Croup, advice needed please

[Eddas]

DD woke up last night with a bad coughing fit where she couldn't breathe in/out properly. Phone MIL(always our first stop!) and she came round, said sounded like croup. DD then promptly had very bad coughing fit and ended up being sick all over MIL, poor thing .

The decided it was best to call the on cal care people, who eventually came out and the doctor said it was croup.

Said to dose her up on calpol & nurofen and steam. My question really is has anyone got any other tips from experiance on how to help croup and how long might it last? Or is that like asking how long's a piece of string?!

Dd seems better this morning but I get the impression this might be smething that is worse when they're asleep?

Sorry for long post

Yes, ds1 had horrid croup from age 3 until 5, each time tht he was starting a cold. It can be very scary and attacks always started at night and could last from 5 mins to 30 mins - our GP told us to call an ambulance if he had another one of 30 mins, but it turned out to be his last ever.

Croup attacks sound like asthma, but one affects the ability to breathe in, the other in breathing out. Can't remember which way it is! Breathing sounds like a seallion and the child can feel very panicky.

Our advice was

a) to secure his brething by carrying him to the bathroom, shut the door and turn the hot taps/shower on, to get maximum steam in the room. (You can also send dh for a kettle and extension cable, but do beware of boiling water near a little one.) It also helps simply putting on the light and getting them out of bed. A friend in a similar situation used to put hers in the car to go to A & E - they always recovered on the way. The fresh air and waking them up seems to help.

b) to get his temperature down with calpol/neurofen. Croup with high temperatures can be more problematic, I believe (but can't remember why now)

c) to reassure them and keep them calm. We had a ventolin inhaler and I found that giving him that to breathe in calmly helped to focus and relax him.

d) If he is really struggling to breathe after a few minutes, go to A & E or do not to be afraid to dial 999. (It's what you pay your taxes for.) Apparently you get a quick response if you say you have a child with breathing difficulties.

Croup is always frightening for the child and the parent, but we learned to manage it and he outgrew it (advantage of starting early!) There are different causes (I used to have a good leaflet on this - I'll see if it is still around somewhere for you) and whilst most cases are not too serious , it can be serious and is worth keeping an eye on/reading up about.

HTH - Best of luck

PS - Our gp said that it is worse when they are asleep and that attacks often come at around 2am when your metabolism is at its lowest, that is one reason why waking them/stimulating them helps the body to recover too.

PPS If you have the kettle boiling to produce steam, leave the lid open. It doesn't keep switching itself off then!

And my MIL has always been our first port of call too!

Croup is really scarey at 1st, but we're old hands now with our 3rd, ds2, 6months. All advice so far is good, but also our doc said try steam for 20 mins, if that doesn't work try cold air so we take him out wrapped in loads of blankets and sit on the doorstep. This worked for all of ours, but god know what the neighbours think when they hear a seal on our doorstep at 3 in the morning!
Has never lasted more than 24 hours in any of them.

Or did you mean till what age? Ds1 is 7 and hasn't had it for a couple of years.

Thanks for all the advice, it is a bit scary isn't it! And she does sound very much like a seal, maybe a seal pup!! She is only 2 and 8 months so sounds like we should expect it for sometime when she has a cold .

I suppose once you know the signs and how to ease it it becomes less scary for us so we can then calm her down. Trouble is dh is such a panicker when anything's slightly wrong with her think he'll struggle to keep calm.

Again thanks so much for the advice, it's made me feel alot better as doctor didn't really explain the steam thing etc!!

Oh can i give her calpol & neurofen at the same time? Doctor seemed to say that but it was nearly middnight by the time she managed to bother to come and I was a shattered(I'm 7 months pg and needed an early night anyway, am shattered now!!)

Adelaid, meant how long in days (hours preferably!!!) as didn't realise til I read the post by notquitesotiredmum that it was a reocurring thing .

Think I was lucky as a child as we never really got anything so i'm clueless about these things

Same as notsotiredmum really. I spend many a night with DS3 being steamed in the bathroom. It can be very distressing for you and your child. On 2 occasions did actually need admission to hospital when his breathing was really laboured. You could tell when he was really srtuggling because the base of his throat was sucked right in when he breathed in.
In the main though it was controlled with sitting in the bathroom.
Usually lasted 3-3 nights at a time. Hope she is better soon

Yes clapol and nurofen can be given together but calpol is 4 hourly and nurofen is 6 hourly therafter