Son has croup how contagious is it?

[MrsOs]

Hi we were up last night at a and e after my 4yr old son woke with the croupy cough in the middle of the night. He was given steroids and sent home. I kept him off nursery today and he won't go back there til next Monday but I had booked cinema tickets for tomorrow morning. He isn't terribly bad but has got a bit of a cough. Am I being completely irresponsible still taking him to the cinema or shall I cancel it and lock him away for a few days in the hope no one else catches this from him?

I don't think it's that contagious just like a cold. Cinema should be fine. My DD had it and was loads better after a dose of steroids.

Croup is contagious! Stay at home.

Goodness me

If your child was ill enough to be given steroids I think he should be resting at home.

Does no one on here have access to google?

Croup isn't caused by just one virus, it's a reaction to one of several different viruses, including the common cold, it just so happens that in your son it has triggered croup.

Croup does clear quickly after steroids, but your son will still have the underlying virus, so I'd go by how ill he seems. For example, most people would still go to the cinema if they just had a cold.

My youngest DS had croup several times a year for 6 years, he almost always followed up with a chest infection about 2 weeks later, so something to look out for.

www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Croup/Pages/Causes.aspx

I'd still go to the cinema! And I'm the parent of a child who is under consultant care for respiratory issues and often hospitalised. Croup is usually just viral, like most colds. The steroids are amazing and have quick results. Cinema is a perfect activity, sit quietly, relax and enjoy a film. Far better than anything too strenuous like charging round a soft play which may worsen the condition. For all those who will say you are irresponsible, you wouldn't stay indoors with a cold so unless your little one feels unwell in their self I'd go for it. Something nice to enjoy after going to A&E.

anyfucker... goodness me?... bit rude!

Ginfiend i have access to google thanks!

Others that have replied much more constructively and politely thanks! He has been bouncing around all day with only a very small cough you wouldnt even really know he was sick and i have read bits about it being like a cold so thought i would chance the cinema but I just wanted to check what others have done. He has no fever at all.

Any fucker - croup only has symptoms at night so during the day the kids are fine but a bit off and with a cold

I think you should go but be viligant with washing hands and covering mouth. They'll be lots of people with his virus that just have a cold and they won't be staying at home. Plus there won't be any little babies at a cinema and probably not any very old people so it's not like you are taking him to soft play or playgroup like I've seen many mums with sick kids do.
I also have a baby with resp issues under consultant care and whilst I would inwardly grown at hearing your sons croupy cough and whip out my hand sanitatiser/move seats I wouldn't be saying anything to you

Ds 20 months had it. . Slept on hospital floor for a week. Ds 5 months in a cot same room.
Went home then back in with ds 5 months... Contagious. . .

5 months is very young for croup justhad - have they checked him for larynx issues?

I was told babies under 6 months couldn't get...

I could be ruder

I think it is irresponsible to take a child with a potentially serious viral infection to a public place where there could be other children whose immune systems might be compromised

So, it's relatively mild in your kid. Great. It might not be in the child he sits next to.

The cinema will still be there in a couple of weeks

My son gets croup regularly. Steroids and he's back to normal. I was told by the doctor that the cold virus presents itself in different ways in different children. With him it's just croup. I would keep him off school if he'd been up all night in hospital with it but quite frankly he is fine and doesn't even cough again once the steroids have been given. No different to a cold.

I don't believe that people keep their children in with a cold. You'd never leave the house in winter.

I thought croup was the result of any old virus that created a narrowing of something medical but if you are sufficiently big, your something medical isn't floppy enough to result in croup.

I wouldn't necessarily stay at home with it, although I might have needed to lie on the floor with coffee being poured into my eyes to stay awake after several nights of croup.

Croup can be caused just by a cold virus. You can't pass croup onto another child. It just depends on how an individual child reacts to a virus as to whether they'll get croup or just mild cold symptoms.

My ds has had croup several times and the next day he has been absolutely fine, no cold symptoms and not even showing signs of lack of sleep (unlike me who has been awake most of the night in A&E!)

Croup generally only occurs at night when their throat relaxes from being in a deep sleep. Once ds has had the steroids in hospital he is completely better.

So I would say going to the cinema would be fine.

But any cold can be mild in one child and serious in another. Every viral illness my toddler gets leads to multi trigger viral wheezing which can be serious enough for hospitalisation. She's on long term medication and we up all her inhalers at the first sign of a runny nose. But she goes to nursery full time so is constantly exposed to germs.

Her brother on the other hand, won't bat an eyelid at a cold, barely gets anything more than the odd runny nose. It was a revelation how different their reactions are.

There's no need for children or adults with colds or viral illnesses to stay indoors if they're well in themselves.

My son also had croup at 5 months old and then about 7 more times over the next year. Doctors always said as long as he seemed fine then there was no need to keep him inside but to stick with calm activities for a day or so. As he was under 6 months they said 'suspected croup' as it's rare at that age but considering he kept getting it I think it's pretty safe to say that's what it was!

Another parent of child who gets croup if she catches a cold. Probably had it 50 or so times. Never given it to a sibling or anyone else afaik. Go out if your dc feels well enough.

Croup isn't contagious but the virus that trigger it is. Won't necessarily trigger croup in another child though. If he has had broken nights he may well feel below par and I doubt cinema would be the best idea.

Purple - it's very very unusual to recurrent croup so much - usually this is an Indictor for another airway issue - personally I'd have pushed for a referral to ent to have a bronchoscopy done

Really Stardust?

My DD had it at least 2-3 times every year between ages 2 and 6. Sometimes requiring hospital. We finally seem to be clear of it age 7. Touch wood.

I am surprised to read that the symptoms only occur at night. A couple of years ago, I was diagnosed with laryngitis tracheo bronchitis, which the gp said was ' basically croup' . I have never been so frightened in my life as I was when I experienced the frequent 'attacks', where my throat seemed to close and I struggled to breathe. I really thought I was going to die on more than one occasion. I had it for six weeks and the attacks occurred at all times of day and night. I slept in the armchair for the whole time as I couldn't lay down. I was not given any medication other than an ineffective nasal spray to try to keep the airway open. I've never experienced anything like it and hope I never do again.

stardust - my dc had croup at least 3 - 4 times a year between 3 - 9 years old, always requiring steroids (but never hospital admission) and usually followed by a chest infection a couple of weeks later. I asked more than once if was frequent enough that it required looking into, but no one seemed interested. I got the impression it was fairly common (although this was dc5 and I'd never even heard of it until then) I was told he'd grow out of it, which thankfully he did.

Only thing that would annoy me is paying for cinema tickets and not been able to concentrate as all I can hear is coughing. I wouldn't go with a cough as I wouldn't want to disrupt the film so I wouldn't take my DCs with one. You may get a few huffs and puffs. I take my kids places when they have colds which is contagious as there is always someone with it (although wouldn't take them with things like D+V, chickenpox etc)