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12-21-2012 at 9:32 PM
ladybugpjb
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ladybugpjb is not online. Last active: 05-24-2013, 10:13 PMSilver

steroids for cough

I'm going to research this later, but I wanted to see if anyone has had experience with it.

Today I took DS to a local urgent care clinic. (We're moving/travelling and in between doctors, so that was our only care option.) 

DS has had a cold for over a week that I think he picked up on the airplane when we flew back from Hawaii last week. He's mostly sniffly, and has a lot of drainage that makes him cough occasionally. He might cough five or six times a day.

The doctor we saw prescribed some antibiotics since he has a "little bit of a sinus infection" and some steroids for his cough. We're leaving town tomorrow, so I couldn't get to the pharmacy to get the stuff today.

So...my question is about the steroids.

Have you given LO steroids for a cough? I personally don't like to be on steroids - I had them after a couple of surgeries. I'm just hesitant to give him something like that for a cough that is almost non-existent. Last time he was sick, I had the Vicks vaporizer thing that heats up scented pads and fills the room with soothing vapors, and I'm planning to get one of those when we get to my parents' house.

Am I being irresponsible? Should I just give him the steroids? They just seem unnecessary since his cough really isn't that bad. I don't even know what they are supposed to do, and the clinic doctor was in a bit of a rush to get on to the next patient, so I couldn't ask.

Again, I'm going to research later. I just wanted to see if anyone could tell me their experience.


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12-21-2012 at 9:55 PM
LalaMama81
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Are you able to call his normal pedi to see what they think?

It sound to me like he has a typical cold. There is a lot dripping down his throat, since they aren't good at blowing noses, so he's trying to cough it up.

It's weird to me that you'd get any prescription for a cold - DD had 2 cold viruses back to back and for almost 4 weeks had a cough or congestion or runny nose. Her pedi didn't seem alarmed at all and agreed it was just probably 2 viruses and they just take time to go away.

I don't know what I'd do, but I'd be hesitant to give either w/o talking to my regular doctor. 



Ellie 9.08, Violet 8.11 
12-22-2012 at 12:09 AM
Kimbus22
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They prescribed steroids for Joey when he got croup.  DH wrestled half a dose in him but he wouldn't take any more.  We ended up deciding to skip them all together and just used the Vicks Vaporub and the Vaporizer in his room at night and he was back to normal by the end of the week.

I personally wouldn't give steroids for a regular cough associated with a cold/sinus infection.  We were iffy on them for the croup but he was so barky and couldn't sleep at all so we tried them.  But after the fiasco of trying to get him to take them and then reading about all the moms on here who's kids went lunatic crazy while on the steroids and then took a week to get back to normal afterward, we decided to skip them.  And our Ped said they can help but aren't really necessary unless the cough is really bad.  They wrote us the prescription but said it was up to us if we wanted to use it since he was borderline.


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12-22-2012 at 1:33 AM
Duckieer
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The only reason he should need steroids is if there is any inflammation. Maybe if his sinuses are swollen and the doc thought that would help open his airways. I'm a nurse and personally I wouldn't give my DD steroids unless she had asthma or some other type of restrictive airway issue allergic reaction, etc the side effects aren't worth it IMO.

My question and I don't mean for this to sound snarky why did you take him to urgent care if it was just a minor cough? I'm not usually one to rush to the doc unless I think DD needs antibiotics and I may "under go" to the doc, but if you didn't think it was a big enough deal for meds then why take him at all? Just curious.

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12-22-2012 at 7:36 AM
LalaMama81
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Duckieer:

My question and I don't mean for this to sound snarky why did you take him to urgent care if it was just a minor cough? I'm not usually one to rush to the doc unless I think DD needs antibiotics and I may "under go" to the doc, but if you didn't think it was a big enough deal for meds then why take him at all? Just curious.

I was wondering this, too. It would have to be bad for me to consider urgent care. 



Ellie 9.08, Violet 8.11 
12-22-2012 at 9:03 AM
ladybugpjb
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LalaMama81:

Duckieer:

My question and I don't mean for this to sound snarky why did you take him to urgent care if it was just a minor cough? I'm not usually one to rush to the doc unless I think DD needs antibiotics and I may "under go" to the doc, but if you didn't think it was a big enough deal for meds then why take him at all? Just curious.

I was wondering this, too. It would have to be bad for me to consider urgent care. 

Meh...I was hoping to avoid the background details. They get long and complicated.

We just left Hawaii. I hated the ped office there, and I hated his ped even more. She was never there (saw her for one out of four appts in 6 months), and the one time I saw her, I felt she was a bit out of date on her recommendations (ie, she told me to wait as long as possible to introduce any potential allergenic foods - like, until 15 months). Switching peds with Tricare is too complicated for me to want to deal with it since we were only going to have to deal with her for one other appointment before we left.

DS never gets sick, so I actually just realized this past week that the ped office on base never gave us an emergency number or nurse advice line. I never needed it. Also, they are four hours behind us now, and I wouldn't have been able to get ahold of anyone until after noon, and I really wanted to take him yesterday morning.

So the short version: I hated his old ped and couldn't get ahold of the office anyway.

I didn't take him for the cough - I was worried that he was going to develop an ear infection (which is what happened last time he got like this). When he got the ear infection before, he showed no signs of being sick. He'd had the runny nose for over a week without any improvement, so I wanted to make sure everything else was ok.

And the reason I had to take him to urgent care is because that is where I got the referral from Tricare. With Tricare, I have to get a referral before taking him anywhere and only take him to the place they give me a referral to, or they charge big bucks (from what I understand). I actually transferred all of our stuff to the military treatment facility near my parents, then tried to make an appointment with his new pedi, but they didn't have anything available until January 7th, and I wanted to get him in as soon as we get to town this week. I really didn't want to be dealing with an ear infection over Christmas or while travelling, so it was more a precaution than anything else. I'm glad it wasn't an ear infection, but I'm glad I took him because now I know for sure.

So there's the long version.


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12-22-2012 at 9:09 AM
ladybugpjb
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In case that last long explanation got jumbled up:

DS doesn't have a "regulare pedi." He was assigned to a pedi at the military clinic, but we only saw her once in six months (one out of four appointments). So he had a "Primary Care Manager" who knew nothing about him, and was never at the office anyway. That's the reason I didn't bother trying to figure out how to get a hold of the old pedi. I hated that office and am so glad to be done with them.


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12-22-2012 at 10:41 AM
shanado
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The only time my kids go on steroids is when their asthma acts up. If their breathing is compromised then I'm all for the steroids other than that it's never my first choice. Then again, I may be the wrong person to give advice because my kids' never have just a cough, it's always asthma related.

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12-22-2012 at 10:46 AM
eatmorecup...
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We were given steroids once when we.took DS to the emergency room in the middle of the night. He had that scary wheezing/inhale of breath after every cough and literally couldn't breathe. He ended up having pneumonia, followed by a round of bronchitis so in that case I didn't feel too bad about the steroids.

Had he developed this cough during the day when we could have seen his pedi, or had it not have been so scary sounding I probably would have passed.

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