19 week old still chesty/rattly breathing/coughing after 2 lots antibios...... HELP!

[SleepyCaz]

DD is 19 weeks and for about the last 4 weeks has had an on/off chesty cough with rattly breathing and occasional phlegm being coughed up. She has had 2 courses of antibiotics but it's not really helped. She just had the last dose of the second course and is still rattling and gurgling. She was seen in the paeds emergency unit, and observed for one night, after she had a particularly nasty coughing bout which was hampering her breathing. The doctor said it could have been Whooping Coughing but never really decided one way or another. She is ff on Easy Digest milk. She has no other real probs, just had a few digestion issues which have settled down. Don't want her constantly on abx and Calpol/Calprofen. Have tried propping up the matress, steaming, Karvol diffuser, the works. GP and HV fob me off constantly. What shall i do??

My ds is 11 months and has had a cough since Christmas Eve!!! I was back and forward to docs and getting stressed out and eventually after he was admitted to hospital for something different, I managed to get a paeds appt. She has prescribed an inhaler for him as I was asthmatic as a child, but we have yet to be able to administer it to him as you can imagine it is difficult!
I know it's horrible to hear them coughing and all rattly, but I am sure your DD will be fine - I have got so used to it now I hardly notice it.
Just make sure she gets plenty of fresh air as that really helped my ds when he was really bad at the start.
Hope she gets better soon.

My 4month old is the same. Hes been like it for ages. I kept getting fobbed off too until they finally issued an inhaler. The adapter they gave me fits over his nose and mouth like an oxygen mask so its quite easy to use and to hold in place. They said hes too young to be diagnosed with asthma properly but it should help and apart from the odd bad spell, it seems to do the trick. I was also told that the wheezing, coughing etc can be caused by the baby's windpipe being narrow which is usual, its just some babies wheeze, others dont.

That's interesting Pebblemum about the windpipe - I haven't heard that before but makes sense. I've also been told my ds cannot be diagnosed as yet, but it seems quite likely as I was asthmatic and my dp has a history of allergies and hayfever. My poor ds .
I too have the "oxygen mask" type spacer, but my ds is 11 months and it is impossible to administer as he just instantly turns his head away. Even pretending it is a rocket doesn't seem to work! Even tried to do it when he was asleep but he woke up - I'll just need to keep persevering..........