41/2 Year Old Getting over Pneumonia - What's Normal?

I would take her back to the same dr. that just diagnosed the pneumonia and have them listen to her lungs again. There should have been an improvement after 6 days on her antibiotic, and if there isn't, they may prescribe an alternate antibiotic or treatment. I wouldn't wait the whole 10 days to go back if she's still so sick.

Susan, not sure about the antibiotics and how fast it should work, but I had pneumonia last year and I know it's a good thing if she's coughing stuff up, and you should promote it with some of those ideas from the previous response.

when my older son was little, he had pneumonia and kept relapsing. you may need a stronger antibiotic. be sure to call your doctor.

Trust your instincts! Take her back or to the ER if you feel her doctor's office isn't on the same page as you. You are your daughters advocate and if you feel she's not improving then she isn't, no one else could be as concerned as you. My daughter always responded within 48hours of antibiotic for pneumonia. You probably need a new med, maybe some IV fluids. I am a nurse (not pediatrics) and I know that they can't tell what type of bacteria from an x-ray, only from a sputum sample. They may want to do that or just assume and switch antibiotics. I've seen elderly people recover very slow from pneumonia but a 4 1/2 year old should be responding to treatment quickly. Good luck!

Hi Susan,

I have been in the same situation, give the doctor a call and see what they think. Tell him about the symptoms and that your are still worried that she isn't getting better. Good luck, hopefully she will get well soon.

Poor kid. Pneumonia is awful. My son has had it twice too now, and it really was a good two to three weeks before he was completely himself. This last time, (last year he was 5) was the worst. Same sort of things, fever for days on end, coughing until he threw up, listless, no appetite for a good week, just awful coughing jags. Somewhere in the one week mark I took him in, because he just seemed like he was getting worse to me, while my younger daughter who also had it, seemed to being doing much better by comparison. They switched anti biotics for him, and he seemed a lot better in 24 hours, and by 72 hours was actuall playing and eating again. They put him on Omnicef. What they figured happened was that beccause he had so many ear infections as a baby and yound toddler, he built an immunity to the first anti biotic they gave him, which I beleive was Ceftin. They also reccomended that he drink a lot of things like Gatorade, (I guess corn syrup is actually good in situations like these) to help thin the secretions, warm compressses on the chest several times a day, sitting in the steam of a shower, and vicks on the soles of his feet as well as the usual places. Oh also, a warm air humidifier. I personally liked the Vicks Plug in one with the fan, felt safer to me and really helped the kids alot. Hope this helps, and I hope your daughter feels better soon.

My 2 1/2 year old just got over pneumonia recently. She had a very high fever for days and coughed constantly to the point of vomiting. She did get better on anti-biotics, but it took days.

Some things to think about - is your daughter dehydrated from not eating/drinking and vomiting? That could keep her fever up and energy down. If she is severely dehydrated, you may need a trip to the emergency room to get an IV. We've had to do that before - not too fun, but at least our daughter perked up after that.

Also, are you using a humidifier in her room? That seemed to help our daughter.

Unfortunately, it can take a bit of time to recover from pneumonia. I've heard about kids taking a month to get back to 100%. Good luck.

My daughter will cough and vomit whenever she has mucous. I think they have a hard time clearing it from their throat and will gag and then vomit on it. I do want to point out that if you have been giving her antibiotics you should also be giving her a probiotic. The antibiotic kills all the bacteria in your body including the good kind. This is essential for our immune system. You can find several at Wholefoods or CVS sells one called Culturelle which is actually quite good. Just open the capsule and add it to liquid. Probiotics are what is in yogurt, but in higher concentrations. You need far more than what is in yogurt. Your doc should have recommended that, but unfortunately only a few are starting. Please call your doctor to confirm. Also you can give her half a capsule several times a day, but you cant ever "overdose" on it so dont fear. This will help her immensely and is probably why she seems to be relapsing. I hope she feels better soon!

Hi. Maybe you should take her to an ER or urgent care for second look. My son and daughter were just hospitalized for an upper resp infection and they sounded like they had pneumonia but the xrays were negative. They had to be put on oxygen because there O2 stats were low. The er dr said its going around. I did have my son in the drs the day before and of course she felt horrible because she thought it was just a case of bacterial infection. It happened to be viral and they had to stay in hospital to they fought it off which was 3 days hospitalized. Maybe your 4 1/2 yr old dont have this and I pray not but maybe just get her checked again just in case. Many blessings!

I'm praying for her! Doesn't sound like any fun at all. I think I might have it myself and hope my 10 month old doesn't get sick.

Hi! Pneumonia can be very draining for both you and your child. My three year old had some of your same symptoms. What would scare me the most is when my toddler would cough and because of the coughing would begin to gag and vomit because of the coughing. My doctor told me not to allow her to have a drink or a snack before bedtime. (only a small amount of water if thirsty). Prior to bedtime we cut out all snacks. This helped so much with the vomiting with the cough at night. She no longer vomited because she did not have the extra food on her stomach. Also I put Vicks vapor rub on the bottom of his feet with and then put a pair of socks on her. It really helped the cough! Really!! God bless you and speedy recovery! Hope this helped!

The doctor doesn't seem concerned? Yikes! I agree about the ER -- and maybe you need a new doctor. I hope your child is getting lots of rest and fluids, too....