Bad cough + temp - what to do?

[TheChicOfIt]

DS (19 months) has had a cough for two weeks which up until yesterday was causing no problems so I had not been to GP.

Yesterday it seemed a lot worse (you know one of those coughs where you just can't stop coughing) and he vomited due to it.

I took him to the nurse practitioner at the surgery and she listened to his chest and said it was fine, but on looking at his tonsils she said they were large and that he probably had a sore throat and to give him nurofen instead of calpol.

He was coughing all night and when I checked him in the morning he had a temperature of 37.7 (although may have been higher as it is a battle to get the thermometer on him long enough !)

I gave him Calpol as had it to hand and temp has dropped right down to normal.

He was coughing excessively this morning and when putting my hand on his chest I could feel it rattling and whirring, but since having a drink and some food, he is now playing and running about.

So my question is, should I be taking him back to the doctor now he has these new symptoms, or do I just do what nurse practitioner said to do - "persevere with it"?

I personally would take to see a dr if it were me. You can't be too careful. Can't believe they let nurses listen to childrens chests at your practice, they certainly don't at mine and not sure I would be happy with that. Hope he's better soon. Xx

Well she is a nurse practitioner and I have been told that they have more training than a nurse, and are more similar to a GP in that they can diagnose and prescribe etc.

The problem is that often there are no appointments on the day with the GP, so the NP is the only option.

Perhaps I should call NHS direct?

I don't want to hunt down a GP appointment only for DS to sit there with a grin on his face, with no temperature. And you can guarantee he won't cough once!