Questions About CROUP

L.,
Welcome to the world of croup. You will probably be a member until you son is about 3 or 4. My daughter is 5, 6 next month and she had croup twice a year since she was 2. Not sure how much you know about croup, but it is the swelling of the voice box. My daughter is now big enough that the swelling doesn't affect her. It is viral, usually the result of a cold, so there are no antibiotics for it. My daughter's colds would turn into croup and I learned to look for the signs. The normal process for us would be have a night of light coughing and she would wake up with a mild seal like bark. I would call the dr and they would prescribe liquid steroids to bring the swelling down. We would usually give 1-2 doses of that and she would be fine.

Croup really sounds scary, but it isn't too bad. We never tried the steamy bathroom but we did spend many a nights wrapped up in blankets sitting on the deck. We also had croup in the warmer weather and an open freezer door works also. As long as your son is not running a fever, he is not contagious. Now that he has had croup, don't be surprised if he gets it often.

Hope this helped.
M.

Hi L.! My son who is now 25months used to get croup all of the time. It was no fun. We did what others mentioned in the other replied, but nothing seemed to work as well as I would like. So I started him on an herbal supplement called Alfalfa with vitamin C and a multi. I am happy to say that he has not had croup in almost 8 months. Which he seemed to get croup after each cold. Hope that helps.

D.

www.shaklee.net/dawnmiller

My advice to you is to make a dr appt and have him seen regularly until this is over. It can turn into other things, like pneumonia. This is not something you want to play around with. I know that sometimes doctors make you feel like your crazy and paranoid when you are running your kids to the doctors, but I never let that stop me, and ive never been wrong when i thought my kids were really sick. Always go with your mother instinct. I went through coup when my daughter was about 9 or 10 months old, thank god my son never had it. Just be careful, you dont want him to end up in the hospital.

Hi,
If i were you i would take him to the doctor,when my son was little he would get the croup and we found out that he had childhood astma...he never had astma attacks,he would just get the croup, those breathing treatments are a life saver,2 or 3 days he was back to himself. Hospital and urgent care are not gonna dignose him with anything you need to take him to his regular doctor, if that is what is going on , they grow out of it,my son is 21 and plays football twice a week and runs everyday.
Hope this helps,
M.

Hi L.,

I'm an avid believer in the holistic appraoch to child care. My suggestion is to take your son to a Chiropractor. I am a Licensed Massage Therapist and have found that Chiropractic care has no side affects when it comes to treatment. Some Chiropractors may not charge for infants up to 6 yrs of age. Get referrals from friends & family members. If your son has an ear infection,(or it could be just water in there)the adjustment will help open the Eustation tubes in his ears...which if blocked will cause an ear infection. My daughter likes to stick her fingers in her ears too...think the swooshing sounds cool,. I also suggest a Bronchial & Cough Syrup by Boericke & Taffel...you can find this at a health food store. It works great on my 9 yr old & 15 month old. Try to avoid giving him sugary foods - these have a tendancy to lower the immune system (100% juices are ok, but water down). When either of my children get sick, it is very short lived when I follow the above. Getting back to normal is something I strive for too as we are a very active family as well. Hope this helps.

Take him to the dr asap!! My two year old gets it every six months and it can get pretty bad.

L.:

I had this same issue w/ my son - however, at that time he was around 4 months old. We, due to him being so young, just put him in a really hot and steamy bathroom (to losen up the lungs a little), then took him outside - which happened to be really cold - we did this two nights in a row. Then we had a humidifier in his room both nights - which seemed to help.

He was the same way - wouldn't eat much - stopped nursing b/c he couldn't breathe either. So we just sat him up as much as we could to feed him.

I am not sure on the ear thing -we didn't encounter that. I do know that my doctor told me that if you get an ear infection your child will have a fever that won't go away in addition to them tugging at their ears. (We had that incident on a seperate occasion.) So if he is running a fever - then he is obviously still contagious. It also depends on if he is still teething too...that is a double whammy.

Hope that helps somewhat.

K. C.