re: Giving Toddlers Tamiflu and the Flu - Any advice?

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Asking for opinions on the matter is something completely normal.

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Do all these people ignore their Dr's advice yet comes to a sports site to ask about medical advice on a child??

Didn't think so

I agree. Shitty poster gonna shitty.

I would have asked the same thing. I have a 4 month old and I was wondering about Tamiflu if she were to get the flu.

relax guys

It won't do any good if you start it after 48hrs of symptom onset. If it started Monday, good news is he should be better in the next day or 2.

my son, who just turned 1 last week, had the flu a couple of months ago. his pediatrician prescibed tamiful and it seemed to work well.

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someone that SAYS they are a Dr or NP. He wasnt asking an opinion he was asking advice while his child is a degree or two away from major issues. Spin it how you want but this is fact and honesty. Things that no longer exist in this country.

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I'm neither a doctor not an NP, but the bolder portion of your statement above shows a pretty serious lack of understanding of pediatric health. Answers aren't ever clear cut. The best data for the use of the drug at all come from trials in adults. It was shown to reduce the time the patient was sick. It MAY (not for certain) have shown a lack of symptoms in adults. There have been no pediatric mortality studies published to my knowledge. Thus, the guy prescribing it is following a relatively new practice pattern that's not particularly proven, and it's really a coin flip as to whether it's worth anything or not. The side effect profile is very mild and easily controlled by stopping the medication, making low-risk, decent reward one reason to prescribe it. There are others that disagree and say "it's never really been shown to do anything in patients similar to this one. I'm not writing for it." guy was confused because two doctors in the same practice had opinions similar to the two above. There's definitely no evidence that it prevents kids from a 103 fever from progressing to a 104 or 105 fever, which you seem to be worried about for some unknown reason. the most reassuring thing that the kid isn't "a degree or two away from major issues" is that they were observed by a professional (and even though the OP doesn't like him as a physician, he's probably a fine doctor who was in an uncomfortable situation and lost the trust of his patient because of his Handling of that situation) who was not concerned about the need for hospitalization. A fever of 103 in a kid with the flu isn't that big of a deal. A fever of 104 isn't that big of a deal so long as the kid doesn't look that different than he did earlier that day. That number means very little. There are very valid arguments for both giving and not giving the drug. Neither is right, neither is wrong. There are plenty of medical professionals online who will give off-the-cuff advice on situations and may be better at explaining/have more time to explain questions than the poster's own clinician. There's nothing wrong with asking them, regardless of the forum- there are many posters on this site who know nothing and post nothing about sports. If the guy were asking for advice on how to perform CPR or whether he should cut his own kid's toe off and listening to the advice of a message board, your post would be a little more valid. In the instance of a guy deciding to give a drug that's not proven to work to his young child after getting varying opinions from multiple healthcare professionals, i will respectfully disagree with your premise wholeheartedly.

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It won't do any good if you start it after 48hrs of symptom onset. .

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If you read the trial this recommendation comes from, the group who received it within 48 hours of onset was the only group seen to have a reduction in symptom duration as a whole by a measurable amount. It doesn't take into account patients who got it later and had some small amount of symptom reduction by severity.

Thus, the CDC recommends starting if "as early as possible...especially within first 48 hrs of symptom onset" in patients, especially those who are at risk of other complications (<2 years of age is specifically listed).

In other words, current CDC recommendation would say that it's reasonable to give this kid Tamiflu even though it may be 72 hours out because of its relatively mild side effect profile and benefit of symptom reduction, though I've never read a trial that quantifies symptom reduction by severity in flu, but that's a particularly difficult thing to be objective about.

So you state that 104 isn't a big deal as long as the child's behavior doesn't change. Well how do you know when it get to 104 or 105 he doesn't go into a fever induced seizure which is very possible. My simple point was to state that it's not the greatest idea to come to a sports board to ask about a child's health in the middle of a serious sickness. As you stated the doctor was a competent person who gave the OP a script. The OP decided to not fill the script then come to a message board to ask opinions. Not a medical site. I see that as a lack of judgement if you do not then that's your opinion which means shite just like mine. We can argue the if ands buts of the drugs effectiveness all week long but that wasn't the point I was trying to make. If you took the time to read my post as the time to ramble on about nothing you would realize that.

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Well how do you know when it get to 104 or 105 he doesn't go into a fever induced seizure which is very possible

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Febrile seizures can occur with any amount of fever and even if antipyretic were given. They're scary, but seizures themselves are harmless so long as they stop within a few minutes and the person continue to breathe, as the vast majority do. With no history of febrile seizures in the family, it's fairly unlikely that he would have one.

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My simple point was to state that it's not the greatest idea to come to a sports board to ask about a child's health in the middle of a serious sickness.

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Meh. It's not even an "urgent" situation, much less "emergent." The guy knew there were lots of people here with experience. He's been around the site long enough to know who claims to be in the field. None of the advice is outlandish. Much of it comes from people who frequently advise other posters. The decision he was making was perfect for that. Non-urgent and really not all that important. The kid will almost certainly be better with no lasting effects two weeks from now regardless of what he does. He may make him a little more or less miserable, and people who have given their own child that medication are usually better to ask than physicians or healthcare workers about that. Peds is the rare exception- many pediatricians go as far as to walk down to the pharmacy and taste-test medications so they know what they're giving their patients or how to help them tolerate it better.

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As you stated the doctor was a competent person who gave the OP a script. The OP decided to not fill the script then come to a message board to ask opinions

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The script was given to him by a physician who basically said "I don't think you need this, but my boss thinks you do...today. He changes his mind about this drug a lot." So the OP went to the pharmacy and asked the pharmacist what they thought, and they responded that it was probably better not to fill it. He sided with the two health care professionals who advised him face to face, his kid still looks bad, it bothers him, so he's reaching out to anyone else with experience to make sure his decision wasn't stupid. Most of the responses are making him feel like he should have filled the script and find a new physician. The latter is a bit extreme. The first is far from unreasonable. The reaching out to others is pretty reasonable, too.

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If you took the time to read my post as the time to ramble on about nothing you would realize that.

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I read your post and understood your point. I even addressed it in my first post that you either did not read or failed to comprehend.

accidental post