Croup? Ways to help

[lockdownmummax]

looking for advice on ways to help my we boy who is 1,

2 days ago he started to become unwell with general cold symptoms, never worried to much ( he is on an inhaler due to chest / cough problems) then bam, last night the coughing become constant barking cough, crackling when breathing, fast breathing, very unsettled, from 7pm - 9.30pm he wouldn't settle at all, he would fall asleep for a few minutes in his pram then wake up with coughing, I called 111 and got an appointment,
Dr advised she thinks it's croup and gave him a steroid shot in the hospital and told me to carry on with his inhaler,
He never got to sleep till around 3am last night just unsettled in his cot and seemed very agitated, he's woken up this morning and is still coughing but not as bad he just seems very upset and irritable, how can I help him? What's the normal time frame for croup, doing the usual iboprofian & calpol , I've got baby Vicks and keeping him elevated , he's not eating he will have some yogurt and sips of milk or water

when DS had croup we also had the steroid shot. He continued to cough/be poorly but the "croupy" sound did go. We were advised to put a humidifier in the room, especially if the heating is on as it helps with coughing.

@mummumumumumum
Thank you! I will try that,
It's really horrible for them isn't it, his cough sounds a lot better he sounds quite wheezy still when breathing I'll probably take another trip to the dr if it doesn't settle down by tomorrow

Croup is so horrible, my little one has had it frequently. Once they've had steroids it usually clears up but the runny nose etc will just run it's course. I pop one of the calpol plug ins in their bedroom and give calpol. Apparently sitting beside an open window helps, try and avoid upset because I always found the whistling sound on expiration was worse when they were upset.

DS has had three instances of croup, each time the general cold/illness period has been different, varying from 24 hours to about a week - so I think it varies. Each time it has only been one night of croup as part of it.

Advice now is to avoid adding any humidity! So please don't use a humidifier and avoid baths etc until it's cleared. Advice used to be to make things humid but they've now found this makes it worse. Fresh air can help so taking them outside/next to an open window if you hear the barking cough is a good idea, and keep on top of ibuprofen/calpol.

@RentonD
Thank you for your advice,
I actually took my we boy to the GP today as was really worried about his breathing and it just didn't sound like croup, he was crackling with every breath and coughing a lot, I then noticed his ribs where sucking in a little bit, we got transferred to hospital from the GP, RSV / broncholitis
we thankfully got let home as his oxygen was stable just to monitor him closely and keep up his fluids

Feel for you!!! Our household is down with this as I type.! It’s bloody awful!

if you have pain/fever reducer give it to your child. If you’ve been prescribed something for it, ask before giving child fever reducer.

I found that hot-ish baths made my baby feel better as well as walks outside in the cold air. Breastfeeding has also been a godsend. Good luck!

This is interesting. The baths soothed my baby… but maybe it wasn’t best?

How did you get your child to take the steroids? Our gp prescribed a liquid which was so god awful, our child screamed. I’m sure she’s traumatized by that event

I think the main thing they were against were room humidifiers- assume because croup comes on at night, but nurses did mention to avoid baths too. I've started doing baths during the day if ds sounds like he has a cold - the things we do as parents, I'm definitely overreacting there! But if baths worked for you that's great!

Because humidity used to be advised I'm not sure if this advice is similar across all health boards!

Replied to you above! It didn't tag you though.

Remembered I'd taken pics of the advice leaflet we got from peads a&e! Might be useful for anyone dealing with croup currently!