Possible Strep- Do You Opt to Have Your Kid Swabbed?

Whenever my pediatrician swabs, we get the results within a few minutes. I would not allow my child to take antibiotics without a good reason.

I know that if my kids go to the pediatrician or I go to my family doctor they will both insist on having a swab before prescribing antibiotics, because there are lots of viral infections that can look like strep. They do a rapid swab which shows results in minutes. The walk-in clinics seem to diagnose strep on sight and prescribe antibiotics right away. I hate the idea of taking antibiotics for no reason. I avoid the walk-in clinics for that reason.

Get swabbed.

If it is Strep, you need to know.
Strep is not just a throat cold.
It can affect the organs and other parts of the body.
And, then you as a family, would also need to watch that you also do not get it or if you do.

Yes, I always confirm strep with a throat culture before getting an antibiotic for it. Our ped would never even offer an Rx for it without confirming--it is irresponsible and part of the reason we have antibiotic resistance problems.

B.:

Whenever we have taken our kids to the pediatrician for possible strep - they get swabbed and in 5 minutes get the results. They do a 24 hours culture.

I get my kids swabbed. I don't like putting my kids on antibiotics unless I know they need it. However, I don't get a 3 day wait. Really. I don't. I want to know what I'm battling - not just "well, this MIGHT be strep" - if it's not - we are putting the kids on antibiotics unnecessarily.

Hope your little guy is better today!!

We always do the swab.
They do two of them. One is a 10 minute test that is really accurate and the other is the 3 day test, just to be sure, in case it is in the early stages.
There are times when I was positive that my kids didn't have strep, because they didn't have a fever or sore throat, just a constant runny nose (flood), that the swabs came back positive and sure enough within a day they were running a low grade fever.

I would not give antibiotics unless my child had something that warranted them. Thus, I would do the swab and if it was positive I would do antibiotics. If negative I would just wait for the next day test. At this point they have no reason to give your child antibiotics. If a strep test came up positive then they would.

I would have the test done. Strep can be very serious. My daughter has had it 5 times since August. We have already seen an ENT when she had it the 4th time and they didn't want to do anything yet. Since she got it again, we now have another apt. with a different ENT (allergist reccomended a new one) and have another appointment for June (they are booked out) and she will most likely be having her tonsils out this summer.
Strep is not something to mess around with. I hope your little one feels better soon!

Dear F. B.,
GET IT SWABBED NOW!!!!!
Our pedi automatically does the double swab when he suspects strep...if the rapid swab comes back positive (and it only takes like 20 minutes, if that), we come out with a script ...if it comes back neg, the other goes to the lab, and knock on wood 48 hours later it's still negative and we're still script free....
My advise is don't mess w/ strep...untreated it can cause rheumatic fever (you know like when Beth died in Little Women)and mess up other organs and watch out for a funky rash(yes, scarlet fever is related to strep)

Hope your little feels better

I would much rather swab. Then get the rapid strep results. Even if I chose to start the anti-biotics, if it isn't strep, then I would want to know how to proceed. Otherwise, if the anti-biotics don't work, you will be starting back over at step one in a few days.

Hope he feels better soon!

Why would you put your kid on antibiotics if not necessary? Doesn't your doctors office have the quick strep test? I would do the swab and wait for results.

I would want to know if strep was present. It's a nasty disease. It can effect many organs and have long lasting effects, and what if the med isn't the right one? My granddaughter was on 3 different antibiotics. The last one was in the hospital via IV and a drip bag. She was still in the hospital for a week with strep. I would never not want to know specifically what the germ was if there was a way of knowing for sure.

I always have my children swabbed if they suspect Strep for one simple reason: notifying the daycare. The treatment is essentially the same for most infections, but some are more contagious than others. Depending on the infection, the daycare needs to notify other parents and they typically maintain a list of "what's going around".

Recently my children had "Hand-foot and mouth" disease (very gross, don't Google it). The first thing the pediatrician told us was to call the daycare and preschool so that they could notify their staff and other parents. It's highly contagious, but there's nothing you can really do to treat it.

That's really the only reason. Hope he feels better soon!

