croup again - what else can i do to help him :(

[candyfluff]

poor ds (age 4) has a nasty cold and i can hear the croup starting up again - have doesed him up with calpol every 4-5 hr and have given him some kids nurofen to see if it makes any difference to the calpol.
have just done a steam session with me and him under a towel as he is going up to bed soon - has anyone got any other ideas as how i can help him
the first time he got it we had to call the ambulance service as he was struggling to breathe- really scared us and im worried it will happen again

thanks in advance for any advice given

bump

My ds gets croup too only been to hospital for steroids once thankfully. One thing dr did tell me to do in the night instead of steam was take him outside. He said the cool air often helps. I usually just take ds to the back door and it has so far cleared him enough to calm him down and help the barking. Croup is such a scary thing and often does sound worse than it actually is. Just try and keep calm and keep him calm the older dc get it is often less bad as well as it is something they outgrow.

Yes going outside is good. Lots of croupy children seem to pep up on the way to hospital and it's the night air. Wrap up warm and cuddle up outside for a few minutes. We found it more effective than steam.

Sorry to hear your little boy is unwell. DD has had croup twice, once when about 2 and once when she was 3. She was hospitalised at 3. I completely agree about wrapping them up warm and going outside for a while. I put DD in the car and drove around the block slowly with the window open so she got some fresh air blowing in her face. Helped a lot the second time. The first time, nothing but hospital helped.

great will try that if he wakes up in a state - i get more freaked out than he does

i meant hospitalised, first time at 2. finger hit wrong one! hope he, and you feel better soon

That's great advice to take them outside, thanks for that. I ended up calling an ambulance at 1am today for DS (aged 4), we went to hospital and he had 2 doses of steroids.

Do you know if it re-occurs on subsequent nights? Should I expect him to be ill again tonight?

Thanks

Lucjam - if he's had steriods hopefully he'll be on the mend now. Cold air is good - maybe keep the window open?

My DS is 7 and we've had so many hospital visits over the years with recurrent croup for steroids and nebulisers. I agree with Candyfluff, I think we get more freaked out than they do. We haven't needed A+E for about a year and a half now, and they do grow out of croup, but I never get any sleep when he's got even the slightest cough.

When DS was 5 they gave him a preventer inhaler as he'd had so many bouts.

Don't use cough medicine.

Good luck. I HATE CROUP X

Thanks for that scram - had a much better night last night, he was coughing a bit but it was a normal cough rather than the croupy bark.

DH got up in the night and gave him some cough medicine - I take it that's the wrong thing to do then, why is that?

Sorry to hear you've had so much experience, it is really awful.

I propped DS bed up last night and had a window open really wide.

Thanks for info.

I've been advised not to use cough medicine because (1) it can make them drowsy and if they have a bad attack they need to be alert to breathe and (2) it can make the mucus settle when they need to get it up and out . I'm not a doctor so sorry that's not a very technical answer. Glad you had a better night.

A Paediatrician once explained that croup gets nasty at night because when lying down (and obviously sleeping) the muscles around the throat relax and so the throat contract, ( I know it does not sound logical but then I am not a doctor) which is a horrid, scarry sensation.

He advise to prop him up when sleeping and to give him a hot drink to get his throat warm and relaxed, whenever the coughing started.
He said that the best thing against croup was in fact to wake up, i.e. to get the throat muscle to do their job again.

I can see how cold air would do that but a warm drink, a cuddle and a chat are a lot more comfy.
He also said that cough medicine was useless for croup.

After following his advice we haven't had to give DS steroid anymore. Hope it works for you.

Member of the CROUP IS C**P group

Thought we were getting there but just discovered DS has a temp of 39, its coming down nicely now with both calpol and nurofen. Thought he would be back at school tomorrow, apparently not! Poor thing, I'm getting stir crazy - 2 days inside is horrible.