Strep Throat AGAIN!!!!

[lukenick1]

Ugh.....this will be my ds6 4th strep throat since October. How many times can you give a child antibiotics. Geez! They hesitate taking tonsils out these days. Anyone have a child with chronic strep????

 

[krcit]

Both of my dd's had chronic strep. My older dd had it 13 times in a 12 month period so I took her to the ENT and he took one look at her tonsils and said they had to come out. My younger dd followed the same pattern when she was in K. Started getting strep often, took her when she had had it about 7 times and he said the same thing. have you taken her to an ENT? I would suggest that if you haven't because my pediatricians never told me to take them, they just kept giving them antibiotics month after month until I took it upon myself to take them.

 

[OceanAnnie]

You are not alone. My kids are on a second round of antibiotics for strep. So frustrating.

 

[Feralpeg]

My DD also had chronic strep throat. When she was five, the doctor told me she had to have her tonsils out. That was the end of the strep.

 

[cepmom]

ugh....DD12 is sick with strep right now too. She doesn't get it chronically though thank goodness! I am hoping it doesn't hit the rest of the house now...DD9 and DD12 share a room so I'm not sure what the chances are that she will avoid it I just opened all the windows to air the house out and Lysoled every room

Hope he feels better soon!

 

[wdwmom2]

Just an FYI, because some people may not realize......

You need to get a new toothbrush when you have been diagnosed with strep, or you can reinfect yourself. You need to do this after you are no longer contagious, which is 24 hours after starting antibiotics.

 

[akcire]

When I was a kid my whole classroom kept getting strep throat (including the teacher)---over and over again--I was about 8 so my details are fuzzy but here is what I remember. One of the classroom parents was a doctor (and sick of his kid continuously getting sick), he offered to have the whole class come to his office for a strep test. Everyone came to the office, except one kid (cause our parents were not going to pass up a free strep test) and those of us that needed it were given an antibiotic. That night the doctor went to the kids house, who had not come and asked his parents if he could do a strep test on their child--they said fine, but he is not sick. The not sick kid was a carrier---he got an antibiotic and then we were all fine.

 

[Mommee]

I agree with taking her to an ENT and get their opinion.

 

[3prettyprincesses]

Just an FYI, because some people may not realize......

You need to get a new toothbrush when you have been diagnosed with strep, or you can reinfect yourself. You need to do this after you are no longer contagious, which is 24 hours after starting antibiotics.

Yes, this is true. I had strep 3 times in a row every month. I could've set my watch by it, every 30 days I ended up sick. They were going to remove my tonsils but luckily I had a smart ENT who said he'd like to culture everyone in the house since some people can be carriers and not have symptoms. Sure enough, DH was the carrier! So he had to take a round of antibiotics and I threw out all of our toothbrushes. Good luck! Strep throat is not fun.

 

[sleigh]

My DS had chronic strep for almost a year. He would finish the antibiotics and have strep again within a week. He had his tonsils out about 3 years ago and still gets strep. Not quite as much as he did before, but still too often. He just finished 2 weeks of antibiotics for strep and when we were at the doctor, I gave them the look I always do and they said it is not a guarantee that it will help with strep. The only benefit to having them out is that he no longer snores.

 

[ilovejack02]

Funny carrier story..

My DH's best friend is single and quite the ladies man and he MUST be a carrier.

It never fails that all of the girls he "dates" get strep .. he took my best friend out on a date or two and at the same time was seeing a cpl of other ladies I know.
THey all ended up with strep at the same time.
Moral to this story ....Don't let men who date around stick their tongue down your throat.

 

[tasha99]

DD had strep CONSTANTLY and tested positive even when she didn't feel ill. They took her tonsils out in the 4th grade and the disappeared. I guess they don't take tonsils out that often anymore, but it made a world of difference for her.

 

[rileyroosmom]

My son constantly had strep when he was 6. Had him tested and he was a carrier for strep. Had the tonsils removed and he's never had strep again and is now 16.

 

[lindal]

We're in the process of dealing with this right now. My DD5 gets strep constantly. She is allergic to amoxicilllin also. She has had strep throat since the first week in January. They finally decided she was resistant to the antibiotic they were giving her so they gave her something different this time and she ended up being so allergic to this antibiotic that she missed a week of school b/c the allergic reaction was so bad. I've asked my pedi several times about taking out her tonsils (which are huge) but she says she doesn't think it's a problem. I really like my pedi but I'm starting to get a little frustrated at this point. Not to mention my DD keeps getting yeast infections b/c of all the antibiotics I feel like the poor kid can't catch a break. The steroids they put her on for the allergic reaction are making her and me crazy

 

[bumbershoot]

Honestly, I would start looking into ways of boosting her immune system. I wouldn't go straight to yanking OUT parts of her immune system (tonsils).

