pneumonia!??? or something else!

[motherofan18month]

well, i know i should post in the maternal and child forum but i know most of u and most of u have children already so here goes!!!!!!!!  my 2 1/2 yr. old has asthma and allergies.....had a flu shot on the 11th.......on the 17th he started wheezing, breathing rapidly, running a fever of 102.6...18th ne started getting diarrhea, nasal congestion along with the other symptoms, last night he began vomiting and his cough sounds croupy....could this be from the flu shot or could it be pneumonia...any advice!!!!???????????

[motherofan18month]

i was trying to hurry and get back to ds...(crying all night) so i left out some info! in Oct. he was diagnosed with RSV and then again at the end of Nov.-first of Dec. he had it again! unfortunately RSV can take up to 8 weeks before it is released from your system hence why he had it twice in 2 months....the reason i thought it could be pneumonia is because of the way is chest moves when he breathes and because RSV can cause pneumonia to be set up in your system since your system is low especially in toddlers!

[tiredbuthappy]

none of us could possibly diagnose him over the internet, but i would get him to a doctor ASAP. flu, pneumonia, rsv... any of these require him to be seen as soon as possible. good luck and i hope he feels better soon.

[sweetangel7]

I agree that you should take him to the doctor...even the ER if he is bad and still running the temp.  Good luck!

[motherofan18month]

i agree with both of you and i plan on taking him in monday to his ped. since he has been sent home from the ER with rsv, flu, and was also sent home with meds he shouldn't have been taking....our ER doesn't know what they are doing so i am kinda in a spot when he gets sick..there is another docs office that has late hours so i could take him there but they dont know his history so i dont know hwat they could do for him....im just continuing his breathing treatments, allergy meds, and alternating tyleno & motrin until i can get in to see his doc. i worded my question different than what i was thinking....... my real question was supposed to be how can u tell if someone has pneumonia? is there any signs/symptoms other than breathing difficulties! or how could i tell if he has fluid in his lungs!???

[sweetangel7]

Supposedly you can hear it with a stehoscope but a chest xray is the only way for sure.  With an asthmatic child, it might be difficult to determine just by listening because I am sure he is wheezy regardless if he has pneumonia!  Just a suggestion though, perhaps you could get him on some prednisone or some sort of steroid.  I had a viral infection that they thought was pneumonia in June and the steroids were the only thing that kept me going.  I'm asthmatic too and it seems like whenever my body gets anything, my asthma gets 110x worse!