My 2 yo has pneumonia :(

[DogwoodMama]

The good news is, we caught it early. She had a cold 2 weeks ago, and since then a cough that lingered. Yesterday I was fretting about her cough, but she was acting ok other than the cough. I actually called and made an appt for her next well-visit, and thought about leaving a message for the nurse about the cough, but then thought I was probably being paranoid.

Within an hour, she started getting feverish. I got her asleep, and then she woke herself up, shivering. Called the nurse, left a message. She called me back 20 min later, the fever had gone up over 102 by that point. She said to watch her, but wanted me to bring her in the next morning if she still had a fever.

We had a rough night last night, but after Motrin this morning her fever went back down again. So then I thought hmmm maybe it's just a cold. But took her to the doctor anyway.

It turns out that she did have early pneumonia, I wasn't paranoid after all! It wasn't too bad, so the ped gave me some suggestions of breathing exercises to try and thumping her on her back, but said start her on abx within 24 hours if she still had a fever. After talking to a few friends (ones who typically don't do abx for everything) who said they would go ahead and do the abx I decided not to wait.

Anyway, she's so pitiful. Tired, coughing, feverish... and she HATES the medicine. I tasted it, it's terrible! We have 4 more doses, though. Any suggestions for getting it in her so she doesn't spit it out? She spit out part of tonight's dose.

I know it's not the worst illness ever, just sort of shocked it developed from a cold. She's pretty healthy otherwise, she is a bit prone to catching colds, though. I'm just wondering if I could have prevented it somehow.

[LenaGardner]

awww, Elizabeth, (((hugs))). I'm sure there wasn't anything you could do to prevent it...it's bad this year, I hear that from everyone! Both David and Parker had pneumonia at the same time, in two different states! I hear you on the medicine, too What ended up helping Parker the most was using an aerochamber, that is what we went to when the breathing treatments + abx weren't helping fast enough.

I hope she gets better really soon!

[my3hens]

Hugs honey, I am so glad you guys caught it early. Good for you for listening to your mommy instincts!! I hope she recovers soon!

[LEIdee Q]

My son just recently gotten over pneumonia! Same symptoms. Thought it was just a cold, but he would catch a fever at night. I took him in for a check up. They heard crackles in his lungs and put him on an IV and was going to stay overnight, but they let me take him home. He had to go in the next day for a chest xray. They gave him another dose of IV and had to use his inhaler 3x/day and a nebulizer 2x/day.

My son hates the mask for both the nebulizer and inhaler, but LOVES stickers. I use stickers as a "bribe" for everything. LOL It was awesome when we potty trained last year. I made up a chart when to take his medicine and he liked being able to put the sticker in the spot himself. HTH!

[rachelv]

Poor little thing.

To get the medicine in, is there anything at the pharmacy they can flavor it with?

[lisabranka]

what about putting the medicine in a little bit of chocolate syrup? anything to make it fun to take..