Online assessment says to give DS tamiflu. he's much better this morning. What should I do?

[Jojay]

I picked Ds1 (2.8) up from the childminder yesterday and she said was snotty and coughing a lot, wheezing a bit (he's asthmatic) and seemed lethargic. He'd also had a runny poo in the afternoon.

I took his temp when we got home and it was 38.1, and he felt warm. I gave him ibuprofen which seemd to kick in after 20 mins or so and his temp came down a bit. He was still coughing a lot, but tbh when he's wheezy he coughs a lot anyway.

So I did the online questionnaire and it gave me a code to collect Tamiflu.

When Dh came home I went off to collect it. When I got back they were both covered in sick as ds had had a coughing / crying fit that had culminated in him throwing up.

He was upset and still felt warm. we gave him a dose of Tamiflu na dput him to bed.

He woke twice in the night, once when he had more Ibuprofen and his blue puffer, hte second time he just had puffer.

But this morning he's much better. still snotty, wheezing and coughing a bit but much brighter and no temp.

Could it have been swine flu when he recovered so quickly? What do i do about the tamiflu? Continue or not? He's had his second dose this morning

they will have given him the Tamiflu because of his asthma, mostly as a precaution.
As he has started it, i would be tempted to let him finish the course.

don't they say the symptoms might recur if you stop partway through the course?

They do.

I've left a message for my GP to call me back to discuss.

I've heard rumblings that they may not give the vaccine if they've had tamiflu, and I'm not sure if they'll give you another batch if this proves to be a false alarm, that's why I'm concerned. I'm not sure if any of that's true though.

Thnaks for your replies

I have similar concerns, but am plodding through the tamiflu as my gut feeling nudged me in that direction. Glad your son is feeling better though.

I'd continue, esp if your child is asthmatic. It might not be Swine flu, but equally, it might. Without a private swab you'll never know. It might even e that he responds really well to Tamiflu, and stopping it will plunge him back into it.
From what I understand you should always finish the course (I suspect it's like antibiotics, in that respect, and the way it might become resistant is too many people not finishing the course).

I can't see them not giving the vaccine if you've had Tamiflu - unless there's some kind of lingering reaction, but I can't see that. The only reason would be that having Tamiflu indicates you might have had the flu, which would mean you had some resitance to it, and thus didn't need the vaccine, but without accurate diagnosis in the first place, and the way they're doling tamiflu out, that would leave a portion of the population unprotected. Vaccination is all about herd immunity - getting as many people protected as possible so the virus can;t get a hold. There's too many grey cases who've been given tamiflu (my daughter, for one).

Well I spoke to my GP who said there's no way my DS would be better yet if he really had swine flu - his temperature didn't come on till late afternoon yesterday and he was fine this morning, so in reality it only lasted a few hours.

I think the coughing and sickness were red herrings. He often coughs when he is wheezy and the sickness was triggered by a coughing fit too.

So on that basis the GP said to stop the Tamiflu, but to hang onto them as the country may still run short and we may be glad of them in the future.

He said that Tamiflu takes a couple of days to work, so any improvement seem at this stage is not due to having taken it. If an improvement was seen on day 3, say, then it would be wise to assume the Tamiflu had helped and you would continue the course.

It is a bit scary how easy it is to get hold of Tamiflu though. so many bugs must give similar symptoms, and loads of people must have taken the drug unnecessarily.

Thanks for all your replies

Reading your post makes me amazed that there is such conflicting information given out.

My DD was given Tamiflu after waking up with a high temp, sore throat and sudden hacking cough a couple of weeks ago. Within a day of taking Tamiflu all the symptoms were gone so like you we rang the doctor and told him we didn't think it could be swine flu.

I was told that once the course of Tamiflu was started it should be finished.

I'm glad to hear that your DS is better but just wonder why you were advised to stop the Tamiflu and we were told the complete opposite.

Good to see such consistency within the NHS then

The doc did say something like 'now we're being told to tell people to stop taking it if symptoms clear up'

It implied that this is a recent strategy, so perhaps a couple of weeks ago they were advising something else.