 [ Symptoms ] what are the symptoms of whooping cough [ Disease ] it starts like a cold with congestion and upper respiratory symptoms after a week or so a cough develops the cough worsens over several days and the coughing fits may be so severe that you can not stop or catch your breath a coughing fit may be followed by a “whoop” as the person gasps to catch their breath it is these coughing fits called paroxysms which cause doctors to be worried about pertussis and try to confirm the diagnosis in people who have been vaccinated or who have had pertussis before the symptoms may be nonspecific pertussis is high on the list if that whoop is present but if it is absent pertussis may go unrecognized it is important to know that infants with pertussis do not always cough in young babies the first sign of pertussis may be difficulty breathing or pauses in breathing that last more than 20 seconds called “apnea ” apnea is serious and requires immediate medical attention for our infant 4mo daughter it started like a pretty normal cough 5 days later the cough had only gotten worse it went from one or two of the infant double cough pairs up to runs of 6 or 8 double cough pairs lasting more like ten seconds we took her to a walk in clinic for a persussis swab that day but she stopped breathing that night and turned blue we called the ambulance and it was a close call but still it is quite crazy how quickly it escalated if you do not hear the telltale whoop it can still be pertussis the whoop did not show up for us until after we had the apnea episodes and were already checked into the hospital the 50 or whatever for a walk in clinic could save your childs life if you end up in the hospital for a week like we did it will cost a lot more than that anyway if an infant is 6mo or older i would not be quick to run fearfully to the clinic but for young ones it is well worth the cautionary checkup if your child has had a cough for more than a few days