DD Has Pneumonia in Her Right Lung. . . How Long 'Till the Fever Goes Away?

I have found that cough drops work better than the cough syrup and also try propping their heads up a bit when they lay down.

J.,

I'm not a doctor nor a nurse but have had experience with pneumonia and respiratory infections. I have read and my experiences have taught me that if you see improvement 24 to 48 hours after starting antibiotics then you had a bacterial infection. But if after that same time, your symptoms are not improving or eliminated then most likely you have a viral infection and a virus just has to run it's course. Please don't stop what your doctor has you doing but communicate your concern, ask questions and continue to give your DD a chance to regain her health.

Unfortunately, all this will not happen according to our timetable so patience is the key. Most schools will send homework home if the child is out of class over a week and that just might the answer to keeping her as current as possible.

L.

J., my son has had pneumonia a couple of times, and he has always started to bounce back pretty quickly after starting antibiotics. one thing you don't mention is a follow-up dr's appointment. mine always wants my son to come in sometime around the time his meds run out, to make sure everything is going as it should. i don't tell you this to scare you, but you need to call her dr. -if you're on day 5 of 7 she should be improving. i'm normally not one to rush to the dr, but with pneumonia, i'm surprised your pediatrician hasn't wanted to follow up anyway. good luck, hope she feels better!

I came very close to dying with pnemonia because I didn't realize I had it or that I was that sick. By the time it turned real bad I could not catch my breath or stop coughing at all. I ended up on oxegyn in the hospital for 5 straight days. All total, I was sick for a month. It also took a long time to bounce back.

I'm with the other moms except, I would not call at this point. I'd take her to urgent care today. It sounds like she needs to be in the hospital on IV antibiotics.

Suzi

Call the doctors office again. The antibiotic may not be the correct one. Is DD coughing up anything? If she is they may want to do a sputum culture. Is she taking a nap or having quiet time every afternoon? Her body really need this to help fight off the infection.

J., first of all call the doctor, if she/he is unable to help or see your daughter immediately, ask the doctor's office to see another doctor in the staff, or just take her to an urgent care TODAY.
It looks like the antibiotics and the Sudafed are not working so she probably will need another kind of treatment. My little one was at the hospital very very sick last New Year's Eve ( he is 3 and half though) with Pneumonia IT should be treated right away even if they are big kids!
Don't send your daughter to school until everything is totally FINE and she is strong enough and she is fever free for 24 hrs as you have been told. School CAN wait, and it is better to wait until she is TOTALLY recovered before she goes to school, otherwise she may get sick again and you don't want that. Give her LOTS of fluids, water, juices, soups, etc. and let her REST ...she needs time to rest to recover energy. NEVER EVER HESITATE TO CALL THE DOCTOR EVEN IF YOU THINK YOU ARE HAVING A SILLY QUESTION OR SIMPLE CONCERN. If the doctor cannot help you, SWITCH to another one....Moms know better their kids.

She will be fine, just take the necessary precautions and follow your instincts.

Alejandra

You said you were giving her cough medicine. Is it a expepectrant that loosens the stuff up and makes her cough or a suppressant to stop the cough. You may want to talk to your Dr. but when my little boy had pneumonia (he was in the hospital 2 weeks) the Drs. wanted him to cough as much as possible to clear out his lungs, so a cough suppressant is a bad idea. And I can just give you my experience but my son had a fever for two weeks which is why he was in the hospital so long. He couldn't leave til he was fever free for 24 hours without Tylenol.

I'm one of those Moms! In fact, I just brought my 16 month old home yesterday afternoon from the hospital. I took him in for a well-visit on Friday and he seemed perfectly fine, I was ready to find out how he was growing, get a couple shots and be on our way and instead the Ped told me he had pneumonia in his right lung! I was floored b/c he did not seem like a sick kid at all and he hadn't even been sick recently besides an ear ache that I could recall, so I have no idea how he ended up with pneumonia. By Friday evening he had a 99.9 fever at bedtime and it and he got worse through the weekend. Sunday he was breathing very rapidly 90-100 breaths per minute) and his fever was 104.5 so I took him to the ER where he was admitted and got breathing treatments every 3 hours and IV antibiotics. We're home now and he has a breathing treatment machine here which we use every 6 hours and he's on antibiotics and motrin for fever. He doesn't have a cough, actually, but when he was first diagnosed in the Dr. office she said to give him benedryl for a cough and runny nose if it develops (she also put him on strong antibiotics at the time). As far as I can tell he hasn't had a fever since we left the hospital yesterday afternoon. You may want to check with her school and double check what constittes "fever" for them, some schools say over 100 or 99 or whatever, so maybe if your daughters fever is low she can go? Also, have you f/u with your dr.? That seems like a long time for a fever to me. Good luck!

I agree with the others that you should call the doctor and tell them what is going on. Seems she should be better by now. Also I wanted to suggest a cough medicine just for coughs which works great is Delsym. It comes in orange and grape flavor and works great. A pharmist told me about it when my daughter was 2. It is just to cut the cough but works well. You only take every 12 hours and it works for adults and kids. My husband has used it several times when he has a cough and he loves it for that. Good luck with your daughter.

I agree with the other post. Call the dr. to see if they want to change her medications.

I hope she feels better soon!

J.

Hi J.,

I have to agree with the other moms. It sounds like your little girl needs to be seen again to possibly have a sputum culture taken to determine which antibiotic is the correct one for her infection.

I am a school nurse. We always tell our parents that the child HAS to be fever free for at least 24 prior to returning to school without being on Tylenol or ibuprofen. That not only protects your daughter, but it also protects the teachers and the other kids as well. School work can be made up, and with the fact that she is under documented care of a physician, everything will be fine on that aspect.

As far as the cough, I have had pneumonia twice. The first landed me in the hospital because I let it go too long before getting treatment. The second time, I knew what was going on and went to the MD and was immediately placed on antibiotics. Within 24 hours, I was without fever. My cough, on the other hand, continued for well over a month on both occasions. It's not that uncommon. With that said, though, if she is coughing and keeping herself up at night, she is not getting the rest that she needs to help fight this infection. There again, calling the doctor for another looks-see is your best bet. Not only can he change her antibiotic, but he can also give her prescription cough medicine such as codeine to help quiet it down and let her get some rest.

I find it concerning that that your doc did not metion a followup visit. If I were you, I would call and tell them she needs to be seen today or find another doc.

Good luck with you!

J.