URGENT How do you know if its a chest infection (2 year old)?

[IlanaK]

My older son has just got over a chest infection for which he was given amoxicillin. At the same time, my younger son (2.5) had a bacterial infection on the end of his penis. He got fluxocillian (or something like that). He now seems really unwell - bad cough etc (though penis infection is gone). I am thinking he might have a chest infection but don't know how to tell. GP is not open of course for the next 5 days and we are off to panto this afternoon.

Is there anyway to tell if its a chest infection and what do I do about it?

Also, do all antibiotics help chest infections, or is the one he was one specific to his other infection?

Anyone?? Please!

whenever ds has had chest infections he always gets amoxicillin. one sign of chest infection is yellow or green phlegm. is he breathless at all - eg panting? and is his tummy going up and down as he breathes?

Hi Ilana

No walk-in NHS clinics?

Is he having trouble with his breathing? or does he just have a bad cough? .. is he runnning a temp? Is his tummy sucking in under his ribcage when he breathes?

I think I agree that it would be unfair to take an unwell child who is coughing and obviously unwell to a panto so close to christmas

No temperature I don't think. As to the breathing, he has mild asthma so I am not sure. Lots of yucky snot, but then I have that at the moment too (worst head cold ever!) but don't think I have a chest infection. I don't think there is a walk in clinic near here - but to be honest I have no idea.

some antibiotics work better for different infections and don't for others.

green/yellow phlegm all day long, not only in the morning is a sign of a chest infection.

also shortness of breath. when a child is breathing shallow, look at the top of the abdomen, just below the rib cage. if when he inhales a little triangle appears in the middle is a definite sign that he needs medical treatment. though i wouldn't wait this far to find out. if you are worried enough, go to see the docs.

if he has asthma i would take him now. you don;t want it to get worse over xmas and end up having to take him to hospital cos the doctors aren't open. ds has athma too and forever has chest infections so it is probably likely he has one or it could develop into one.

Phone NHS 24 , if you phone your gp surgery it should put you straight through or give you the
number. They will be able to tell you where the nearest out of hours service is.
Flucloxacillin is more specific to skin infections but it would probably help his chest it depends what bacteria is causing the infection.
If you phone NHS 24 at least you can get it sorted.
Have a nice time at the panto, merry christmas!
xxx

Or google NHS walk in centre for your area. The one we used to go to in Bristol was very efficient and open all the time. It means you will be seen by a nurse probably (sometimes a dr) who will then tell you whether you need to go anywhere else, i.e. they once sent us to a&e but other times have prescribed antibiotics or just reassured me that it's nothing serious.

Thanks everyone. I have an appointment for him at the local hospital clinic this evening so we will see how it goes.

how did it go?

The doctor said it was not a chest infection - he did listen to his chest for a good long time. He thought it was just post nasal drip with his cold. But we had the worst night last night. He was literally coughing non-stop for hours. I got him out of bed at about 3am and sat up with him in an armchair more upright to see if that helped. But it did not - and he asked to go back to bed after a while. Not sure what I cna do really.

benylin or medised both have the same ingredient which dries up the sinuses which is the cause of post nasal drip. you may also like to give a cough linctus like honey a and lemon one.

Could raise the top end of his bed with phone directories, and giv him an extra pillow. Vicks vapour rub on his chest.

Thanks. We are using medised already - have been for a few days now before bed. There is a humidifier in the boys' room. Vicks on his chest each night. Can't raise the end of the bed up as each time I go in, I find him in a different position on the bed, facing different ways so he could end up with his head lower than his feet if I raised one end up. I think we are just in for a few more sleepless nights.

Have you got ventolin? DD had/has same thing and I find ouff helps a bit.

puff helps.....

We tried the ventolin in the middle of the night when the cough was really bad and it didn't seem to make a difference. Interestingly enough it DID make a difference with my older son when he had a terrible croupy cough. His asmtha is definately worse. But I sometimes wonder if my 2 year old actually has asmtha at all as he doesn't really respond as well with the inhalers.

How many puff do you give him? DS is 7 and is asthmatic and I find that 2 puffs do nothing. Recently he had to kept in over night in Hosp and we had to give him 10 puffs every two hours (this should only be done in hosp) then 10 puffs every 4 hrs at home for 2 days and then 8 puffs for 2 days and so on until down to 0 puffs. I have been given ventolin for dd although I don't think she is asthmatic and I give probably 3 puffs.

We only tried the one puff. Maybe we needed more.

ds has 2 puffs of 2 different inhalers ventolin and i forget what the other is called, every 4 hours.