My DS was fine yesterday morning, then by lunchtime he had a runny nose and a low level fever so I knew something was brewing. Put him to bed at 6.30pm and he woke up absolutely on fire at 10pm with heavy laboured breathing and a strange cough almost like a bark.
Phoned 111, took him to an out of hours appointment at 12.15am - at first the doctor tried to fob us off saying it was a cold / cough, however his heart rate was high and he was 39.1degrees so she gave calpol and iburprophen and we were told to wait 20mins for affect.
45 mins later and DS was very distressed, gasping, drooling and crying and 'barking' - I called the Dr back and pointed out the strange gasping noise and she tried to tell me 'its just because he's crying' er, no - he doesn't cry like that. Then he had a big round of bark coughing and she finally realised - croup.
Oral steroids given at 1am and we were sent home. DS then slept well all night and woke at 8.15am. In the drama of it all I forgot to ask what we should watch out for today. He seems ok in himself but every time he coughs it makes him cry - must be sore. Is there anything else I should be doing? Should I keep him dosed up on calpol? How do I know if he needs to go back?
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Children's health
9mo has croup
stiltonontoast · 03/11/2018 10:28
Thanks @Nogodsnomasters last night it took us 3h to settle him for bed, his bedroom just felt so stuffy despite the window open (but the fireworks were so noisy! 
) and cool mist humidifier running. we ended up opening all the other windows in the house which eventually freshened up the house. Then I took him out in the garden bundled up and we watched fireworks for 20mins and that was enough to get him to sleep afterwards.
He then slept all night til 6.30am so I'm glad he's had a good rest. Woke up croup-y coughing a little bit and he's quite hot so have just given him some calpol again. He seems a little better but still suffering poor boy.
Just wanted to bump this thread, he's still ill. 
The croup cough has gone but now he's just got a bad cold, constantly streaming with snot, rattly cough. He doesn't seem to have a temperature but its been a whole week now and he's barely eating any food - just taking his bottle.
Should I be worried / taking him back to the doctors?
Sounds as though he is on the mend, stiltonontoast. He'll probably be fine in a day or so. You've done all the right things but the first doctor you saw was a bit of a prat to be frank.
A very unpleasant experience for you, it's horrible when little ones are ill but - such is life.
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