I really hate it that they give out antibiotics before even knowing if they are needed. But then when your kid is horribly sick you just want them to feel better again and you are willing to do whatever. I opt to do the swab because I want to know. My ped and my doctor do the same thing yours did. I wish they could find out immediately.

I always have them swabbed. It's important to know if it's an infection. Antibiotics won't help a virus... However, if it's influenza A or B, you can start tamiflu (if the doctor will give tamiflu to a child your son's age...)

I will tell you that last June, my husband got sick and the doctor at urgent care did both a strep swab and a flu test. Turned out that he had BOTH Strep AND Influenza A. It was a shocker! He took both antibiotics and tamiflu. (Still flat on his back for a week...)

My doc does the swab-and if it is suspected, then I go ahead with it. But they do a quick test that can give us the results in just a few hours and send off for the real test that takes a few days.

We swab - in fact, by about the age of 5 my son would tell the Doctor to check his throat - he got strep annually and he knew when he had it. No at 16, he will still ask to have his throat swabbed - eh, he is a little paranoid about strep now.

But I would rather confirm a diagnosis of strep as a way to rule out other possible causes. Since a virus doesn't need an antibiotic and can also cause severe throat pain and fever.

Hope you son feels better soon!

You need to get swabbed, even ask for it if you have to, because if it is strep, your daycare needs to know ASAP. Daycares are required by law to inform parents of instances of contagious illnesses, strep being one of those. That way parents can watch their own children for symptoms and seek treatment maybe earlier than they would if no exposure had occurred. If you opt not to have your child swabbed, then you are preventing them from being able to provide the best possible care for all the children in their care. It's not a responsible move.

Three days?! We get our results right then. So yes, I opt to have him swabbed. Besides, if it's strep, I don't want to send my kids to school and spread it all over the place. But if it isn't strep, they're going whether they like it or not. :)

my ped is not going to give antibiotics unless he is sure there is an infection. so my son has only had antibiotics two or three times and he is almost 6. my ped says he can look at the throat and almost diagnose strep.. a kid with a fever,, complain of a sore throat and a yucky looking throat.. red with white patches... will get a swab... and antibiotics..

There have been times our dr did not swab if she was pretty positive that's what it was. I would have just gotten the meds and if they didn't seem to be working have him re checked. My kids when they were little did not like the swab. I hope your little man feels better really soon!!!

I have opted not to have my throat swabbed because my doctor doesn't do the rapid tests and treatment would be the same. My pediatrician does the rapid tests so we have the results intantly. If it's negative they sometimes still send it out just to be sure (so if it's something else, they can work on finding out what).

the breath has always been the give-away on my kids (and grand)

insurance wouldn't pay w/o the swab - so it was done - even tho we both knew child had strep

I would not give antibiotics if they aren't necessary ("suspect" strep is not the same as "confirmed" strep). Of course, the doctors know what's "going around" in your area, and may base their diagnosis on symptoms and current outbreaks. I have refused to fill prescriptions for antibiotics when a doctor has said "I think this is viral, but I'm going to prescribe..." NO! NO! NO!
Urgent care should do the rapid test (from swab), which is fairly accurate (some false negatives)... that would only take 10-15 minutes. Then, depending on (lots of factors), they may send it in for culture (that's what takes 24-48 hours). But, if rapid is positive, you'd want to start antibiotics.

It really comes down to your mama instincts, though. Personally, those symptoms wouldn't have warranted a trip to urgent care (unless there was a sore throat, higher fever peaks, vomiting, or other more severe symptoms). Even then, I probably would have called the pediatrician (nurse line) and asked for guidance. Probably would've just kept the kid home and done "mama's home nurse care"!!

DD did have strep back in the fall, rapid swab was positive, we did antibiotics. She had similar symptoms, but was also complaining of a sore throat (lots of coughing and mucous). Dad had "similar" symptoms, rapid swab was negative, cultures negative. He tends to overreact, so he was on unnecessary antibiotics for 5 days (it wasn't strep)!

I don't see why you wouldn't. I would think that most doctors will decide to NOT give antibiotics if it's not strep (or a different bacterial infection). What my dr will do is give me the prescription and call the next day if it comes back positive (during further testing). Then he will check up in 10 days to make sure all is clear. Why would a dr. give a prescription for something that is viral?