17 month old with laryngomalacia and horrid mucousy throat/chest bug

[Elibean]

the nights are awful, her breathing is dreadful, and dh and I are going mad with lack of sleep.

She's on ABs as of today, has blue and brown inhalers in case of asthma component, has taken medised (to try and dry up mucous), and has a humidifier blasting full on at the raised head of her cot. Oh, and Karvol and Snufflebabe liberally dabbed.

I'm at my wits' end....anything I've missed, that might help her breathe at night? And/or help us survive this zillionth virus of the season?!

well hang onto the fact that she has started anti b's
should see an improvement quickly but remember to finish the course
no more advice, I can't think of anything else I would be doing
Good Luck

You have my sympathies, and I don't have any further advice.

BUT are you aware that the licence for medised use in under twos has been withdrawn???

Thanks, especially for the hugs, v timely.

Not convinced its anything non-viral, but if it is the ABs will certainly help....apart from the runs, of course

I didn;t realise that
I have read loads of stuff about this latest drugs change thing and it kept stating 6 remedies and none of them were medised
shit I gave gecko some tonight becasue she is soo stuffed she can't breathe through her nose so can't feed

And thanks for the sympathies, and yes, I'm aware re the Medised but as she needs paracetamol for fever and throat pain, and have been told to give her antihistamine in hope of drying up secretions, it makes sense to give it atm.

This drugs stuff is confusing - thought Medised and some others were being put 'behind the counter', but not withdrawn? Our pharmacy has always had it 'behind the counter' anyway

Re the Medised - it's the over-the-counter licence that's been withdrawn - if the doc's prescribed it, it's still OK.

Though tbh, when she's gasping for breath and having endless episodes of sleep apnoea, I would steal something from behind ten counters if I thought it would help her...and I would take her to A&E if I thought it would help, too, but I don't think it would atm.

It is being sold behind the counter - but only for over 2s.

When I was looking at this the other week the licence for under 2s appeared to be completely withdrawn.

Poledra, thanks for clarifying - saw GP this morning and discussed Medised with her, its all above board. Even if the original bottle came over the counter and not on 'script.

Does anyone else have experience of laryngomalacia still affecting LOs at this age?

Actually, been looking at it and I'm not sure that Medised is affected - it's cough medicines. Medised has always been PO (can only be sold by the pharmacist so they can ensure that it is being used correctly). What happened recently is that some cough syrups have been moved to PO also, where before you could just pick them up off the shelf yourself, and they will not be sold for use in the under-twos.
The cough medicines used properly will not harm the children but the problem is that parents have been using too much of them or combining them with other medicines with similar ingredients, leading to potential overdose.
So Gecko is fine with it, Trinity.

Medical scientists surely v welcome here, P, no?

That was my understanding too. But given lack of sleep, that doesn't mean much.

Hope your dd is better soon too, Trinity.

OK.

One of hte active ingrediants in Medised is diphenhydramine (as well as paracetamol).

Read point 6 on this document. The license for diphenhydramine has been withdrawn for under 2s. It does not specify that it is only the OTC license that has been withdrawn.

MHRA press release

Ah, SlightlyMadSweet, but the title of the press release is 'Over-the-counter cough and cold medicines for children.' I've been trawling through the MHRA stuff, and I think (though it's not clear) that these medications could still be given on prescription, but not OTC (or PO). Looking at this page, it says that 'Non-prescription cough and cold medication....'.
I am not trying to be difficult, BTW, I honestly want to try and understand exactly what the MHRA advice says.
Sorry for hijack Elibean. Hope the LO is sleeping OK.

I agree it is ambiguous and I cannot find conclusive info for or against teh possibility of it still being available as a prescription only medicine. It could just be OTC labelled as "cough and cold products" which are affected. The raw drug may be available as a prescription med.

My interpretation of that press release is that the active ingrediants listed have had their license withdrawn for under 2s. The reason OTC is so heavily mentioned is because that is where the active ingrediants are commonly found. That is where the publicity campaign needs to be aimed. GPs will get internal memos (which wouldn't be as public) if they were POM.

TBH would a GP actually prescribe Benilyn/Tyxilyx etc??? I doubt it. GPs generally don't support the use of cough medicines IME.

Hijack fine

My GP would prescribe for dd, but then again she has underlying condition that makes breathing/coughing/throat filled with mucous extra tricky. Her words 'we just need to get her through her first couple of winters, and all the meds won't hurt her in the long term'. She was talking about ABs at that point, but knew about the Medised too - plus the inhalers and reflux meds etc.

She does seem to be brighter today, and I only had one episode of sitting up wtih her struggling to breathe between about 1-3am, then she settled. Phew.

Thanks for the paw holding, helps to tell someone and not feel so isolated in middle of night when scared!