Cough and Croup

Decadron is what our pulmonologist gave us. It comes in a chewable tablet. It's better than prednisone which is what the ER always gives us. We use Xopanex rather than Albuterol. It's basically Albuterol minus the hyped up kid. Xopanex isn't really effective with croup unless the O Sat. is low. I don't know about Albuterol. We recently got the doctor's permission to use it on a kid it wasn't prescribed for, but we ended up not needing it. If it's been four nights, I'd say you're probably at the end. Since it's a regular thing, you might check into something like Decadron that you can give starting when you first hear it. Once we started that, we rarely had a sleepless night, although some were still rough. GL! I hope you get some sleep tonight! :)

Hi Lisa - a trip to your doctor is probably in order as the inflammation in his airway seems to have really set in. Croup is the same virus that causes laryngitis in adults. The barking cough is caused by swelling of the airway. From history with my kids, the doctor may give him a small dose of steroid to help with the swelling and may even recommend a nebulized breathing treatment to help open his airway.

Has any one suggested to have your little guy sit up to sleep? You can either stuff some pillows under one end of his matress or have him sleep in a reclining chair. Turn the heat down in his room, if possible, even if he has to wear a hat on his head and be bundled. Cool air helps so much! Every other suggestion I had has been given. My son gets croup every winter. We now have a nebulizer at home for emergencies.

If he is not improving, take him into the doctor. The biggest thing is to have them monitor his oxygen level.

I hope you can all get some sleep soon.

T.

delysm works wonders on my children I usually just do one dose at night to help them sleep

My daughter had something very similar just a week ago. I ended up taking her to the Dr. After chest x-ray and a nose swab for RSV they gave her an antibotic for possible pneumonia. She got better right away on the antibotic. You may need to take him in to the dr, especially since he isn't getting better w/ all of your wise home remedies.

Hi Lisa,
Its great that your Dr gave you meds for your son and seems to be helping but you mentioned that he still have a cough. If you want a good OTC med I prefer Delsym for my kids, it really works great.

On the other hand my grandmother showed me a home remedy that works everytime and my kids litterally beg me to make it when the cough season starts up. Take a medium sized red or yellow onion, peel the dry skin off and cut it up into medium to smallish chunks, no need to finely dice it or anything. Put it in a small sauce pan with 1cup of sugar and bring to a boil over meduim heat. once it boils lower the temp to medium low and stir frequently if not constantly until the sugar glaze is trasparent to clear. It will be yellowish or reddish in color depending on the onion you used but it should be clear or easy to see through. Remove the syrup from heat and let cool. I give the kids 1 to 2 spoonfuls of the syrup, not the onions, every 3-4hrs for their cough. I strain out the onion chunks and store it in a jar in the fridge although its easier to dispense at room temp.

I don't know why this works but it does and suprisingly it tastes good too! Good luck, you've got the rest of the winter to go!

C. C.

I was really prone to coughs of all kind when I was a kid. There were three tricks that seemed to help a lot in conjunction with the things you are already doing: wear a turtle neck to keep his neck really warm, have him sleep on his back with the covers pulled all the way to his neck (they should be keeping the neck really warm, and have him sleep on two pillow so his head is elevated. I would not recommend having him go outside to suck the cool air because the cold is not soothing on his throat and lungs; the cold always aggravates a cough. You may also want to try a steam vaporizer (for the warm steam) or an ultrasonic humidifier (it puts off far more mist that a regular one) and see if that helps. You may also want to get him checked for asthma while he is croupy because lung sicknesses can bring on asthma. Good luck!

Honey has worked for my daughter - just a teaspoon of buckwheat honey does the trick. Our local Kingsoopers carries the buckwheat honey which is supposed to be best for coughs.

What I do when my son gets croupy is to rub him down with vicks like you do, but I put it on his chest, his back, under his armpits, in the bends of his knees and on the bottoms of his feet. Sounds like a lot, but it helps get it over with quickly because those are the thin parts of the skin. Also, what I do is put a pot of boiling water on my stove, make sure you watch it so it doesn't boil out. Put some vicks in it also and let it steam up the entire house. It puts a lot of moisture in the air and causes the croup to go away faster too. Medicine wise the children's mucinex (sp) works well if it gets too bad. My kids doctor suggests it at the start of a runny nose because it'll clear it up and won't go into a cold.

go to the grocery store and look for a tea by Traditional Medicinals, Cold Care PM, and put some honey with it. There is also a Gypsy Cold Care and Throat Coat. My 4 year old loves this stuff with honey, and it works well.

Lisa,

Try pouring rubbing alcohol on a rag and putting it on his
chest. Be sure and have a t-shirt between his skin and the alcohol rag.
It is what my mother showed me to do and it worked really well. No more croupy cough, and a good nights sleep.
Good luck
M.

If it is croup then steroids will help open up the airway. Call the doc.

When my daughter had croupy cough, the dr. did a chest x ray and checked her oxygen saturation, and decided to put her on albuterol to open her airways. You should call your physician if you haven't done so already.

I took my daughter to the doctor and she got some steriods. It sounds like you're doing everything right. Also, honey (once they're over one year) can help soothe the throat.

http://familydoctor.org/online/famdocen/home/children/par...

Good luck, it will pass!

I will give my kids Robutussin DM 1/2 tsp for them young,if they have a bad cough and it isn't letting them sleep, elevate their bed by their head and also get the Vick Vapor Plug ins, it lasts up to 8 hours and fills the room with that soothing smell. If the cough lasts more then a week and is croupy, have him checked out. I totally missed my daughter having walking pneumonia a few years ago, thought it was a bad cold as her fever was very low grade, took her in on day five of the cough and sure enough it was walking pneumonia.

My oldest son has always gotten croup with his colds. It gets so bad that he can hardly breath either laying down or sitting up. The only thing that has worked for him is an onion poultice. You do this by baking half an onion in a glass baking dish, cut side down, for about an hour at about 250. When it's done cut it into large pieces, rub his chest down with olive oil and then place the onion on his chest. Make sure the onion is not so hot that it burns. To get this to stay in place and not get on his clothes, cover the onion with a small towel or wash cloth, wrap with plastic wrap and then an ace bandage. Then let him go about his day or night. This clears my son up in 10-20 minutes. For the hour until the onion is ready I have him breath in cool air, either from outside or by standing in front of the freezer, and I give him some peppermint tea to drink. Peppermint helps to relax the body. Usually only one poultice will take care of the croup, but sometimes two is necessary.

I put about a 1/2 to 1 tsp olive oil in my hand and mix in 8drops of eucalyptus oil and 8 drops lavender oil. I then rub it on the chest and back. Then put on a cotton t-shirt and then a long sleeved pajama top. I also put oregano oil on his feet with socks. Oregano can burn the eyes, so I don't let him touch it. I also find that having them sleep on an incline helps with nighttime coughing.

God bless-