PANDAS child with flu. Mom very worried

[colleenrn]

My 8 year old son with PANDAS came home yesterday with 101 temp, terrible sore throat, cough, and muscle aches. His temp spiked to 103 last night and his cough is getting much worse. Just found out from school nurse that some kids in his class have flu. H1N1 in his school also (not a lot of cases yet).

 

I am treating him with oscollococcinum. I am giving him vitamin D. Does anyone know the max dose of Vit D he could take? Does anyone have any other suggestions on how to treat him?

We have dr's appt. in 2 hours.

 

I am so nervous how this will affect him with his PANDAS. I am not worried about a flareup in symptoms. I am very worried how sick he could get b/c of this autoimmune disorder.

 

Thanks.

Colleen

[thereishope]

My 8 year old has a high fever and cough. I am taking him to the dr today to get a strep test and see if it's H1N1. Both have been in the school. I am so scared of my PANDAS son getting sick!

 

Cough is occassionally a symptom of strep for my kids. Are you upping his meds or taking him to the dr?

 

If his fever isn't going down good enough, you can give Ibruprofen then an hour later Tylenol. It's important to try to keep their temps as normal as possibe.

[Suzan]

http://www.wholisticpeds.com/default.asp?c...55663&n1=19

 

Please check out the articles on this site. This is a Dan! doctor in Florida who we used to consult with and I trust the info he puts here. He has dosages for all ages for the supplements he recommends.

 

We are home today with possible flu as well. Hang in there and I hope he gets well fast with no complications.

 

Susan

[colleenrn]

Thank you for your responses! Yes, we have an appointment at 1115 this am. I will have them do flu swab and definitely throat culture. He weighs 75 lb. and has been taking Zithromax 250mg/day for one year. I am not 100% confident that he is completely protected against strep, even though he's on Zith, so that is a big concern. His cough is getting worse by the hour.

Colleen

[P_Mom]

Colleen...last time I checked the CDC web-site (about 3 weeks ago) there were no reported cases of the "regular" flu yet in any state...only H1N1. Perhaps that has changed recently.

[Kayanne]

Suzan, thanks for posting that website...I can't wait to delve into it!

 

As far as fevers are concerned...I've always been told that they are part of your own body's immune response--the higher temp makes fighting the infection easier. So as long as my child is tolerating the fever, I personally don't give fever reducers...I have 4 children, and I have only seen my kids fevers go above 103 once.

 

That being said, I don't make them suffer--if they truly are not doing well with the fever, then I do give tylenol or motrin.

 

I hope everyone gets better soon. My 8 yr old is home today too. She has had a cold (Friday the rapid strep was negative), no fever, aches or chills though--just sore throat, sneezing & coughing...but now we are in the "lingering cough" stage of her cold, and she didn't sleep well last night...the only thing that seems to help that is the humidifer at night.

 

My PANDAS dd6, also has had a bit of a mild cold, but she seems to get over this stuff quicker than her older sister--we have seen a little behavior ramp up, but it is so mild that it is really hard to say if it is PANDAS at all...after all when your sick, you can be whiny, more emotional, and not want to eat....so who knows?

[smartyjones]

Suzan - great website - Thanks!

[Suzan]

My youngest daughter does have h1n1. I will be even more worried if (when?) my 8 yr old gets it.

 

I'm glad you guys like that website. I love Dr. Berger and think he's really on top of these types of topics.

 

Susan

[thereishope]

Well, my oldest went to the dr. He said it might be H1N1, but they aren't testing for it anymore. The rapid for strep came back negative. We're waiting on a culture. Luckily, my PANDAS son is still behaving normal an not acting sick either (except for some very slight snifles). I am keeping them as far away from each other as possible. Which isn't easy sicne they share a room.

 

The ped did say that ther are a lot of kids coming in with viral throat infection that are not strep. There has been a huge increase in patients within this last month.

[colleenrn]

My doctor said yesterday that if you have the flu right now, it is H1N1 b/c the seasonal flu is not here yet. She said the symptoms seem to be peaking on day 3, which is concerning as he is only on day 2 and pretty sick. Hard to keep temp down even with alternating Ibuprofen and tylenol evry 3 hours. My doc also said to watch him carefully as he is getting better b/c they are seeing "rebound illnesses" where the kids get pneumonia just as they seem to be improving.

 

Another tip, which I never knew, is you can give oscollococcinum to prevent the flu. Instaed of the entire little vial, you take on little capful per day.

 

How are your children with the flu doing today? My son has had the seasonal flu three times in his life, but he seems sicker with this one.

 

Colleen

[ajcire]

Have you heard this before? My dr. told me that there is a good chance that in June when my ds was sick ( as well as basically his entire grade) that it was likely the H1N1 flu but they didn't test anyone.... he said it would be good if it was because then ds wouldn't get it again... Can you only get each strain of flu one time? If it was H1N1 it is weird to me that nobody else in my house got it except my pandas ds... I mean there was no stopping the spread of germs from him to us or his siblings but they didn't get it.. meanwhile out of 120 first graders there was a day that almost half were absent. At the time my ds missed one week of school, went back for 2 days and the fever came back and he missed another entire week. I think there were even more kids sick in his grade just parents were keeping them home.

[colleenrn]

If you have H1N1, you won't get it again, so IMO, it is better to get it now just in case it mutates in the future. You could still get the seasonal flu, but my doc said that preliminary data says having H1N1 may give you some protection from the seasonal flu.

Colleen

[thereishope]

My son's fever broke in the middle of the night! At 4pm, he was above 103 when the Motrin was wearing off, then at 10pm he was 98.4! That technically w/ no meds in his sytem. This morning he is 99.1 no meds. Today, I continue to quarantine him so my 3 year old and 6 year old hopefully don't get it.

[colleenrn]

Vickie,

That is great news! I have been trying to keep my other kids away from him, but in our house it is hard. I am most concerned about my 3 yo getting it. (I have a 3 and 6 yo too!)

 

Colleen

[ajcire]

colleen, thanks! I do hope then that it is what my ds had in June. It sure seems to have fit but the dr. said they only were testing if symptoms were dangerous and warrented it... otherwise, it was the same as any other flu. He actually said he thought instead of closing schools they should have left them open (they didn't close our schools here but in general where they did) and that it would have been better for people to just get it then... but at the same time obviously if you are one of the people who gets serioiusly sick from it, you might not agree with that. I hate this whole thing. My 2 year olds pulmonolgist wants him to get the vaccine when it is available near me.. no way. I don't want it. .. He is not pandas as far as I know but still no way. But how do I live with myself if he did get the flu and got seriously sick. I don't know.... I just stand by that sometimes being the mom just stinks.