Croup 

 I am writing this as my Charlie suffers from this and the first time was so scary I thought she was going to die. She came in to our room at 1am and all we could hear was this struggle for breathe. Chris turned the light on and her lips were blue. He rushed her straight to hospital. They said it was Croup and we had to give her steroids but she is ok and we have to watch every cold till she is 7ish. So far we have had 2 winters with her in hospital for a few hours and so far this one is ok, but it has only just started winter here.

  “Croup (sometimes referred to as croup syndrome or laryngotracheobronchitis) is a respiratory disease which afflicts infants and young children, typically aged between 3 months and 3 years. The respiratory symptoms are caused by inflammation of the larynx and upper airway, with resultant narrowing.” From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia  

When a child who suffers croup gets sick with parainfluenza virus, primarily types 1 and 3 or a virus mainly a bacterial one their little body’s throats are so small that they swell and causes the “barking” type cough, and squeaking sound on inhale as they struggle to breathe. The other sign is looking at your Childs belly and chest when they breathe in. you will see the belly shrinking or the skin around their ribs being pulled in.  

We now have to keep a mist maker type thing that allows steam into her room. I add eucalyptus oil as it is good and helps your breathing. But we also have to have the hospital administer steroids when we have to take her to the hospital.   This is not life threatening in most cases but is very scary for a parent.  

Prem babies and asthmatics are more prone to having and getting croup but all children can get this. Some families are more prone to get this than others as the doctors believe it is a genetic thing.  

The info I got to do this was from Princess Margret Hosptial Perth Western Australia (pamphlet was given to us in our first visit) and these web pages below. If you want more info please go to these as I found them very informative. There are more Advice pages on Minti re: this as well

  http://www.kidshealth.org/parent/infections/lung/croup.html
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croup