Croup?

[LalyRawr]

Clearly I am no Dr, but I think DD (21 months) has croup. She has that weird barky cough thing, temperature and runny nose.

Her breathing seems to be normal most of the time, but when she cries, I can't hear her breath in, I can see her open her mouth and suck in, but can't hear it. This has only happened about three or four times (as in three or four inhalations) and only when she cries .Other than that, her breathing seems ok.

The NHS website flags that as a warning sign, but it literally only happened three or four times, so don't want to be all PFB and be calling NHS direct and be one of those mothers who completely overreacts.

Been giving her tixylix and alternating Calpol and Nurofen for temp. Do I need to take her to GP tomorrow, or just keep giving her fluids, medicine at home? Don't particularly want to take her out in the cold if not nessecary, but obviously will do so if needed.

Will be here a while as terrified of going to sleep and leaving her. Clearly am already the PFB type

Hmm that sounds different to my experience of dd having croup - when she breathes in you can really hear it.

Is she sucking in under her ribs or at trachea? How many breaths / min? How longs she had the fever and is it responding to med?

Well, she snores anyway, so can always hear her breathing in when asleep! It was the silent breathing that scared me the most funnily enough.

She started having a temp this morning, responded well to Calpol and seemed to brighten up this afternoon. This evening became a lot worse. Still responding to medicine, but having to alternate Calpola and Nurofen to keep it down.

Just measured and 20 breathes a minute (she is currently sleeping) and no sucking in by ribs or trachea.

It's a hell of a lot worse when she cries though. Her breathing rapidly increases, she writhes and arches in discomfort and her breathing becomes ragged, then silent, then back to normal.

It's that bit that is worrying me, but it is only when she cries. Otherwise she seems ok, just like she has a cold.

DS 13mo exactly the same. Sat listening to him as we speak! The breathing in noise is the vocal cords being inflamed, apparently.

I took him to nurse yesterday who said if the breathing becomes really laboured, the treatment is a small amount of steroids to reduce inflammation. Otherwise, they recommend a steamy bathroom, which is thought to ease things a bit.

Good luck OP, I'm looking forward to my second sleepless night on croup-watch! :(

PS I phoned 111 last night as DS was quite distressed - they were really nice and got GP to phone
back an hour and a half later when we were fast asleep ...they tale it really seriously when struggling to breathe is involved.

I'd go to walk-in centre. DS had it and was given steroids and was heaps better really quickly. From what I remember it's usually only and A&E job if you can hear something called stridor when they breathe in - but don't take my word for that as I may have been given wrong info!