DD3 has whooping cough

[kando]

Poor DD3 (4months) has been diagnosed with mild pertussis (whooping cough). The doctor's advice was to leave it alone as antibiotics wouldn't be as effective because she's had the cough for "so long". We're abroad and the GP's attitude here is to leave things well alone, but after looking at NHS Direct, I'm beginning to wonder if I should get her on the antibiotics. I know it won't cure the cough, but the thought of it developing into something worse is quite scary. She hasn't had all her vaccinations either - still got one to go. Any advice?

Sorry kando no experience of little ones with whooping cough. I had it quite late, when I was 16, and just wanted to let you know that it sounded a lot worse than it felt.

Hopefully someone with more knowledge on this comes along to help soon

Hope your dd gets better

How long has she been coughing?

There's a strain of pertussis out that apparently the vaccine doesn't protect against, but I don't know much about it.

I wouldn't give antibiotics to a 4 month old unless she really needed it.

FWIW, my mother has had pertussis TWICE! She had it at age 9 and it was pretty bad. When she was about 62, she got a stubborn cough that wouldn't go away, and it was a while before the GP twigged that she had a mild form of pertussis. Guess there really is more than one strain of it about now.

poor her kando, and poor you. One of the mums DSs at DDs school had whooping cough as a wee one before he had had all his jabs. Poor little mite. Cant remember whether he was given antibiotics though, sorry! that is of no help to you. But he didnt get anything else nasty and he did fully recover.

I hope she feels better soon.

She's been coughing for over a week, probably closer to a week and a half. At first I thought she just had a cough as the other dds had one, but as it hasn't shifted I thought I'd better get it checked. We're back in the UK on Friday and will be seeing my niece, who's 5 months old and has had all her jabs. Should we keep dd3 and my niece apart, or can my niece still catch it from her?