It is common for most young children to suffer from a nasty cough occasionally. In the majority of cases some cough medicine and keeping them warm and cosy seems to ease it. But what if your child's cough persists despite all your efforts, and even causes them to vomit or struggle for air? Surprisingly, it could be that they have whooping cough.
According to Health Protection Agency figures, the number of diagnosed whooping cough cases has risen steadily over the last few years. Although there is a strong vaccination programme in place, it does not guarantee long-term immunity. A study by the University of Oxford which was carried out last year, suggests that 40% of children who suffer from persistent coughing attacks and seek help from their GP, actually have signs of whooping cough.
However, it is thought that whooping cough largely goes undiagnosed or is mistaken for just a bad cough, a virus or even asthma. Dr. Doug Jenkinson, a family doctor based in Keyworth is an expert in whooping cough. On his website he explains that there are four main reasons why it is so hard to get a doctor to diagnose whooping cough. Firstly, many doctors don't actually know what the whooping cough sounds like, there is also the misconception that it is very rare and that it is a very serious illness and lastly, it is believed that the whooping cough vaccine has nearly eradicated it. It is in fact, very serious if a baby under one gets whooping cough as it can cause an infant to have fatal breathing difficulties. Fortunately, immunisation given at 2, 3 and 4 months does protect babies from the whooping cough bacteria.
So what are the signs and symptoms that your child may have whooping cough? It is hard to suspect whooping cough at first, as for the first week, the sufferer will just be feeling generally poorly; they may have a bit of a temperature, a sore throat and a runny nose. The whooping cough won't really be noticeable until the third week, there may have been a bit of a cough before this but not like the distinctive coughing attacks which occur now. Along with the attacks the child may be sick, they may retch, they may “whoop” at the end of a cough as they take in air, they may also go red in the face and, very scarily, the child might appear to be suffocating. It can be incredibly distressing for both the child and their parents.
Amanda Church, mother to four year old Ella, suffered weeks of disturbed nights sitting up with Ella to comfort her through the attacks she suffered. “We thought it was just a really nasty cough at first, the doctor told us just to give Ella cough syrup, but it didn't do anything. She would often be sick after coughing which was really upsetting. The sound of the cough was awful too - like she was in pain.
It was hard to explain to people though because when she wasn't coughing, Ella seemed perfectly healthy. After 2 weeks we took her back to the doctor who tested her and told us it was whooping cough. I couldn't believe it because she had been immunized as a baby, but it was a relief to know what was wrong with her.” Ella's whooping cough started getting better after a month and she has completely recovered now.
Whooping cough can last anything between 2 weeks to over 3 months, varying between 2 - 50 attacks a day; and as Amanda said, the sufferer can appear to be very normal in between attacks. Unfortunately there is very little that can be done to help the sufferer, there is no cure. Antibiotics may be prescribed to reduce the possibility
of it being passed on to others as it is very infectious, but other than that the sufferer just has to wait for the coughing attacks to reduce and gradually they will stop coughing altogether. Until then there may be many sleepless nights.
