Croup! UGH!

One of my 5yr old twins has gotten croup at least 4-5 times in the last 2 yrs. The last 2 times I contributed it to chlorine. One time she got it after a trip to the sprinkler park, and the second time we were at a hotel with a pool and she got it. Both times we went to the emergency room. The first time using the nebulizer at home did not help, and the second time we did not have it with us. She has been fine since the last episode last Spring.

Now when we go on any trips, I take the nebulizer with.

My 14 month old had it 4 times this past fall/winter. It's awful. The ped told me that some kids have smaller windpipes than others, and those are the kids who will get croup. At about age 5ish, theire windpipes kind of grow up to meet the demands of their bodies, which is why older kids don't get it. At night, when it was bad, we either slept with him sitting up in the lazy boy, or kept the monitor right next to his head. What they say about a blast of cold air really does work, too. It helped that he had it during the colder months...when he had an attack, we could run him outside for a minute. Hope that helps.

My son has had it 3 times in the last 3 years....the last time being Memorial Day weekend which he ended up being admited to the hospital for.

2 times in 2 months seems like alot was he put on antibiotics? Did he take them all?

Dear L.,

I know how you feel. My son had croup 17 times in two years. Sometimes it would start out as a cold and then turn worse. since we moved to IL from Ohio he hasn't had it and it's been three years. The Dr's never told me what caused it, but it wasn't fun seeing him feel that bad. Good Luck.
B.

Actually, I had the same thing with my daughter. We eventually linked it to an allergy to ice cream of all things. Needless to say it took many more than 2 croup episodes and runs to the Emergency room to figure out the common denominator. Not saying it's ice cream for you, but start making observations of some common thing. Like: Cleaned the bathroom that day, or Played at the park in the bark filled playground, or ate a specific something.

Anyway, it stopped when the ice cream stopped. It wasn't much of a sacrafice either, because when she figured out what was causing her misery she was more than happy to say no and we found some other treat for her that she enjoyed.

That's my story, not saying you have the same thing, just sharing information. I'm not sure Dr's believe that it can be caused by allergies, I determined in our case that it was.

I basically had to sleep on the floor in my child's room for several days while a cool mist humidifier was on around the clock. It was really bad at night, but always went away pretty quickly.

I hate this too. My duagher who is 8 now use to get it alot when she was young and now, my little boy does. Back in Feb. we took him to the ER after being up all night with it with him. And when he was almost 2, he had it, we took him to the ER they gave the shots of steriods, and then sent us home, the next day, he was breathing bad and throwing up when I got him up so I took him into the dr because he had a high fever and he was put in the hospital for a night. He was ok and they never did find out if it was anything other then Croupe. They were checking for RSV. Just keep a watch out. Put a vaporizor in his room too. That will help.

S. Bailey CLD
Aurora
www.tendermomentsdoula.com

I have 3 boys and two of them get it over the fall and winter months like crazy. But, I took them to the ped and she said to try the older one with Singulair. So, I have been for since January and no croup! talk to your doctor and see if your child has allergies (like mine do).