CROUP.....yes, it appears it's that time of year again. Where are my partners in crime?

[foxinsocks]

Poor kids have been coughing all afternoon while we were out. Have dragged them home (rather than staying out for dinner!) because I can see that they're going to be croupy tonight aarrgghh

I know there are loads of people on here whose children get lots of croup but I can't for the life of me remember who you are. Was wondering if anyone else's children have started with it.

let us know how it goes mumofmonsters!

They do start to grow out of it about 6 to 7, not as severe as ther throats are bigger and don't close as easily I think.

I am lucky to have an on call paediatric nurse (MIL) 10 mins away and A&E is 5 mins away. Moving the A&E though .

our a&e is a 10 min walk away and has only been there a few years so no plans to move (yet) are they moving it locally?

Ds is nearly 4 foxinsocks so hopefully he may escape it, hmm wishful thinking.

No it will be about 25 mins away, might not seem far but I am so used to having it on my doorstep. The are it will cover is huge and loads of people further south will have very long journeys. A&E always seems busy and can wait for hours if an adult so don't know how new combined place will cope, there are huge protests but decision has been made, they did the same with maternity which was already centralised. I was passing the old maternity unit last week where I had my two and it is lying empty all boarded up .

Hope you're sleeping peacefully now Fox, the kids too...

...dd had it last year at this time of year, aged nearly 2. It was unpleasant, but not severe - I found sleeping in her room and soothing her immediately she coughed worked well: no crying meant no bad coughing spells, and she hardly woke up (unlike me!).

This year, she's had a cold with a croupy sounding cough but NOT croup....IYSWIM...its just got that barky sound to it. I'm wondering if she's got the Big Girl Version of croup?!

Anyway, hpoe the LOs get well soon - its a horrid thing. xx

DD1 cough, cough, cough!

ARrrggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

i'm so glad to find this thread. DD2 is only 16 mths and she's had it twice. both times completely different. first time it was milder and built up from a cough, in the summer. second time, it was a sudden and very sever attack. it was a barking and them almost suffocating/not being able to breath. lucky A&E was only down the road so she got a steriod jab within 15mins of her attach. it was amazing. she has now developed a chesty cough and runny nose. this was a on wednesday night.

so do you think i should expect her to continue to have attacks?? we brought a humidifer today from argos.

can i give her the honey mixture since she is over 12 mths now?? do i just mix everthing together??

Once they have it they seem to get it again and again, onset may be quicker. Not sure about that.

DS1 was ok last night, he woke couighing badly but i think we had the worst the night before last. unfortunatly ds2 now has a stomach bug so i was awake anyway

well, it was a pretty bad night but I think tonight will be worse as poor dd has had a 40C+ temperature for most of today and that normally means her cough will be bad tonight - she's still in a fairly good mood and eating OK so I'm not too worried

ds has the same bug and is coughing his lungs out but never gets it as badly as his sister (thank goodness!)

poor you mumofmonsters - hope you have a better night!

I hope no-one else's little ones will be up tonight coughing.

autumnlover, I find any warm drink works quite well - so sometimes just a little bit of orange juice (mixed with warm water) with a teaspoon of honey or something like that - but as before, if you are at all worried about her breathing, don't think twice about taking her in to see a doctor/hospital

Oh no, ds2 has a snotty nose, and could be in for a restless night here tonight. Honey juice at bedtime here for definite . Second what foxinsocks says, never hesitate to take lo's to Dr or out of hours. If I had a fiver for the "paranoid" mother looks I get from Dr's I'd probably be a millionaire by now. But I don't care. And nope it's not too cold here, only at night, beautiful blue sky and sunshine during the day. Loads of snow in them those mountains mind you and we're off to learn to ski soon (boys that is, I need a refresher)

Our dd1 had bouts of it - when we moved to Aus - never got it when we lived in the UK.

foxinsocks - one thing that helped us was the GP can prescribe a medication ( steriod) that you can use when you sense they are building up for an attack iyswim - avoids those a and e visits - dd1 always seemed to just go down very badly - now she seems to get a bit of a barky cough in the morning so we give her the medication and no croup.

For us - neither steam nor cold air worked .....

We seemed to have missed out this year - only one little episode that we managed to avoid worsening with the medication.

oh yes eidsvold - I remember the dreadful time you and dd had with it! We have never been offered that medication ggrrr - both dd and ds have it now with raging temperatures but neither are that poorly (both off school and eating fine and watching TV!). I guess it's probably because they are old enough now that they tend not to get it badly enough to be hospitalised.

I wonder why you got it in Aus and not here.

Alibaldi - I've never been to Colorado but it sounds beautiful! We had a few completely grey days last week that make you long for even a tiny glimpse of sun! Califroniafrau - bet it is still lovely in california as well

oh no! poor ds2...hope he doesn't get it too badly

Poor dd started getting hoarse yesterday, and woke this morning with a dry, barking cough. Could it be the start of croup? Anything I can do to stop it from progressing?

Poor thing won't be going to school today, which means I must cancel my first hair appointment for 6 months......

oh no Earlybird - sorry about your hair appointment! I think just treat it like a normal viral illness - lots of fluids, regular calpol/nurofen if she has a temp or is in pain, try to keep her quiet (i.e. not charging about).

Dd's has now progressed to a full on chest infection poor child. And we have virtually run out of her inhalers ggrrr. Ds is almost back to normal.

Thanks for your kind words foxinsocks. Poor dd is laid out on the sofa at the moment. Doesn't seem to be in any pain, but is generally listless. What astounds me is how this really came out of nowhere. She was a little hoarse this time yesterday, but now has developed this infrequent, but horrible sounding cough.

Of course, I wish I didn't have to reschedule the hair appointment, but what I'm really concerned about is the fact that we're due to fly on Thursday (short haul) for a long weekend away visiting friends. I hope a quiet day today will beat this thing. Am I being unrealistic?

is she prone to this sort of thing?

In all honesty, a healthy child (like ds) will probably be completely over it in 48 hours. Dd is only still suffering because she's asthmatic so anything cold-like tends to linger on and on.....

If she's listless, check for a temp - I would probably give her calpol now if she's feeling rough.

Nope, not prone to it. Usually very healthy. No sign of a temperature - thank goodness.

So sorry to hear about your dd. She's had a rough time hasn't she, poor lamb....

yes she has

Hopefully your dd will be over it by Thursday. Tonight will probably be quite key for her but even if she has a bad night, if they are normally healthy, they get over it pretty quickly ime.