Question: My son has been ill for 2 months now. It started with blocked nose and cough at night, general fatigue and dark red patches under his eyes which got worse at night. The right eye was always worse. After 2 weeks he got earache in his right ear and was diagnosed with an ear infection. His right tonsil was up too. 7 days amoxycillin and he got better. 5 days later he was unwell. Took him back to doc who said it was tonsillitis. He had pus and both tonsils up. A week later wasn't gone so doc took a swab. Swab came back as strep 4 days later by which point he seemed to be on the mend. Doc insisted on 10 days of penicillin. He got worse on penicillin and by day 10 had more pus than ever. That was 2 weeks ago. He finally seemed brighter, more energy, better appetite had stopped drooling by this Tues. But on Weds he fell asleep twice in the day, had a temp of 37.5 and a terrible headache. His voice had also gone hoarse again and he woke in the night cause it hurt so much to swallow. The next day his face was very flushed, almost bright red but todsy this has gone down as has his temp. His tonsils are still up but no pus. Do you think this is persistent strep infection or a series of unrelated infections/viruses?

Hi. Thank you for your reply. Just to confirm, is it possible then to still have strep even if no pus is visible on the tonsils? Though I think I occasionally get a foul whiff, when I check his breath it smells ok. Also, would strep explain the flushed face and red under eyes? He also now seems to be waking up with small pink blotches on his neck which go once he's had paracetemol. Could these be caused by strep too? Thank you

Thanks for your response. Very helpful. In terms of your reccommended treatment, Betadine is not supposed to be given to children. My son is only just 4 and will likely swallow it. I have found Care Chlorhexidine Digluconate 0.2% w/v antiseptic mouthwash which apparently is suitable. Will this be as effective?
Also, you don't mention antibiotics. Do you feel another course or a different antibiotic is not worthwhile? I'm afraid I don't know the strain of strep he has but the doc said it was rare and that it should respond to penicillin and one other antibiotic. When it didn't respond to penicillin their opinion was it prob won't respond to another. What do you think?