5 month old keeps gagging and has croup.. Help !

[Jenjen18]

My 5 month old has recently been diagnosed with croup. She has awful cold and terrible bouts of cough and sometimes gags with her coughs. My issue is she gags at every bottle feeding and she coughs and turns really red . It's scary and I almost rang 999 a few times . What should I do? My GP said it will pass but it's really scary . Is it normal ?

Have you tried a steamy atmosphere?
It was the only thing that I found that helped ease it.

Yes I have but it doesn't seem to work..

It is very scary. No consolation at the moment, but they do grow out of it. Hopefully someone will have a suggestion. I used to sit in the bathroom with the shower running.

Thank you FreshHorizons .

I've been told croup under 6 months old is extremely rare - practically non existent.
My lo has a floppy larynx (larygnomalacia) - the noise she makes sounds like the stridor in croup so I was confused at first. She also only has symptoms at night and when she has a cold she really struggles to breath and sometimes needs oxygen.
Choking and gagging on feeding another symptom of.
Might be worth a google see if it sounds like your baba?

Ps a floppy larynx tends to get worse at 4-6 months as baby's oxygen demands increase thrn resolve by about a year/two years hence mine was only diagnosed at 5 months - she didn't have any symptoms at birth or in first weeks really.

Oh dear .. I am going to ring the GP again tomorrow and ask about floppy larynx.. My heart aches to see her in such a poorly state ..

I know it's horrid watching them struggle. Hope you get some answers

Ps I would ask your gp about a referral to a paed ent specialist.

Yes I will . Thanks daisy. She's getting worse now ...

It's bronchiolitis not croup ...

How is she now? Hope it has eased.

She's still coughing and a little wheezy ..it's day 10 today .. Still not great with feeds .. Thanks for your concern FreshHorizon ...

There seems to be so much illness about. My 2yo suffering from croup lots. And gets viral induced wheeze. It's pretty scary xx

My little one got his first bout of croup at 3 1/2 months old. Like another post said we were told it's very rare in a baby that young. We had to call 999 and got blue lighted to hospital with a full crash team waiting for him. He was admitted overnight that time but we ended up in a and e a few times after that.

The main thing we were told to look for is when your baby is breathing or coughing if you see their breastbone being sucked in you must call 999. That is an emergency.

Bronchiolitis is pretty much the same thing as croup except croup is in the main airway and bronchiolitis is in the bronchioles.

We found tipping the matress slightly helps as it reduces pressure on the airwaves whilst they are sleeping.

You have my sympathy as it is a horrible thing to watch them go through as there really isn't much that can be done to help. Have you been given steroids?

Just to add you have to be careful of America websites that use croup as a term for bronchiolitus - confusing everything further!
Some viruses can be really nasty - my kids have recently had rsv bronchiolitus which lasts aaaages

My LO is finally on the road to recovery.. Just the occasional bouts of coughs. unfortunately I caught her bug and I'm coughing so badly now that I am wearing face mask to avoid reinfecting her.. Thank you all for your concern. It is a really nasty bug and I really hope no other babies get it. We were in and out the GP surgery 3 times and finally we got a referral to A&E.. Nothing much they can do and was told to monitor her temperature, keep her hydrated and to blow into her face when she has bad coughing fits. And to ring 999 if she turns blue 😰

A relief for you- glad she is getting better.