Help! DD has croup! Do we need to isolate?

[Honeyhoneyy]

DD age 4, who just started school this week, seems to have croup. My older DD suffered from recurrent croup so I’m pretty in the know on what to do (prop her up etc). Although, on what I thought was my older DD’s hundredth time having croup, the GP listened to my voice recording of her from the previous night and told me that it wasn’t croup that time but viral wheeze. She has now developed asthma.

DD2’s cough definitely sounds like croup but I suppose I could be wrong and it could be viral wheeze.

My question is, do we all have to isolate if DD has a croup type cough that only comes on at night? Or do I just need to keep her home from school until the cough passes?

Any help much appreciated. Thanks :)

@Honeyhoneyy regarding your other DD check with the school. In my local authority it states that everyone in the household has to isolate if anyone develops the symptoms of COVID.

Croup is a very unpleasant illness and spreads like wildfire through nurseries and infant schools. Even if it turns out not to be Covid, you would have done everyone at your DDs school a service by keeping her off for a few days and getting her tested rather than sending her to school and passing it on to her classmates.

We couldn't send other child into school either or go to work, we all had to isolate until the results came back. Tested Thurs morning, negative result back lunchtime on Friday.

You need to isolate.

I've been coughing in the night but 99% sure it's cause I've been smoking like a trooper with all the stress! But both DS's are staying home until a negative test and I'm staying off work.

Better to be safe than sorry

I wouldn’t send a child to school with croup.

Well croup is contagious so you shouldn't be sending your child to school anyway.

I'm quite surprised at the headteacher up thread who suggested it was ok

Croup is not always contagious. It’s stated that it’s contagious on NHS website but I have spoken to countless GP’s and paediatricians about this. My eldest must have had a narrow airway which meant that even if she picked up a runny nose, it would develop into severe croup at night. She had croup upwards of 30 times by the time she was 6. Of all the children that she mixed with, none of them and I mean not even 1, came down with croup.

At the moment (and who knows it may change) you have to isolate and test with a new persistent cough - which it sounds like it was

Having just been through the process knowing it was his normal cold cough it is a pain but it still needs to be done

Croup is not always contagious. It’s stated that it’s contagious on NHS website but I have spoken to countless GP’s and paediatricians about this.

My eldest must have had a narrow airway which meant that even if she picked up a runny nose, it would develop into severe croup at night.

I am no medic so I can't argue with that re your eldest but that's not the DD who has croup, is it? How on earth can you know if the croup your other D.C. has right now is contagious? How?

It's really tricky, OP. You're probably right that younger DD has a similar pre-disposition to croup type coughs as older DD, your instinct it's not a contagious cough could well be right, but you can't be sure it's not a virus and you can't be sure it's not covid. A lot of parents will be facing similar dilemmas. A high fever is the most common symptom of covid and indicates a definite infection of some sort so should never be ignored but "a new continuous cough" is a bit vague and harder to interpret. Perhaps ask the school what they think? I do sympathise, I really do. I'd be really loathe to keep my kids off school after they've only just gone back, too, if they were well in themselves. It's a tough call.

As a mother of three children who have all suffered this week terribly with croup (my youngest 6 months has it now) I can say that keeping her off school is the best thing. My second son gets it so bad he’s admitted for days on end and has only 70% oxygen sometimes.