately).

I am anxious that 5 days takes us to Friday when GPs will close and also I just know how painful it is and desperately want him to avoid deteriorating once the 5 days is finished.

Also very obvious strawberry tongue today. 🫣

5 is almost always enough to clear the current infection. The rationale of 10 day courses is to eradicate the bacterium to further reduce the chance of spread / recurrent infections. Debatable but generally agreed to be justified at a population level, doesn't matter that much for individuals.

Ok this is reassuring. Hard not to worry as it just looks so awful 😞 but his temperature is settling after 24h on the antibiotics, I think, just the wee throat and tongue look like a war zone.

my son also suffers with tonsillitis quite a bit. Wherever we have been given a 5 day course with strep it then comes back about 5 days after stopping the antibiotics.

Hi thanks for response. We ended up with ten days as they suspected scarlet fever. Thankfully all is well now. Hope your wee one has a break from it - it really is so painful for them!