Our experience

Last Tuesday my 3 & 1/2 year old son woke up with a slight fever (101.2) so we kept him home from preschool that day. He was acting fine all day but by 4:00pm his fever had spiked to 103.7 so we nestled up on the couch for an evening of movies, grilled cheese and soup. Around 8:00pm he started to get the chills and had 104.7 temperature. I started to take off his clothes while calling the pediatrician's office. His fever went up to 105 and he started acting very lethargic so we rushed to the ER. Our pediatrician called on the way and said it was probably just the flu but since we had been alternating between Tylenol and Motrin and the fever was still that high we should get seen to rule out anything more serious. The ER doc was great, he could tell Mason was pretty out of it and said that he should come around once the fever was down. They did a nose swipe and the lab came back positive for the flu. The doc said if we started Tamiflu within the first 24 hours of symptoms that it would cut the virus length in half. We got the prescription that night and started it. The next day Mason woke up with a slight fever but by mid morning it was gone and he seemed to be feeling better. However on Thursday we still kept him home from preschool because he was acting slightly off which we just assumed was due to the virus. By Friday the behaviors were worse- he was acting agitated, complaining about the tag in his shirt bothering him (which he has never done before), running around in circles and when I asked him what he was doing he said he felt "funny," he was running into his little brother trying to knock him over (which I know sounds like a 3 yo thing to do but again not for Mason), and by the afternoon he couldn't walk up the stairs without tripping! He had to hold onto the rail just to keep from falling. I called his pediatrician's office and was shocked to hear that they won't prescribe Tamiflu to children because they have seen so many adverse reactions! I was so mad at myself for not looking into this drug before giving it to my son. Now that I know there are studies indicating the side effects are higher then what the drug company is saying as well as doctor's offices (I called another practice and was told the same thing) that won't prescribe the drug to children because of the effects they've seen, I'm committed to raising other's awareness.