can someone explain Stridor to me please?

[BlueDragonfly]

It was amongst the jargon the Dr used for DS3 earlier and in my haste to take everything in, i didn't ask what it was. ALl i can gather is that its a wheezy/raspy thing...?

I am a bit too scared to ggogle!

Yeah, it's exactly that - stridor is the name given to the noise made when someone struggles to breathe. In itself it's not a cause for concern - obviously if you have a cold you could make noises when you breathe.

You don't say how old DS3 is - if he's a baby or younger than three it normally indicates that there is a structural problem with the tubes which can generally be fixed or they grow out of (obviously if it's a big bloody blockage it needs to be cleared). Normal treatment is xray followed by endoscopy. Both are relatively painless - though the endoscopy is unpleasant.

Googling is a bad idea btw. You are right to avoid that

google it, its not scarey really! its just the high pitched sound made when they are breathing badly.

Are you worried because it is part of something bigger??

x-posts whomoved, am not trying to be argumentative!

my kiddies have had 'stridors' when they have had croup. tis the noise of their breath passing thro their swollen vocal cords.

if he starts to look as tho he is struggling tho then he will need checking again, but if he is just breathing noisily then he is fine, even if it sounds horrid.

She mentioned that he had a bit of a stridory rasp when i took him today.

History of it is that he seems to have had one cough after another for a number of weeks now. At first i wasn't worried, they get coughs and with ds1 at school and ds2 with a childminder once a week then they are bound to bring things back with them. However, he is very upset by it at mo and is kind of wheezy, his voice is hoarse and its waking him at night as well as disturbing him in the day. I have asthma which is quite bad at the mo, DP has mild asthma, ds2 and dp both have exzema and we all get hayfevery so DR came to the conclusion(after having a very thourough listen to him) that it could possibly be a pre asthma thing. She prescribed an inhaler with a spacer.
He is 5 months

sorry x posts psycho.

Its very noisy breathing which is there all the time at mo but worse when he shouts or screams or coughs if that makes sense?

I am to use the spacer over w/e and if i see no improvment at all then to go back midweek.

I usually forget what DRs have said so was trying to take everything in and forgot to ask!

when megs used to suffer really badly with croup (and she was bad enough to be admitted with it twice yearly for about 3yrs running when she was smaller), she then had a stridor almost perminantly (sp?) at one point. they prescribed a grey inhaler to help....cannot remember the name now but it wasn't ventolin or becotide, but it did help with the swelling in her throat.

asthma inhalers really help the lungs, not swelling in vocal cords, so altho the ventoline won;t harm him (and with the history in the family he may well be heading down the asthma route anyhow), it (ASAIK) wont do anything for the stridor.

now, I am no doc (as you know), but I do have lote of mummy experience of this type of thing, so I would go back if you are worried and he is worse, or in no way better!

does his chest/throat dip in too when he is breathing in, like the skin is being sucked inbetween his ribs???

no the way that he breathes is fine. he does suck in alittle bit but she didn't seem too worried about that. She had a really good listen to his chest (front and back) as well as his heart (he was asleep so she took advantage ), watcheds him breathe while he was lay in my arms, watched him breathe while he lay on the bed thing,she heard him cough -0 the really nasty one that is usually apparent at night.

to be fair to her she did she did say stridor like rasp rather than stridor.

its not a barking cough nor a 'whooping' cough that he has. i can't really describe it properly.

sounds to me then as tho he has had a low level infection that has left his poor little voice really hoarse and he is not shaking it as he keeps aggravating his voice when he cries.....I guess the same as we would do with a cold that makes our voice harsh for weeks.

is he happy enough otherwise??

no he is a misery at the mo. I am really struggling with him He doesn't appear to have anything else wrong health wise though. his nappies are normal, he smiles occasionally, no temperature, nopt refluxy that i know of, no distress when he coughs just gets annoyed really.

Dr said that often coughs can arrive with infection and in asthmatics it can linger as well as it being a symptom of asthma as well as allergic reaction in throat to something-usually animal fur type allergen

hoping things are a little better today.

i am having puter probs so can't get online very well at mo

He is a lot lot better. No scary noise when he breathes, he is even laughing again! his cough still there but not disturbing him so much at night - he coughs but doesn't always wake with it, i do though