Anyone know anything about croup? Ds admitted to hosptial with severe croup.

[PanicPants]

After giving us all such a huge scare last night we are back home again and he is sleeping upstairs.

I don't know much about croup, other than ds couldn't breath, and when he was he was pulling in his chect completely and struggling. It took various oxygen/salbutamol nebulisers, steriods and eventually adrenaline for his breathing to be stable enough in a&e to be admitted onto the ward.

He has been given more steriods today, and we have open access to the ward should he have another episode when the steriod wears off.

Hospital staff were amazing, but I have some questions now I'm at home and things have calmed down.
Apparently croup is quite common, although they rarely see such a severe form of it. But was it severe in ds's case because he is an asthmatic? And will there be any lasting effects on him re: his breathing/asthma?

Any help and expriences greatfully recieved as I'm sat here shaking now that it's all over and just need to talk about it.

ok I see what u r saying.

do you think that I should def, (may seem a daft question) give her her preventer regularly.Will that help her lungs cope with croup?

I know I am lax but she is never wheezy, fit as a fiddle normally, it's only when she gets a cold that I think, oh poo, should i have given her the inhaler these past 6 months.

my cousin was admitted last week into hospital with croup. he doesn't have asthma though.

it depends though, cos with some people cold, damp conditions make it worse, whereas with others its cold, dry conditions.

yes i think a trip to the gp, is on order to get this straight. I have no idea on what premise or why she was given the inhalers in the first place, well apart formthe fact she coughed non stop every night form age 1-2, then they just upgraded them, and the spacer.

Time to find out whats best, you are right.

croup is an inflamation so nurofen is good for it. also those sudafed/vicks vaporiser or plug in things.

olbas oil probably just as good though.

Ds absolutely fine today. No sign of the croupy noises and apart from being a bit pale and having a runny nose he is ok.

Think I will ask gp when we are next there about the inhalers etc you have all been discussing. He has the blue one (salbutamol) already but may ask re: a steroid inhaler/nebulizer.

Dp did give ds a huge dose of salbutamol before we left for the hospital as we didn't know what it was.

I'm so glad your ds has been better, it's a really scary thing. I didn't mean to cause confusion or argument about treatment, more just to give our experience which was that there were several things that helped ds when he had croup. Our ds was also asthmatic (which fortunately he has grown out of). GP/ asthma nurse is the best person to advise whether he needs to take a brown inhaler regularly.

sKerrymum I'm aware that becotide is not the nebulised steroid given with croup but budesonide works in exactly the same way and has the same effects but is more effective than becotide in nebulised form. The advice given to us by our gp was not usual advice but was not wrong (becotide is licensed for that purpose, well was 4 yrs ago) and worked very well for us more than once.

my ds had this last week but I think we caught it before it got too bad ... really recommend using a humidifier in the room. I bought one in argos for about £35 and just put it on in his room, with the radiator off and the window open a tiny bit (to stop the condensation from the humidifer) and it did wonders! I think they are even meant to be good for colds and coughs especially at this time of year when the central heating dries out their airways!

DD2 had a trip to A and E with croup (not as severe as some of your LOs) the other week and was there for a few hours. I think that the trip out in the cold air did the job actually as it recommends this when I looked it up the next day.

It was scary though even for me and I am not a known panicpants. It was quite funny having DD2 'on the phone' to NHSDirect sounding like Darth Vador though!

Worth a trip to the hospital I would say if this happens to anyone else as obviously it can get serious very quickly indeed.

fancy coming across this thread from just 5 days ago.

I have just got back from hospital with dd1 after being up pretty much all night with her as she coughed and wheezed - they diagnosed croup as well as the wheeziness we know she has.

Given a steroid dose at hospital but still coughing quite badly 3 hours later, so crossing our fingers it's going to improve before tonight. If not we have one more dose we can give here tonight and if that isn't doing it within an hour, it's back to hospital for admission.

Hope your ds made a full recovery panicpants - must have been traumatic for you.

I think I am now going to go and buy a humidifier!

So, the croup didn't get better, and the wheeze got worse so we went back to hospital, and dd1 was admitted for 4 days - in the end the diagnosis was croup, chest infection, slight emphysema and (her first) severe asthma attack.

But we are back home and she is on the mend!

DP and I found it all pretty traumatic and exhausting, much more so than dd1 - i stayed with her every night, and dont think i have ever slept less in my life, with nebulisers every 2 hours day and night, I think I averaged 2 hours of sleep every night for 5 days.

Anyway, life feels FAB now!!