have you dealt with whooping cough?

The incubation period sounds too short to be whooping cough to me. it can take as little as 3 days and as much as 21 days- sounds like your guy had symptoms within less than a week. This sounds more like a virus to me than a bacteria. I am so glad to hear your pediatrician does a bacterial culture. If the culture doesn't come back positive don't give the abx- they are more trouble than they are worth if you don't actually have a bacterial infection.
I wonder if your friend had the culture done?
Respiratory viruses can look like whooping cough- and there are a ton of them out there- and some of them are very serious illnesses.
Keep rinsing out his sinuses- take him in the steaming shower and make a tent-use essential oils of peppermint or eucalyptus. get a mister (vaporizer) in his room at night.
Eat tons of garlic and vit C if you are breastfeeding

give it time- get another culture-read up on the warning signs for breathing trouble- listen to his chest for wheezing.

To me your son doesn't sound like he has whooping cough- it has a specific pattern for symptoms- it usually takes a week or two for the crazy cough to start-
depending on his symptoms your ped may prescribe nebulizer treatments.

But anyway- ya We all had whooping cough as kids- we made it through- but you are right to be concerned if it actually is whooping cough in your little baby- It is a very long illness.

all i can say is that if it is, or even if it's just a bad cough, you might want to consider finding a good homeopath as they can be brilliant for helping to get through it. also there is a remedy you can take to make it less likely for you to get it.

i would just say that it's not that common but definately still around and actually, there was a study that found that kids who are vaxed are told they have asthma / bad cough....ids who aren't vaxed told it's whooping cough even though it's often teh same smyptoms. and it's not a terribly effective vaccine. so that argument that it's not common isn't one to go by. however, if he tests negative for it then that is something to go by. coughs can sound horrible w/o being whooping cough...i don't know enough about it though to know.

but, there are a lot of alternative remedies that can help--herbal and homeopathic. antibiotics make it stop being contagious faster, but don't heal any faster. but i do know quite a few people who have nursed kids through it. it's long and i imagine scary, but they do get through it.

please keep us updated on this! i'll be thinking of you.

Kiki

Hope you don't mind that I moved your topic to this forum.

I so hope your little one gets well soon, Amanda. Nothing is more frightening than a sick baby. I appreciate this thread more than I can say, because I’m dealing with another (!) horrendous respiratory infection and have uncovered some very disturbing information about certain antibiotics.

I figure I've been sick for one month now. I was feeling fairly well for a couple of days last week and then got slammed again on Thursday. Last time it was a horrible sore throat, earaches and messy nose, and this time it is extreme chest congestion, horrible cough, and messy nose. I feel quite certain I've had three different infections strung together.

I need to give a little background first. A middle-aged family member of mine is being treated for angioimmunoblastic lymphoma, or AIL. It is one of the most deadly of the non-Hodgkins T-cell lymphomas and so new that there isn’t even a standard protocol for treating it. My relative is getting the chemo program designed for B-cell lymphoma even though there’s no indication it works for T-cell.

Okay. So Saturday night I decided I’d bite the bullet and get antibiotics because I’ve suffered for weeks with little reprieve and I just can’t afford anymore time being sick. Maybe you remember that we took my grandbaby to urgent care several weeks ago and she was given Azithromycin for her terrible respiratory illness. I mentioned this to the family member who is sick with AIL and she encouraged me to go get Azithromycin too (I was sick then as well). She said it was great stuff and stays in your body much longer than other varieties. I declined.

I don’t know what prompted me to do it, but as we were waiting for our doctor-friend to call back Sunday morning I googled Azithromycin lymphoma. Here is just one paper (abstract) that came up:

“Angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma (AIL-TCL) following macrolide administration.
Sasaki TY, Sumida KN.
John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii, USA.
Angioimmunoblastic Lymphadenopathy with Dysproteinemia (AILD) is a rare benign reactive process which often follows exposure to certain drugs such as penicillin. Treatment with corticosteroids usually reverses the process, however there have been reports of 18% of cases evolving into non-Hodgkins lymphoma. In our case report, we present a relatively healthy woman with history of various drug hypersensitivities who developed AILD and resultant lymphoma after treatment with azithromycin. A review of the literature has failed to find reports of AILD following macrolide exposure. Clonality, not present in other forms of hyperplasia, is present in AILD and immunosuppression may account for this difference. It is difficult to say whether the drugs are simply coincidently associated or actually cause, maintain, or exacerbate clonality in AILD and facilitate malignant transformation.”

I’ve done a lot of research these past weeks on AIL and most studies caution that it is increasing in incidence. Many studies are trying to find a causal relationship between AIL and EB virus and a few other obscure possibilities.

So, needless to say, I knew I didn’t want Zithromax. I hurriedly googled a few other things and blindly decided I’d ask for either Tetracycline or Amoxicillin. The doctor asked, “How about Doxycycline?” I said OK.

