Whooping cough?

[pinklizzy]

I'm probably just being paranoid and worrying over nothing and I have rung my GPs and am waiting for them to call me back but does anyone have any experience of whooping cough?
Little man has been unwell for a few weeks now, at first just with a cold-sneezing, runny nose etc and then he developed a nasty cough. We saw the OOH doctors a week ago who said it was probably just viral and he just needed time to fight it off.
He is still coughing a lot at night, sometimes to the point of vomiting but during the day he has been brighter-taking more fluids now and we've had some smiles, although he does generally want to nap.
My OH who's at work today just sent me a link about whooping cough with a message to asking if this could be what he has. I did a quick google of the coughing sound and it does sound a lot like it, constant coughing bouts with a wheezy sort of intake of breath at the end?
It doesn't sound like croup which my daughter has had a few times so I recognise that one.
He has had all his vaccinations to date.

ETA-please feel free to tell me I'm worrying over nothing, I won't be offended and also I realise no-one can tell me for sure over the internet, I just have no-one irl to ask (without panicing his dad at work or the grandparents!)

 

[Literati_Love]

I would probably go back to the dr...maybe a different one for a second opinion. Since he has been vaccinated whooping cough is unlikely but I would probably still be a bit concerned as well and it would be good to rule it out.

 

[Gnomer]

Go back to the doctor. Simple tests can diagnose it.

My 9 week old girl is just coming to the end of whooping cough. She was exactly how you described. Had a cold for a week or two with a tickly cough, which developed into a more severe cough with the whooping noise. Sometimes she'd just whoop wih no cough, other times she'd lose her breath completely. It took us a week or two to get through the really bad cough. She wasn't sleeping, would vomit with every coughing fit, proper projectile vomit. Coughing would be worse after a feed and at night time, the apnea was all day.
She was fine between coughing fits though. Her heart rate and breathing rate would increase, but not significantly enough to warrant hospitalisation, though we came close a couple of times.
She didn't want to feed at all, but I presume it was because feeding irritated her chest. She was awake a lot too, couldn't sleep properly with the cough.

She received a course of antibiotics to reduce the contagious period, although it doesn't help with the cough apparently. We had a community nurse visit 3 times a day to check her temp, breathing, hydration, oxygen levels and heart rate, but kept her at home to be monitored so she wouldn't be at risk from the other illnesses on a children's ward.

Has your son been vaccinated? I'd go get him checked, tell them your concerns and they should swab him and do a blood test. That should be standard with any lingering cough.

ETA: whups. Just saw he is vaccinated. They can still get whooping cough whilst vaccinated, but it is much much milder. The doctors think our 3year old had it and passed it to our newborn. 3 year old is vaccinated.

 

[gidge]

My son had bronchioloitis and suspected whooping cough, they tested him for whooping cough but it came back negative, one of the doctors told me the cough can be very similar. He would have coughing fits that lasted anything up to 5 minutes and would go bright red and sometimes his lips would go dark.
I wouldn't feel bad about going back to the docs to check him again, go with your gut. Xxx

 

[pinklizzy]

I eventually spoke to the doctor who rang once the surgery was closed. He said it's very unlikely to be whooping cough but might be a variant strain of pertussis other than the one than causes whooping cough?
He has actually been brighter this evening so I'll call the out of hours number again if he is any worse overnight and take him to be checked at the doctors first thing. His cough is a lot worse at night so I'm going to try and a voice recording on my phone, if I can obviously, so that I can show it to the GP.
I don't want to waste anyone's time but I can't get rid of the niggly feeling that he's got more than a cold

Gnomer and Gidge-hope your LOs are ok now

 

[gidge]

Good idea with the voice recording, I took a video and glad I did as he wouldn't cough at the doctor.
Interesting about the vavariant strain of it, never heard of it. Fingers crossed your LO is ok. Xxx
Oh and mine is fine now thanks. Xxx

 

[Gnomer]

There is another strain they don't vaccinate against, but it's a milder strain, or so I was told (I'm just passing on info I was told at the hospital).

A cough is a cough though. Whether it's bronchiolitis or whooping or whatever. My friends baby had bronchiolitis and she was much more poorly than my LO. There isn't much they can do for either unless baby isn't able to get enough oxygen or is dehydrated. Our main concern was dehydration since Florence was vommiting after every single feed.
We had to feed her an ounce an hour, and she's such a slow feeder it was pretty much constant with the odd 15 minute break haha. I resorted to water when I was struggling to keep the milk down.

I'd visit the doctor so they can take another look, but the main task is to just monitor him and make sure he's still weeing, crying and his mouth isn't dry, and watch his breathing when he's resting. Any sucking in under the ribcage, at the throat or 'see saw' breathing, where the chest and stomach go opposite ways quite violently, then ring 111.

 

[pinklizzy]

That sounds so stressful Gnomer!
We went back to the doctors today and they gave him another full check over. She heard him coughing and said it sounds very similar to the whooping cough but not convinced that's what it is.
She's started him on antibiotics and I'm keeping a close eye on his chest/breathing-poor thing is probably totally fed up with me watching him!

 

[Gnomer]

It was horrendous! I was getting an hours nap when OH came home from work. It feels amazing to be at two 3-5 hours chunks now! I'm the kind of person who could happily sleep 12 hours every night hahah.

Hopefully he starts getting better! It could very well be the milder strain of whooping cough. Is his chest congested? My little girls was always clear, she developed a bit of a crackle but it cleared up quickly.

 

[pinklizzy]

He doesn't sound very congested no, I thought possibly there was a bit of a wheeze but it's hard to tell whether it's referred noise from having a stuffy nose and I can't find a stethoscope anywhere at home. When the GP listened though she thought he sounded chesty.
He isn't settling tonight, just coughing and coughing bless him

 

[Mapleroo]

My baby had whooping cough when he was four months old. It took 3 Drs visits and 3 ER visits to convince them that is what it was. The second er visit I even took video of him coughing and the dr refused to even look at it! He thought we were completely off our rocker. The third time we had much nicer Drs and were open to thinking that we might not be as silly as we look and sure enough, ended up admiting him that very night and we were there for just over a week. The antibiotics don't make it go away, but it does stop it from being contagious. Unfortunately it is an illness that just needs to run it's course. I really hope it isn't whooping cough, but if your instincts are telling you it is, make a nuisance of yourself at the dr so that they do something about it. We were in isolation in hospital which was awful, but I knew it was the best place for him as he was needing oxygen regularly. He even had his own full time nurse that stayed in the room the whole time in case his stats dropped too low. I don't want to scare you, but it is an illness well handled in hospital. Good luck

 

[gidge]

How is he doing now? Xx