can anyone tell me if croup is contagious?

[eleanorsmum]

DD has had it tonight and i should be having my friends little one for her today for few hours while she has appointment but am worried dd will pass on croup? off to docs first thing to get her checked out after awful night (really think now i should have called 999, nhs direct said if no better to do so but she didn,t get any worse!)

Croups is the symptom of a virus - often a cold. Just as most kids get a runny nose with a cold, some with get croup. Croup is the result of swelling and narrowing of the airway, which is more marked in susceptible children versus most other children.

so its just the cold that is the bug then?

Yep - it's just how your child responds to a cold. They grow out of it as their airways get bigger.

Steam is the main treatment, and you may want to get a humidifier for your DD's room if it is going to be a regular thing. Children do end up in hospital with croup, though.

I always get blamed for "passing on" croup Can never be arsed to point out that the most my kids can have passed on is a cold.

It's usually a specific virus (parainfluenza) that causes croup, though - if older children or adults catch it they get a bog-standard cold but in younger kids it tends to cause croup.

DD spent the night in A&E for a febrile convulsion . The hospital was full that night of toddlers on nebulizers suffering with croup. Ds came down with croup 3 or 4 days later, I am sure he picked it up that night in A&E

hi my dd suffered quite badly with croup as a baby, she was hospitalized on a bout 5 occasions, even took in an ambulance once. steam did not work on the worse attacks and she needed steroids(prednisolone). in the end we borrowed a nebuliser and asked the hospital to provide saline solution sachets which we put in the nebuliser. in the end the doctor actually gave us prednisolone(think thats how you spellm it)disposable tablets which we could give her at the onset to prevent it worsening. she grew out of it at about 7 yrs old. it can be life threatening so if at all you get to the stage where you feel he/she getting worse then do go to casulty. what they used to do is releive it then let us go home with 24hr return which meant we could take her straight back to the ward if it got worse rather than having to go doctors or a and e.

I agree, the virus that causes croup is contagious, but not everyone who catches the virus will develop croup.

Croup itself isn't contagious because it's a symptom.

ok thanks everyone. been to docs yup contagious but not everyone will develop croup, tends to be those born prem and astham (which dd is both!) so we're back home with guidance leaflet and a slightly better dd. still coughing but not croupy today - will see what tonight brings.....................