Should we go to the Dr?

[Pangie]

DS2 is 15 months and has a cough. It sounds like there is some chest congestion when he coughs, but his breathing is fine. He has a slight runny nose, no fever, decreased appetite (but is still eating), drooling, is having trouble sleeping and is sometimes irritable-just not himself. He is also teething, so most of those symptoms can be explained away by that. But last week he was exposed to someone that had strep throat. I have no idea how to tell if he has a sore throat, and I don't think that would explain the cough. Any tips?

[lazy8]

With strep he'll run a fever, and maybe pull on his ears. Have you noticed any of that?

[froggie83]

i have had strep with no fever... only a sore throat so i would have him checked just to be sure.

[Suja]

I would get him checked out. I have also had strep with no fever.

[LanceBabe]

Until you said he had been exposed to strep, I was going to say just chalk it up to a cold and let it go, but if he was exposed to strep, I would at least go get a strep test.

[JJorn]

If you can get him to open his mouth and look at the back of his throat you can tell if he has strep. I have had strep several times and always been quite ill with it. Was his exposure 24 hours after the person started antibiotics? Did that person touch him at all?

Why did all you without a fever even go to the doctor to find out you had strep? Were you otherwise ill?

It really sounds to me that he just has a cold.

[Suja]

Why did all you without a fever even go to the doctor to find out you had strep? Were you otherwise ill?

I had a very sore throat for a week? 10 days? Something like that, that just wouldn't go away. Then, I started getting chills. No fever, just chills at night, and no matter how many blankets I piled on, I couldn't get warm, and would shiver. I think that it was the inability to sleep on top of having a child that didn't sleep that sent me to the doctor.

[Pangie]

I've had strep before and was very sick with it. My gut says he doesn't have it, cause I really think he would be a lot more miserable than he is. I did talk to a nurse at the Dr. Office and she seems to think it is just a cough and no big deal. She told me to bring him in if he starts tugging his ears to check for an ear infection. He twiddles his ear a lot when he gets tired, but I haven't noticed him tugging on them.

My friends mom babysat the boys on Thursday, during my grandmothers funeral. 2 of her sisters live with her mom and one had strep the week before and the other wasnt feeling well on Thursday so she stayed away from the kids as much as possible and then on Friday she posted on Facebook that she officially had strep. So she wasn't on antibiotics when the kids were at her house. I know the first 24 hours on meds you are contagious.

He was too fussy his morning to look in his throat, I'm hoping he will let me when he gets up from his nap, that will make me feel better.

[pumpkinpeejays]

I'd try to take a peek at the back of his throat, to see if there's any redness. I don't think you have to have a fever hand-in-hand with strep or early strep. Just to be safe, maybe call the Pedi and explain his symptoms?