Why my children will never have cefaclor again.

Hi everyone,

Last monday Hartley started on a course of cefaclor for a staph infection, this is something i now really regret giving to him, fast forward to this monday and he got a line of welts along the top of his nappy which i assumed was a reaction to disposables as we had to use them till the infection had cleared.

Hartley woke on tuesday morning at 6.30am Damien checked him over and it hadnt got worse so brought him into me and he fed and napped till 7.00am when we woke and i noticed the red welts was now all over his belly with a few spots on his legs and arms. I woke Bailey up and packed a nappy bag and went to my mums and dads. Dad agreed it was a reaction to something and had Bailey while i took Hartley to Flinders medical centre to the emergency department. We got in straight away and were there for three hours in which time the doctor said it was a reaction and prescribed phenergan and panadol to help with the pain and advised me if anything changes to bring him back in.

4pm that afternoon the welty area on his belly had got a circle of purple bruising (you can almost see it in the second photo in the previous post) which i freaked out grabed hartley and rushed him back to energency and got told by the same doctor that i was worrying over nothing and it hadnt changed since that morning which it had changed the doctor was a moron and made me feel like a paranoid parent so we went back home Hartley had a nap.

I woke hartley up at 9pm as he had been sleeping for a while and i had to keep fluid in him, when i woke him he was covered up to his chest and on his neck and legs to his knees, so 10pm we're walkign back into emergency and saw a different dr, drpalash who was wonderful and considering they were very busy we got seen fairly quickly.

Dr Palash informed me it looks like a serum sickness which to my understanding means the antib's have made him sick, there are four different ways of reacting some react straight away some have delayed reactions and some react once the antibs are stopped, the later being hartley, now he only said it looks like serum sickness as he had never seen it that bad before, which is something every pead we saw told us, they had seen it but only minor compared to hartley who had an extreme reaction. He had bloods taken and we did a trial of fluids as hartley hadnt been feeding well at all and had been throwing up. We also got the choice to stay in or to come back in the morning to be a day stay on the ward and see the head pead, we chose to come back after discussing it with dr Palash.

When we went in yesterday morning Hartley had gotten worse he was now covered head to toe and i mean covered, he screamed his lungs out any time he was touched and was over sensitive to light, worse bit was he wanted cuddles, he just wanted me to hold him but it hurt him so much, how as a parent can we comfort when it causes so much pain?

So yesterday we saw the pead hartley got given panadol as he was februal when we got there (temps was 39.8) he also got given nurofen a short time later to help with the swelling, oh forgot that bit Hartleys hands, wrists, belly, feet, and ankle were very swollen. The doctor wanted to do a trial of fluids and let hartley sleep and come back at 3pm to see how he was and decide then if he was going to be admitted or just brought back in in the morning. The pead also asked if it was ok for the hospitals photographer to take some pictures which i didnt mind

He was admitted and given steroids as it had got even worse, i had to leave hartley to pop home and get some clothes for the night and make sure everything for bailey was organised, this was so hard to leave him in hospital hes only been left once for a few hours out of damien or my care, lets just say i cried the whole way home everything had just hit me and i couldnt help but wonder if it is just going to keep getting worse.

When we got back to the hospital damien came with me and hartley actually smiled at his daddy he was so happy to see him, so my sooky crying in pain boy had a smile for daddy which is greta as damien was at home during the day stressed out with worry looking after bailey.

That evenings rounds of visits had the doctors prep hartley for a drip and blood test until hartley did his first pee of the day all over the cot lol it was funny at the time as the doctor had the nappy off seeing the spread that had happened into the nappy area in the last hour, but it was great that he peed it avoided a drip, then once the doctor had done a google search which confirmed everyones thoughts on it being serum sickness he said another blood test wasnt needed. The google searched showed another case of this but that babies rash/welts were only up to chest level and to the knee whereas Hartley was covered from the top of his head to his toes.

During the night hartley was up in pain at 3am till 4,30am so we had a bit of a restless night but the trundle bed wasnt too uncomfy! But on waking Hartley was walking the cot and giggling and happier so once the doctrs did the rounds we got discharged with steroids to give him every 24hrs to help it clear up.

I just want to also add if your little one gets prescribed cefaclor or ceclor please think twice as 30% of children react to this antiB and its one the hospitals refuse to prescribe as its a known one for side effects and they are stumped why the doctors keep prescribing it when there are other antiBs they can prescribe.

I am going to update with other photos but on my previous post is pictures of how Hartley was at 4pm on tuesday these were taken then i noticed the change around his belly button so thats when the second hosp visit was. I'll add the later photos too so that you can see the difference in a few short hoursI have to say it was very funny being in hospital as we had over 50 doctors and nurses come and look at hartley as no one had seen it before and he was being talked about, and when other mum n dads saw him all i got asked was is that meningococcal

Thank you if you read all this sorry it is so long and detailed but i hope it raises awareness of the severity of cefaclor's side effects, and if it stops one child having a reaction then that is fantastic as no parents wants to see their baby in that much pain.