I always had swollen tonsils, and then in college had 'strep' 4 times in one year, and i'd had enough. Found some ancient ENT guy to take them out. Yay...except...now when I get sick, I get sick in my lungs. I tell you, I would take a horribly painful, can't swallow, want to scream while taking pills, throat ANY day over how scary some of my "colds" can get now. About a year after, I felt like such an idiot b/c I KNEW better, my ped had taught us better...the tonsils are a protective device for us.

So...vitamins, better diet, chiropractic, acupuncture...anything to boost the immune system, rather than taking out part of that system...


DS had strep last Fall. I had every last one of his symptoms, except for the swollen throat (mine hurt, though) (I did have swollen glands, so swollen I actually wouldn't have been surprised to find it was mumps in both of us, but there's no definitive test for THAT), and NO ONE wanted to test me for strep. No interest. Can't get it. Yeah, sure........ If they don't test you, of course you can't be diagnosed with it. If it happens again, I'm having them test me. I was just as sick as he was.

Of course, he saw an ND instead of an MD, so along with the antibiotics he took, we also ate tons of garlic, gargled with salt water, etc etc, all the natural ways of helping the body get rid of it. Took me longer to feel better, but finally I got rid of my illness too.

 

[dislaney]

Ugh.....this will be my ds6 4th strep throat since October. How many times can you give a child antibiotics. Geez! They hesitate taking tonsils out these days. Anyone have a child with chronic strep????

Yes I did. Mine finally had her tonsils out after chronic strep and has never had strep again. It was a long couple of years though.

 

[iwrbnd]

It's true they don't take tonsills out for strep anymore. My daughter got hers out right before she turned 2 yrs old for sleep apnea. It's not a fun surgery!

 

[Ohiodislover]

At the end of this month my 14 Y.O. is finally getting her tonsils out after 8-9 years of chronic strep. When she was younger our insurance wouldn't cover it (she wasn't sick enough) We finally convinced her current CRNP to write the referral.

I paid out of pocket for a sleep study, actually hoping she had apnea so they would take them.

Not looking forward to the recovery. She is also having turbinate reduction at the same time. We are so looking forward to life after the recovery. She misses 10-15 days of school each year d/t strep.

I had mine out at 14 too.

Good luck. Try and get an ENT consult.

 

[deva]

I've asked my pedi several times about taking out her tonsils (which are huge) but she says she doesn't think it's a problem. I really like my pedi but I'm starting to get a little frustrated at this point.

I can totally relate to this and like other posters said. See an ENT. After 2 winters of recurring strep/sinus/ear infections I was at my wit's end. Ped said DD3.5 was too little to consider taking out tonsils. This was after she had been on antibiotics for 66% of time Nov-April. I just went to see an ENT on my own. He immediately recommended removing adenoids for sinus, taking out tonsils due to strep and tubing the ears if there was fluid in them when she was under (which there was). BEST thing we could have done.

This is just my personal experience, but I really feel like Peds treat the illness (i.e she's sick, here's your antibiotics, she'll be better in 14 days). Ped did not want to consider tonsillectomy until she was at least 5. ENT wanted to remove the source of the problem (strep - take out those tonsils, sinus- remove the adenoids, ears - tube them so they'll drain).

Also as other posters have said, strep can linger. Wipe down all doorknobs, handles, tables etc. with bleach solution. In addition to the toothbrushes, change the toothpaste tube (the strep germs can live in the top of the tube/cap if you swipe an infected brush across the tube while getting toothpaste).

Good luck!

 

[IDoDis]

DS used to get strep often. Then one year he had it 8 times in 12 months we said enough is enough. After ruling out him being a carrier which means he'd test positive for it even if it wasn't really strep that he had, we got a referral to an ENT to have his tonsils removed.

There was a 3 month wait to get in to see the ENT, but then the day before the appointment, the ENT's office would call and say we'd have to reschedule because the ENT was going to be gone the next day. That happened twice so 5 months had passed and still no appointment. Then, summer was over so we weren't going to have the tonsils removed and have DS miss 10 days of school right when school was starting back up. So, DS never had his tonsils removed and we were going to wait until the following spring to try again.

Strange thing though, is that DS hasn't had one case of strep since we decided to get a referral which was two years ago. Go figure.