Sinusitis

[Ole]

Does anybody have experience of sinusitis in young children? If so, what treatment does the doc give (or that you figured out yourself) and does it work? Any advice welcome! (I have a 3 year old). Thanks.

[Saffron]

If it's viral, you're unlikely to get any specific treatment from the drs. However, if there is a 2ndry bacterial infection, you might argue for some antibitics, although my experience has been that they are unlikely to treat bacterial sinusitis with antibiotics unless (i) the infection is quite profound and/or (ii) the infection becomes prolonged or recurrent.

If there are suspected allergies at play, your GP might prescribe an antihistamine. Or, if the congestion in the sinus is severe, your LO might be old enough for a decongestant. Did you check with the pharmacist for a children's decongestant? There might be an over-the-counter one for children, but I can't remember what the lower age limit is for non-prescription.

Some GPs are more sympathetics to this than others, but it's always worth a check with the drs if you're worried. xx

[Ole]

he has had it for as long as I remember - it manifests itself in what I now know are called 'shiners' (redness and marked creases around the eyes - makes him look like he has not slept for about a year!). The shiners come and go without any specific patterns, although it is worse with pollen and changes in temperature (sudden onset of cold/hot weather spells), in department stores (flourescent artificial lights, strong perfume smells), eating certain foods (no obvious pattern i.e. I have tried elimination etc, without traditional urticaria). Etc etc, basically I have known for ages (since he was a little baby) that he is very sensitive to all sorts of things that trigger the shiners but until now I have just put it down to 'one of those things'. However last week he developed a particularly prominent one (he looks a bit frightening at the moment!) and I have been wracking my brains as to what could possibly be triggering it and I thought that if he has underlying sinus problems then there could be a link (allergic sinusitis vicious circle type thingy). Taking him to the GP this afternoon anyway to ask, but I thought I would ask here if anybody has had a similar scenario. xx

[Saffron]

Oh no, that sounds awful for your LO. Yes, definitely see what the GP has to say. xx