whooping cough - when to go to a&e?

[Belles28]

advice please...

my 11 week old was diagnosed with whooping cough this morning by the gp. he was prescribed a weeks' worth of antibiotics to "stop the spread" but expect for the cough to continue. during his coughing fits (lasting sometimes over a minute) he cannot catch his breath & turns blue. i told the paramedic (who we saw at the gp) about this but nothing was mentioned about his oxygen or needing to be seen at the children's hospital. now i'm wondering if i should be taking him into hospital?

i don't know if it's worth mentioning but between coughing fits he is still feeding well, plenty of wet nappies, still smiling & cooing away. help 😫

That's tough. When my youngest was around the same age, he got bronchiolitis. He was struggling so I took him to A and E. Saw a junior doctor and discharged with 'it will get better and it's very common'.
A few hours later he was turning blue, not feeding and very weak. I really didn't want to take him back as he'd just been discharged but I did and in the waiting room we sat anxiously for a short time before one of the nurses came over and it was mad panic. Doctors came running in and rushed him away.
He was then blue lighted to a children's hospital once he'd become stable and stayed in ICU for about 2 weeks on a vent.

If in doubt, take him him. Do you have an oximeter on hand to check his levels?

I know these are common symptoms with WC but so were my son's.

If he's going blue when coughing you definitely need to take him to a&e.

thank you both - i took him in not long after posting & i'm so glad i did. he stopped breathing in triage, currently hooked up to monitors. can't believe it.

Oh love, how scary. So glad you took him in. Wishing you both all the very best.

I hope he gets better soon - Bless him

Oh well done you for listening to your instinct! He’s in the right place. Sending love and hope he gets better soon.

Hope your LO gets better really soon. You definitely did the right thing.

My much older child has WC right now and I just can’t imagine a tiny little baby having this

Oh you poor thing what a shock. Well done for listening to your gut and get well soon to your baby.

Aren't DPT immunizations routine in the UK?

Yes, but this baby is too young to have had them yet.

I’d go straight away. There may be antivirals they can give her if her symptoms are very bad.

Not true. First dose is 8 weeks. Also the vaccine during pregnancy should prevent it up until baby is old enough for this. Very tiny chance of a baby getting it with both these vaccines.

I was once an antivaxxer and it took one of my children getting whooping cough to change my mind, despite not being a newborn and it not being life threatening at any point, it was a horrific experience my child didn't need to suffer through. Whooping cough is a paroxysmal cough which means you don't stop coughing until all air is expended from the lungs with each coughing fit, so they go blue/vomit or occasionally 'whoop'. Gradually the fits gets less over many weeks. Good luck OP.

I'm told whooping cough vaccine has a relatively high risk of it not giving full protection, so it's more than possible that the OP' s baby has had the first vaccination and is unlucky to have caught it.

But also there are three doses for a reason, and the Op's baby will only have had one.