OK Monday morning Grub woke with with high temp, little runny nose, nasty dry cough and a croaky throat. Gave him the usual nurofen and dimetapp, as we are both prone to having this type of thing develop into bronchitis. Did the good parent thing and took him to the
doctor. Got the usual response of "it's just a virus" and to persist with what I was giving him and ride thru it.
Tuesday. Gets worse. Temps soars over 38.5C and he has hardly any voice. Can't sleep, Can't cry or yell because no sounds come out. Call the doctor this time, same response.
Wednesday. Stiil the same refusing to eat anyhting and barely will drink either. Late that afternoon gets a little wheeze in his chest, put on the steam vaporiser, seems to relieve it. As long as he is upright, can't lie down just coughs and coughs (dry cough..ouchie). So gave him the warm shower and steamed up the bathroom, steamed up the bedroom no relief. By this time it is 8.30pm he's exhausted, but can't sleep. And the wheeze has returned and the only way to described the sound is like a zipper being opened and closed constantly. OK I'm not waiting till the morning off to the hospital we go.
so 9pm we walk into the hospital, 10 mins later we're in seeing the triage nurse. Straight away she say says "He's got croup and ,may be asmatic". So we go straight into the emergency ward and he gets given a nebuliser of ventolin and then a cortosteroid to help open his airways. Had to stay a while to have his oxygen levels monitored because they were low when we got there. We were given a prescription for the cortosteroid and were home by 11pm.
So my motherly instincts were right, it wasn't just a virus. So here's a little info that may make you a little more aware of croup.
Croup is characterised by a loud dry, barking type cough ( does not produce any mucus) that is persistent. This is caused by swelling around the trachea and larynx. The cough may seem to ease during the day and flare up again at night. It is most common in children under 5yo, but especially those u3yo, due to them having smaller airways than adults. Thier breathing may be difficult and noisy and accompanied by fever and croaky voice. Rarey, may also result in ear infections or pneumonia.
Croup is caused commonly by influenza and respiratory grouped viruses. Less commonly by bacterial infections.
How to treat croup
At home use vaporiser/humidifier so moisten the air.
Take measures (paracetomol, ibuprofen etc) to control the fever and relieve the pain.
Keep your child calm,and rest as much as possible.
Keep the child upright as much as possible.
Offer lots of fluids, be it juice, water, milk, iceblocks, soups,
Keep your child near to you when they are sleeping, in case symptoms worsen.
if it results in a trip to the doctor/hospital they may prescribe corticosteroids or other drugs to assist in opening the airways.
***Persist. If you don't seem to get anywhere with your gp and you really believe it is worse than they think, get a second opinion. You're the one who knows your child better than anyone else. And trust those gut instincts.
It's pretty scary thing when you're child can't breath and is so visibly unwell. So I hope this helps anyone else who is my situation.
(June 2007) (
