POLL - would you take a 9 month old baby to the GP for a 2 week bad cold?

[sweetkitty]

As DH thinks I should.

DD3 is 9 months and has a bad cold for just over 2 weeks, she isn't that great at sleeping normally but is snoring loads and waking herself up. She doesn't have a cough but has a constant green runny nose, today it is streamed with blood probably from a burst blood vessel.

She is BF and is finding it hard to feed especially at night so she latches on, sucks, latches off, cries and gets angry, bites me, latches back on x 20.

Eating a bit less than normal, BFing same amount of time, drinks a little from a cup.

She had high temps all weekend and I gave her Nurofen and Calpol but don't want to continue giving her them too long. Nappies have been horrendous too.

I don't want to go to the GP to be told it's just a cold, really wanted to stay away from antibiotics too.

WWYD???

Personally I wouldn't, but my ds has a cold more often than not, so I'd be living at the surgery! He's one of those snotty kids that nobody will want to sit next to at school .

My dh is always more keen for me to take him, but he's not the one who has to drag 2 dcs to sit in waiting room for half an hour to be told, 'it's a cold, give him calpol and sit him in bathroom with hot shower running'.

If you're worried though it's always worth a trip just for peace of mind, and the GPs never object to a worried parent taking a baby.

Mine once said she'd rather see 100 well children than not see that 1 poorly one that needed help.

Hope she gets better soon!

I would - I have taken DS to be checked over in similar circs.

A good GP will take your concerns seriously even if it is "just" a cold.

Someone else on my postnatal thread had the same thing with her DS and it tunred out he had an ear infection and needed antibiotics and it was sore to swallow hence all the fussing with feeding.

I never had anything like this with the other two.

A friend has given me a Karvol plug in to try tonight, will see how she gets on with it.

Yes, I took Mimi recently and she had an ear infection.

Yes, I would and have. Best to get baby checked out.

Interestingly, although I think a child should always be seen by GP for an ear infection, my GP has stopped recommending antibiotics to treat them. My dd and ds suffer frequently, (aparently hereditary and something to do with the shape of ears. The last 2 times I took my dd the GP said recent studies have shown that at best antibiotics clear the infection a day earlier than most would have healed on their own. He said he would prescribe them anyway and it was up to me if I chose to give them or not. He did say to go back if things got worse though. I didn't get the antibiotics either time and the infection did indeed clear up on it's own in about 3 days.