Advice needed re cough and breathing

[quadrophenia]

my ds has developed what seems to be a wheezy cough in the last 24 hours. he has just started school and is 4 . Whilst the cough doesn't particularly seem to be bothering him and is quite infrequent he is making a whistling/wheezy sound when he breathes. Consequently it appears that he is breathing quite rapidly but i don't know if this is just because i can hear him. Noty sure whather i should be acting on this, how can i tell of hsi breathing is in a normal range?

sorry to bump anyone?

any asthma in the family? any allergies? A fever? Ever wheezed before?

I reckon what everyone will suggest is you call nhsdirect who will advise you. You might even have to get a doc to check him out.

When you watch him breathe can you see him pulling in under his ribcage/by his collarbone/by his chestbone? If so, he def. needs medical attention. Count his breaths - is he doing more than 40 a minute?

is deffo doing more than one per second, am going to ring gp cheers

Is it possible the wheeze is something tacky in his throat like mucus? Also some of the colds at the min have a wheeze with them but it is just viral. If he isnt tugging at the sides I wouldnt overly worry as it might just be part of a cold or change in atmosphere.

I noticed exactly this in my 3.7 yr old dd on Monday night (she had a slight cold). She has mild eczema, so I wondered about asthma - took her to GP tues morning, and it was a chest infection which had also triggered mild asthma: she's now on ABs and has an inhaler.

If your ds hasn't got/had a cold, I'd guess possibly mild asthma - or an allergy - but would definitely get it checked out.

It didnt' seem to bother her, either - she said she was 'fine' when asked, and normally she's a bit of a drama queen about health

What did doc say quad? If you don't reply I'll assume you've had to get ds out of bed and cart him down to A&E for a check up.

Hope he's better soon.

really don't know what to do

phoned out of hours doc, 'they don't do home visits' and my car headlights aren't working. I then phoned nhs direct who told me to put him in a steamy room and give him a hot drink

ds still breathing fast between 60 and 69 per minute

can someone explain to me the ribcage thing, what am I looking for. He doesn't have blue lips or fingernails, so apparently it can't be serious but he just seems to be breathing so fast.

I'm not sure if I'm panicing because of recent events a little girl from my ds playschool recently died after contracting a virus. any advice anyone?

Sorry I didn't see this last night. How is your ds now?

How is he now? 60-70bpm seems very high.

You have other children, so if you watch them breath (topless) when resting you should see that there chest and abdomen remain fairly smooth as the chest goes up and down.

If you look at your poorly son does his abdomen sink much lower than is ribcage? Does his chest wall between his ribs pull in and look markedly sunken compared to your other children? The area at the top of his breastbone, between his collar bones - does that look particularly sunken as he breathes. These are teh ribcage things you are looking for.

sorry quad to see that you came on again last night. Hope you managed to get a doc to see him. How is he now?

Thanks guys, had a fairly sleepless night as you can imagine but fortunately he did settle. Dp took him to the doctors in the morning and his breathing had slowed, diagnosed a virus so am feeling mightily relieved. Still has a cough but fine in himself, kids are so worrying sometimes, never really been a panicer but was actually crying on thursday night!

thanks for the update quad, glad he's better.