whooping cough?

[smudgley]

How common is whooping cough these days?

My daughter (12) has had a weird cough for a couple of weeks, it's a strange cough, it's dry & when she starts it takes her breath away & she almost starts to choke, she got sent home from school earlier in the week & we went to the dr, who prescribed antibiotics & cough linctus. But it's no better & it does seem to remind me of how I would imagine whooping cough to be. Any ideas? She wakes up every night with a coughing spell at least once or twice.

[Mags]

Not sure how common Whooping Cough is these days but my granddaughter frequently has bouts of Croup which is a barking cough that sounds quite distressing at times. The doctor advised breathing in moist air to relieve it and suggested letting her sit in the bathroom for 10-15 mins with the hot bath tap running........ that does tend to ease the cough.

She also has coughing bouts during the night which is due to catarrh.

[PoshPuss]

Whooping cough comes with a fever usually and a distinctive 'whoop' or intake of breath before more coughing. It's quite rare these days because of vaccination and it's a notifiable disease ( ie. your doctor has to register it). What your daughter has maybe croup, a viral infection and a nasty, persistant cough that also is exhausting; not as dangerous as WC but nevertheless, pretty nasty. I caught it myself at aged 27 from kids on the children's ward I was working on. It was pretty bad :(

Only thing that helped was being in a room with lots of moisture/steam, therefore had hot baths and head steaming sessions. Good luck!

[smudgley]

Thanks Mags, that is useful.

I've been researching croup & whooping cough & I am convinced she's got whooping cough. I have found a website all about whooping cough & it shows some videos & sound recordings of children with it & I am sure that is what she has.

[PoshPuss]

Me and Mags, telepathy ? ;)

[smudgley]

Whooping cough comes with a fever usually and a distinctive 'whoop' or intake of breath before more coughing. It's quite rare these days because of vaccination and it's a notifiable disease ( ie. your doctor has to register it). What your daughter has maybe croup, a viral infection and a nasty, persistant cough that also is exhausting; not as dangerous as WC but nevertheless, pretty nasty. I caught it myself at aged 27 from kids on the children's ward I was working on. It was pretty bad :(

Only thing that helped was being in a room with lots of moisture/steam, therefore had hot baths and head steaming sessions. Good luck!

It's not persistant & she's not ill with it, but when she starts she can't get her breath & does do the whooping sound. I didn't think it was around any more but it is apparently.

[smudgley]

Whooping cough in a recognizable form evolves over a period of 2 weeks. It usually starts as a sore throat with a mild feeling of tiredness and being unwell, that within 2 or 3 days turns into a (usually) dry, intermittent "ordinary" cough. This persists, but may wax and wane over the next 7 to 10 days by which time the cough may become a little productive of small amounts of sticky clear phlegm, and occasional intense bouts of choking coughing start to occur.

Fever is usually limited to the first week and is only mild. There may be a runny nose like a cold in the early stages. After the first 2 weeks, the characteristics described below are predominant.

Major Symptoms (usually from 2 weeks onwards). Attacks of a choking cough that lasts from 1 to 2 minutes, often with vomiting, severe facial congestions and a feeling or appearance of suffocation. Between these attacks of coughing the sufferer appears and usually feels perfectly well. These choking attacks of coughing happen as little as twice a day or as many as fifty. Between attacks ('paroxysms' is the technical name) the sufferer may not cough at all. 'Whooping' is a noise that comes from the voice box after a paroxysm when the sufferer is suddenly able to take a breath in again.

Only about 50% of whooping cough sufferers 'whoop' but this is where the name comes from. Sometimes the patient stops breathing after a severe bout of coughing, long enough to go blue. Occasionally the patient faints as well. Recovery is usually rapid however, and back to normal within a couple of minutes

Whooping cough lasts at least 3 weeks and can frequently go on for 3 months or even longer. I am told that in China it is called the 100 day cough.

Late symptoms. Whooping cough resolves by a slow reduction in the number of choking attacks. From the time the attacks start to reduce in number, to the time they finish, it may be roughly from 2 weeks to 2 months or more. The average case of whooping cough lasts about 7 weeks. But for people with whooping cough visiting this site, it is likely to last longer, because only more severe cases are likely to get here.

The crucial point for clinical diagnosis is attacks of severe choking cough separated by long intervals of NO COUGHING AT ALL. There is immense variation in severity and duration of the illness.MOST CASES GO UNDIAGNOSED BECAUSE THE PHYSICIAN NEVER HEARS THE PATIENT COUGH AND CANNOT BELIEVE IT IS AS SEVERE AS HE/SHE IS BEING TOLD. AND LISTENING WITH A STETHOSCOPE INDICATES NORMAL LUNGS IN WHOOPING COUGH!

[Mags]

How long has she had the barking cough for Kelly?

[PoshPuss]

If in doubt, check it out!
She needs a medical opinion Kelly. I hope it's all ok for her.
You've had a pretty bad run of things lately kiddo :(, thinking of you .x

[smudgley]

How long has she had the barking cough for Kelly?

It's not a barking cough, it's like a dry, weird type that she can't intake her breath with and then she starts gagging, she's had it about 2 weeks I think.

If in doubt, check it out!
She needs a medical opinion Kelly. I hope it's all ok for her.
You've had a pretty bad run of things lately kiddo :(, thinking of you .x

She's been to the GP & is on abs but they aren't helping. I will take her back I think.

[Leesy]

Hi Kelly that cough dosen`t sound very nice at all:( , I think if like you have said if the antibiotics haven`t started to take any effect I think that I would be taking her back to the doctors.
Hope all goes well and it isn`t anything to serious.

[dinahsmum]

All good wishes that you get this sorted soon
It's not asthma or an allergy-related breathing disorder is it?
We're all amateur doctors now, with the www.
I think Whooping Cough is pretty rare these days but who knows....?

[Carole]

Good luck at the doctors :)

My son caught whooping cough at 9 weeks old which went undiagnosed for a week or so before blood tests at our local childrens hospital. The strange thing about it we were told is that young babies/children don't always make the whoop sound :shock: