Early symptoms of whooping cough in infants

The early symptoms of whooping cough are usually similar to a common cold. Most of parents will not notice the present of the disease at this time. This early signs will stay for about one to three weeks, along this period, infants or babies who get whooping cough may experience mild signs such as low-grade fever, runny nose, sneezing, nasal congestion, watery eyes, and mild cough.

According to the CDC website, experts classify the disease progression into three main stages. The first stage also known as catarrhal stage, this first stage may last 1 to 3 weeks. The second stage, also known as paroxysmal stage, commonly lasts from 1-6 weeks and may extend to 10 weeks. And the last stage, convalescent stage may last for about 2 -3 weeks. To know more detail about whooping cough base on its stage, please follow this link.

Infants or children who exposes to Bordetella pertussis, the culprit that causes whooping cough or also known as pertussis, will experience early whooping cough signs. Some of them will also experience lost of appetite, irritability, fussy or troublesome. A low grade fever may develop but usually limited to the first week after the infection initiated. This stage is the most contagious phase, so it’s wise to contain or isolate the infected children from other susceptible person.

Advance symptoms of whooping cough

After one to three weeks of cold similar signs, children or infants who get the disease will experience violent and rapid coughing cause breath difficulty, this condition force individual with the disease to inhale the air with a loud “whooping sound”. Sometimes in several serious cases, this condition leads to “apnea” or a pause in the infant’s breathing pattern.

Pertussis categorized as a dangerous health problem especially for infants under 6 months of age. According to CDC website, in the United States, more than half of infants under 1 year of age must be hospitalized because of this health problem. Vomiting and changing lips color into bluish caused by breathing problem may also show as advance pertussis signs.

Pertussis complications

Untreated pertussis may lead to complications such as hernia, pneumonia, respiratory failure, bleeding over the white of eyes, congestion of blood, and death. According to whoopingcough.net, pertussis complications are very rare. Proper diagnosis and treatments will eliminate the symptoms of whooping cough effectively. The disease will gradually recover after 8 to 12 weeks of pertussis period. This is why some of people call this cough as 100 day cough.