What could be wrong?

[Anonymous]

Well I figured that I haven’t posted in this forum for a while, so I’m entitled to a little boo-hooing!

Hailey has had a wicked virus, yet again, thanks to the joys of daycare. This one also caused a high fever for 4 days which I found out was due to an ear infection. Put her on antibiotics, and on day 5 (yesterday) the fever passed, so hopefully that means the infection is gone. Anyhow, it’s been a snot-fest around here, if I have to go to work another day with snot wiped all over the corner of my shirt courtesy of Hailey when I drop her at daycare, I might scream (or laugh… I wear a lab coat so it doesn’t really matter).

But here’s the problem. I actually never even guessed she had an ear infection and took her the day the fever started because I was worried about how bad her cough had gotten and was afraid it might be pneumonia. Her chest was clear, but the cough continued. It got so bad that she was gaggind and refluxing like mad, puking everything she drank or ate. It was awful and she was miserable. I tried to up her meds, but like I said, the cough was so bad that she couldn’t keep them down due to her mood and the vile taste. So I just kept trying to put them in her bottles, but she started refusing the bottles, and she probably only got about half to three quarters of her dose for about two days.

Well that night she had such bad post nasal drip that she was coughing and gagging all night and puking all over the place- the heartwrenching kind that comes along with terrible screeching and choking. She just couldn’t clear the vomit from her throat because of all the mucous and it was like she was choking. Finally it would come projectile vomitting out all over from her mouth and nose. Since that night where it happened 3 times, the next day it happened once, and now she’s been up at night SCREAMING. She’s still in my room (, I know!), so every time I’d hear her reflux, she’d start hysterically screaming like she was being tortured, and stiffen and arch like I haven’t seen in long time. It’s been happening in the day too, and Sarah asked “what’s wrong with Hailey”. I know that viruses make things worse, and she’s cutting a few teeth, but I don’t know what to do- she’s been back on as much prevacid as I can get into her, along with mylanta. Is it possible that the forceful vomitting caused some irritation to her throat? It’s obvious that something is wrong b/c of her behaviour. I’m going to take her back to the doc, but that won’t help. Any suggestions?

I was playing with the idea of mixing some prevacid solutabs in with some mylanta and seeing if that helps since giving it on an empty stomach is somewhat hard- I know it sounds odd but the doc here swears that the mylanta acts as a buffer for any residual stomach acid, and then if you follow it up with a meal 30 mins later it works well. I have a message into marci-kids to verify if this is true or not.

Any ideas? Her acid has been under control for so long. I’m so scared of it causing a relapse into feeding aversion he*l!!!!!

[Anonymous]

Lori,

I’m sorry to hear about this latest round of illness. It’s seems to never end for you and Hailey.

I wonder if she may have a very sore throat from all that reflux, vomitting, and coughing. I know it’s happened to me…when I’ve had a bad cough and a choking/gagging incident….I’d end up with a very irritated throat for a while. When my gilrs have a sore throat I’ve used Chloraseptic spray and they always say it helps. If you don’t think she’s too young, or it won’t aggravate her reflux, maybe you could try that…if she’ll let you. My girls love the stuff (but they like all medicines! Weird, I know).

It sounds like you’re doing everything you can…upping her prevacid, giving her Mylanta. Hopefully this will pass soon.

How’s the hair pulling?

I hope she’s feeling better soon. Keep us posted and please let us know what marci-kids says about Mylanta and solutabs.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Christine. The hair pulling is impossible b/c it’s too short, but she still plays with it and now that she hasn’t been feeling well, she’s been trying to pull it again. Last night when she was arching and screaming, she put her hand to her head and starting trying to pull.

About the prevacid and mylanta- Dr. Phillips said no b/c it will degrade the meds (which is what I thought). Funny thing is that this is the chief of pediatrics at a very reputable hospital here who swore up and down that it was more effective that way, LOL.

[Anonymous]

s&h’s mum wrote:

Thanks Christine. The hair pulling is impossible b/c it’s too short, but she still plays with it and now that she hasn’t been feeling well, she’s been trying to pull it again. Last night when she was arching and screaming, she put her hand to her head and starting trying to pull.

About the prevacid and mylanta- Dr. Phillips said no b/c it will degrade the meds (which is what I thought). Funny thing is that this is the chief of pediatrics at a very reputable hospital here who swore up and down that it was more effective that way, LOL.

im sorry to hear about Hailey, i hope it passes soon! i just wanted to say that though you would think the cheif of ped. would know what he is talking about, in my personal opinion, i trust pharmacists much much more than i do doctors when it comes to med dosing and administering etc. doctors arent really filled in on med details, they are just given the basic info from pharmecuetical (sp) companies.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Natalia. From our experience, I’ve found that for the most part, like you, our doctors haven’t known much about dosing meds beyond what the drug manufacturers print (if that). But I haven’t run into any pharmacists (other than Dr. P. obviously) who have known anything different either. For the most part, I’ve found that I just have to be open minded and assume the best about the people I’m being referred to. If I go in doubting everything they say then I just get depressed about our situation and start to feel like no one can help us. In this case, I knew that it was likely wrong, but thought I’d check anyhow. Oh well.

