Crackly chest in 1 year old. Advice needed

[Hulan]

Hi

My ds is just gone 1 and is in the middle of cutting his top teeth. He has a very chesty cough and last night his chest was making these strange crackly almost static kind of noises. He has an asthma pump which we used but this only relieved the symptoms for a bit. Has anybody experienced this? I can't get an appointment at my GP, am at work. Dh is home with him and NHS direct won't speak to me, only to Dh. I need some advice please

God this makes me so MAD. Why won't NHS direct speak to you???

If I was you I would tell dh to contact the GP's surgery and tell them that your ds needs to see a doctor today and if they can't see you at the surgery then you'll have to take him to hospital. Chances are they'll give you an appointment then.

Good luck!

Thank you for the advice, I was hoping that I could get the appointment at my GP, practically cried on the phone with the receptionist, but she refused. Said I must ring back at 3:30. Why are they so unhelpful?

I am sat here with my ds having a crackly chest as well, waiting for the blooming GP surgery to ring me back with an appointment.

I hate receptionists!!!!!!

I was told on MN that if you threaten to go to the hospital they will see you at the surgery because they have to meet their targets or whatever.

hi my daughter had similar symptoms just before her first birthday she had a cold for about a week and hen we got up one morning and she was really weezy and you could feel it all on her back crackling
i called the docs and got an emerbency appointment (of course i didn't actually get to see a doc apparently your arm has to fall off before you do)
the nurse was very nice though and gave her some antibiotics and said the usual (keep the room humid with a damp towel on the radiator, put in a steamy room, put pillows under the cot mattress so it doesn't settle on her chest etc)
in the end i had to put her to sleep in her pushchair slightly sat up and rock her felt soo sorry for her
it cleared after a couple of days
hope your son feels better soon

I think it's outrageous really I mean if a baby with a bad chest isn't reason enough to see a baby then what is?

Is he having difficulty breathing .. does his tummy seem to be pulling into his ribcage when he breathes

if the answer to this is YES personally I'd skip GP and just take him to A&E

but this is not meant to scare you ... it is far more likely that he's just got some phlegm caught in his throat which is making the noise

but I don't mess around waiting when its about breathing

He doesn't seem to be having difficulty breathing, it's just this wheezing and crackly noise that's got me worried. I just get so frustrated that a person must be half dying before you can be helped. To top it all off dh, does not want to take him to A&E, so I have to leave work and take him. Unhelpful so and so, he would easily fit in at NHS

I don't know if it will help convince DH but I took my DD into A&E when I couldn't get her temp to go down conventional way (stripping / calpol / nurofen) .. I didn't notice any other symptoms at all (but she'd had a febrile episode 3 days earlier) .. she was 19 months old

after a chest x-ray she was diagnosed with pneumonia and admitted for IV antibiotics ... they said it is very difficult to tell on young children

I really don't mean to worry you .. I do think it is most likely phlegm .. but I get nervous over potential breathing difficulties because it can go bad so very quickly and babies and toddlers are notoriously difficult to diagnose

twiglett thats awful
i hate going to the docs as they can make you feel like your wasting their time, but am always stright there when it's one of the kids

Twiglett, I'm so sorry to hear about your DD. Is she all recovered now? Thank you all ladies for posting here, it's really given me the support I need

oh gosh .. sorry to leave this hanging .. this was almost a year ago .. she was totally fine within a couple of days .. we have a visceral reaction to the word 'pneumonia' I think but actually its easily treated with antibiotics if caught early enough

how's your ds?

my dd had similar symptoms about 3 weeks ago but also had the heavy breathing, sucked in rib cage thing going on.

it was a sunday evening so i took her to A&E and we ended up staying in over night with nebulisers and steriods. they said it was a viral chest infection and there were 9 other kids on the ward with the same.

she's now got another cold and started coughing over the weekend. rang gp and got emergency appt for yesterday arvo and he's said she's probably asthmatic now and to give 2 puffs 3 times daily.

it definately helped her to sleep last night. have also propped mattress and got a sudafed plug in vaporiser.

am going to see senior gp for a 2nd opinion on the asthma thing tho. i just feel a little fobbed off at the mo.

hope your LO is feeling better today. can't believe your gp knocked you back for a baby with breathing problems!

its anightmare am always in and out gps with dd for similair and she has chest problems generally.. did you manage to get him seen?????????????? Dd is back at gps again tonight after just finishing a week long course of antibiotics..just really really hoping they dont send her to the hospital as when she does go she always ends up being in for a week!!