My husband drove to the drugstore and brought home my drugs. I opened the top of the antibiotics to find it filled with bright blue capsules, which I wasn’t interested in swallowing. So I got a small glass of water and emptied the capsule (100mg) into it.

Listen, I love bitter. Green tea, bitter herbs, dandelion greens - the more bitter the better. This synthetic drug was unlike anything I’ve ever held in my mouth. It was Far beyond bitter and had a sickly sweet, vomitous edge to it. It was other worldly. I immediately knew I had been poisoned, but unlike my granddaughter, unfortunately I didn’t throw it up on the spot (which she did with half her prescription!)

I quietly walked into my room and googled Doxycycline lymphoma. Here is what I retrieved:

“Medications linked to the induction of AILD include salazosulfapyridine, azithromycin, and doxycycline.”

I threw the pills away immediately.

AILD and AIL are now considered different stages of the same deadly disease.

Azithromycin was patented by Pfizer in 1981 and Doxycycline was developed by Pfizer in the 1960s. Zithromax is extremely expensive and Doxycycline is not cheap.

I don’t have the energy to write about the other drug I took, Tussinex, but suffice it to say that it turned my loose, congested lungs into sticky cement and also dried out all other mucous membranes. It alone cost 94.00 and I poured the remainder down the sink. I ended up throwing up and in horrible agony before the night was over.

This has shaken us to our bones. I’m so grateful for my early experiences with the medical system that caused me to take responsibility for my own health, and obviously I'm still learning. Here’s the punchline: our doctor-friend is a lymphoma specialist! I mean...don’t these guys read anything but drug company fliers?

I know there is a balance here, and we all have to find our own way.

Be well.

Christine

Hi Christine,
Have you considered trying "wild Oil of Oregeno" as an alternative to antibiotics?

Whenever I get a bug I usually get out the oil of oregeno and dose myself.
It is quite strong and putting it under the tongue makes you feel like the top of your head is going to go flying. I usually put it in water.

I am just getting over a session that sounds similar to yours.
It started a week ago and seems to be on its way out, I had an nasty cough my ears were mucky and I had a headache that wouldn't stop.

I would recommend you get the book "The Cure is in the Cupboard" by Dr Cass Ingram. He explains all the things that are in the wild oregeno. I got my copy from Amazon.

You can also google wild oil of oregeno and find lots of websites about it.

Hope this is of some help to you.

Regards,
Flora

Wouldn't recommend it for children it's pretty peppery stuff.

Thank you so much for reminding me of this, Flora! I actually have oregano oil and you’re right, it’s firey! I will go gargle with some now!

but better than to preventatively treat it with abx I prefer to get the fluid out of the lungs. So your doctor is prescribing abx to prevent this stagnant fluid in the lungs from becoming infected- I say get it up and out. Are you familiar with chest percussion? Basically you steam him and then clap his back- do this frequently holding the head lower than the lungs- do 30 claps per side.
Is today the first fever of the illness or has he had one since he started with the cold like symptoms?
Keep him well hydrated-
and before you give the abx for the fluid in the lung- ask about a nebulizer-
you can expect your little guy to be coughing for about 2 weeks after he feels better- this is totally normal for the course the virus runs-
I am thinking of you and you little fella tonight and hope you both sleep well.

Have you looked into healing your lungs- when we went through that respiratory stuff with my first child I realized how important it was going to be to keep her away from everyone and everything to let her lungs heal.
Try rubbing teatree oil on your chest and neck-
get your man to give you the chest claps routinely (yes it hurts some)
keep super wet- (like having to pee every half hour around the clock. hydrate your membranes- over hydrate them. run your vaporizer-
and as soon as you feel better- stay in seclusion!
Get well soon woman- and watch your stress level- it can't be good for your immune system.

I've been thoroughly steamed and percussed (ouch!) and am hopeful I will heal this and prevent future infections taking hold.

Thank you with all my heart! You are my true sisters and I'm so grateful that we work to benefit each other.

Blessings! C.

Hi,
Don't use vaporub on your little ones to help with their breathing it can cause respiratory distress in little ones.
There was a story on it a couple of weeks ago of a child being rushed to the hospital with respiratory distress and they decided it was the vaporub that had been used to help relieve their breathing.
A humidifier or vaporizer would help their breathing.

Before you go to bed rub vicks on the soles of your feet (including children over two) and put socks on and it will stop the cough for the night. I did this when my cough was bad and I managed to get several nights of uninterrupted sleep. A side benefit is it also helps to soften the skin on the soles of your feet.

Hope your little ones are better soon.
Regards,
Flora.

Ivy thyme is also great for opening up chests, and might help as well...
i tend to go the homeopathic route, but always keep the ivy / thyme around when my lungs start feeling tight

feel better soon!
kiki