[Anonymous]

It is hard to say if that is just reflux or upset stomach b/c of all of the muccous. I would try giving her some mylicon and see if that helps. We still give that to Isaac when he has a cold w/alot of muccous or stomach virus. If that doesn’t work I really don’t know what else you can do besides the mylanta that you already give. I really hope that this goes by quickly for her. It is just so frustrating to feel so helpless! I will be praying for her!

[Anonymous]

Lori,
Sorry to hear about Hailey feeling so awful. I don’t know if you’re into alternative medicines at all, but have you ever tried coloidal silver? We swear by the stuff. It always helps clear things up SO much faster and prevent illness if taken more regularly. Emergen-C’s are really good too. If she would drink them (??) My kids love them. They have a children’s kind or you could split the dose.

Hope she feels better soon…

Bryce’sMom2006-10-31 17:51:12

[Anonymous]

Thanks Heather. I’ve tried the emergen-c’s but Hailey would never drink them. I’ve never heard of colloidal silver- I’ll have to look into it. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

(((Hugs))) to you and your little girl! We have been fighting the ear infection here too.

I will tell you that with the two ear infections Aidan has had, both times she developed bad “cold/flu” type symptoms with them. Very similar to what you’re describing. I would venture to say that her reflux is just flaring from the drainage of her sinuses, as that has been my experience with Aidan.

[Anonymous]

Hey Lori

Bear with me – my computer sucks. I swear that Matthew and Hailey could be the same person! Matthew is going through the same thing but we are lucky to have the tube, because we are back on continous feeds (again).

Matthew has had several middle ear infections – i think that is what it is called, when there is a lot of fluid behind the ear but no infection, and some people tell you that it bothers children and others say it does not, but i know it bothers Matthew because everytime he starts not sleeping well and throwing up, we go to the ped and he has that type of ear swelling. So, because the cycle started agian, we went to our ped (we are in Spain luckily, and i love this ped). So he looked at Matthew yesterday and he said his ears are fine right now BUT he said that he can see mucous at the back of his throat and up his nose… he said that it is typical in babies who throw up or have reflux to have this – and that it is really easy to go into the ears, like it happens to Matthew. He said for us, it is probably not going into the ear right now because we are on antihistamines everyday for appetite (funny, he told me that when he was younger, he worked in a lab giving rats periactin!!!!) and so we are indirectly clearing his ears with the meds. But he was worried about all the stuff in his nose. He said that US docs only prescribe saline drops but that he believed that you can actually break all that mucous down, so he gave me a couple of meds (they contain fenilefrina+fluocinolona+neomicina+polim and ambroxol)

to up down his nose everytime the throwing up started…. HE explained to me that it is really uncomfortable for babies to have all that mucous, unlike for us. He said their structures are different and when they have mucous in the back, it is the same thing as if someone was putting their fingers down your throat, exactly where it makes you gag…. so he said not to push (But obviously, it is different for us because we have the tube…. so we do not have to worry about PO intake)

Good luck with Hailey – i cannot wait until Matthew starts talking and maybe he can verbalize some stuff!!!

[hellbennt]

OT (off topic), kinda:

we call Emergen-C “Super Juice” for Jonah to drink when he has a/is fighting a cold

hellbennt2006-11-1 7:18:16

[Anonymous]

Taylor is going through the same thing. On Friday she was dx with strep, she had a cough but her lungs were clear. By Sunday she was so mucousy and the cough worse, she wouldn’t sleep she kept on moving her head from side to side and she kept on coughing and gagging, vomiting with all of her bottles. So back to the office on Monday, she was dx with an ear infection and pneumonia ontop of her strep. She ended up with an antiboitic shot, changed to z-pak, and nebulizer treatments. She is actually doing much better with the cough on the treatments, she still is very mucousy, but much less, she vomited yestereday pure mucous but no crying. I guess, what I’m trying to say is maybe Hailey needs neb treatments to open her airways and help with the mucous. Alexis’s mom2006-11-1 11:40:28

[Anonymous]

Oh no Lori! No real advice – just wanted to say I hope Hailey feels better

soon.

[Anonymous]

Thais, I wish the docs here in the US were like the ones in Spain. Here they let the “snot fest” go on for weeks on end. It’s really miserable for these poor kids.

What is Emergen-C? Does it help them fight off colds?

Do any of you use Zinc losenges or Zicam for your children? I’ve heard that Zicam (the one that comes with swabs that you put in the nose) can cause a loss of smell that can be permanent, so I don’t use that, but I’ve been dissolving cold-eeze (zinc losenges) and giving them to the girls because they are both coming down with a cold. They seem to work well for me so I though I’d try it with them.

Lori, sorry to hijack….I hope Hailey’s feeling better. Please keep us posted.

[Anonymous]

Christine,
Emergen-C’s are little fizzy drinks (they come in little packets that you mix with water) that have 1000 mg vitamin C plus a bunch of mineral electrolytes and B vitamins. They work so well for colds. Whenever I feel a sore throat or anything coming on I take one and it usually will take it away. It use to be you could only get them in health food stores, but they have them in wal-mart now.

I love the zinc lozenges too. I did give them to my boys. We got the zinc-C ones once and they worked really well.

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