Toddlers and Pneumonia
“He has PNEUMONIA”. It’s a very very scary thing to hear from your pediatrician, and it is just what she told me last Friday when I took baby Wills for a check-up. The thing with being a mother-of-three is that you fancy yourself a pro, even when it comes to health matters. So when little Wills started coughing on Monday and developed a fever which continued throughout the week, I didn’t even call or text Dr. J. Yes, I gave the normal meds and used the puffer for the cough, but only when his fever still spiked after the 72 hour grace period, did I rush him to get checked.
Luckily, she’s also a pediatric pulmonary specialist, and when she listened to his chest, she immediately said “Momma! it’s not good“. I put on her stethoscope and heard some crackling noises, which apparently meant that the infection had gone to his lungs, which meant pneumonia.
Pneumonia is a frightening word to us parents, but it simply means an inflammation in the lungs and can be treated easily, at home. While it certainly isn’t a disease to take lightly, babies, toddlers and the elderly are the most susceptible to the disease, and it is particularly bad in developing countries where antibiotics and treatments aren’t readily available.
How did he get such a nasty bug? Who knows? Nat probably brought it back from big school and did have a mild cough for a few days. But what was important was that Dr.J said that it wasn’t too bad a case (no need for an x-ray or worse, confinement at the hospital), and she was sure he’s be fine in a week if he started taking antibiotics today.
Now, just three days since taking his first dose of clarithromycin, he’s almost back to his useful sunny self. The bad news? I think Mom’s caught it.
June 1st, 2009 at 8:40 am
My daughter is just three weeks old.
I hope she will not get a pneumonia. My wife had it when she was a baby and she almost died!!
June 16th, 2009 at 11:30 pm
Parents must understand that pneumonia is a very dangerous affliction especially in young children. It is not okay to leave your baby or toddler with a runny nose and a little temperature to run around with the belief that it will go away. Pneumonia kills 10 – 25% of all patients who need hospitalization for pneumonia. This by and large includes small children and the aged and frail. That amounts to about 61,776 people n the USA alone every year. Now Pneumonia is usually preceded by a common cold or flu which is left unattended. Common flu is another BIG baby killer. The death rate extrapolations from the NVSR for USA for Flu is: 63,729 per year, 5,310 per month, 1,225 per week, 174 per day, 7 per hour. That scares me into taking precaustions like flu jabs, innoculations and a keen eye for unwanted symptoms especially during winter. Do not take this topic lightly parents, remember, the old adage of it never happens to me…yeah right!
November 15th, 2009 at 2:31 am
my boyfriend and i just brought home our 15 month old baby boy yesterday. he went into the hospital nov. 10th 2009. they kept him there hooked up to an iv for 3 nights and 2 days. took a whole day for them to figure out why his body had a high white blood cell count. we brought him in for a high flu. doctors tested high mouth, ears, blood, and urine before trying a chest x ray. during the whole first day and night they had a liquid iv hooked up to him before they found out what the real problem was. we brought him in with a 102 fever. the hospital got him fever down to 97 and stopped giving him flu medicine where his flu then went up to 104. i was so glad they found it. my baby was shaking and breathing hard the night we brought him in.
February 5th, 2010 at 8:10 pm
My 7 year old son recently had pneumonia, and our doctor prescribed this antibiotic called Zmax. It was like the usual Zpak that I used to take, only my son took 1 liquid dose and he was done. That was the whole treatment. He started feeling better 2 days later, and now he’s as good as new.
I was scared when he got pneumonia, because he hates taking medicine, and I know that it’s important to take antibiotics and not miss a dose or they don’t work right.
This Zmax was great, because I only had to give him his medicine once.