Asthma and Croup

[Anonymous]

Our youngest child (3) was diagnosed with croup last night at the ER. He had stopped breathing but is fine now, after steroids. We are monitoring him closely and pressing rest and fluids.

Our oldest child (6) has allergy-induced asthma that has been stable for 2.5 years with allergy treatment. (He has been ill a few times and not needed his inhalers.) He currently has a mild and very occasional cough and no other symptoms. Says he feels fine. No sounds of wheezing or any other asthma symptoms.

We'll be asking this of our pediatrician at follow-up today, but curious if others have experience with croup in an older, asthmatic child. Did you start your asthma action plan?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our youngest child (3) was diagnosed with croup last night at the ER. He had stopped breathing but is fine now, after steroids. We are monitoring him closely and pressing rest and fluids.

Our oldest child (6) has allergy-induced asthma that has been stable for 2.5 years with allergy treatment. (He has been ill a few times and not needed his inhalers.) He currently has a mild and very occasional cough and no other symptoms. Says he feels fine. No sounds of wheezing or any other asthma symptoms.

We'll be asking this of our pediatrician at follow-up today, but curious if others have experience with croup in an older, asthmatic child. Did you start your asthma action plan?

Our daughter was triggered by respiratory virus, so we did start the action plan, but only because my husband refused to allow treatment unless she was sick, so we were always in rescue mode. That said, your older child might croup, but his airway is now big enough to handle the inflammation. The allergy treatment should keep the inflammation at bay.

That's REALLY scary that it stopped your son breathing. REALLY scary. Glad the steroids are on board.

[Anonymous]

My kids got croup way past the normal time frame. My daughter was hospitalized at age 6 after the ped insisted it was asthma and sent us home with a nebulizer. She was gray and in an ambulance 2 hours later. Terrifying. My oldest kid (also an asthmatic) had croup at age 12. I think some kids are just more prone to it.

Moving forward you will be super on top of it. Hopefully it will never be that bad again.

I would ask the doctor about using albuterol if you suspect a kid has croup - I think that is what made my daughter worse.

[Anonymous]

They are both reactive airway diseases but they affect different parts. As kids get older, they usually outgrow croup because the airway is larger so even if it inflames, it doesn’t cause the stridor and noisy breathing. Croup can be caused by a variety of things including viruses. If your asthmatic kid gets viral induced asthma, I would watch closely. The two often go together.

[Anonymous]

OP here with an update.

Older child and DH are both sick now too. My older son had a croup attack - for lack of a better word - last night. Albuterol didn't seem to affect it one way or another, though it made him super hyper. (His pediatrician told us to give it to him and said it wouldn't hurt to do so.) Thankfully, DS has been able to breathe throughout, with and without his inhaler. Though he was really scared by the stridor/cough thing, which seemed to make it all much, much worse. He improved a lot once I got him calm and got some Advil in him. The good night's sleep helped too.

Waiting to see what happens tonight. I have him sleeping with DH in a room with the window open to the cold, foggy night air. (We're not in DC right now.) The doctor recommended it and it seemed to help a lot last night.

DH has barely been able to get out of bed. He's usually Mr. Tough-it-out, so he must feel pretty bad. Nursing him all day too. Just burning through Kleenex.

Thankfully, the toddler is rebounding. He's draining mucus like crazy but his energy is back and the cough is gone. And to the pp who mentioned it, YES, watching him turn purple and stop breathing was TERRIFYING.

All covid tests - PCR and antigen of both adults and kids - have been negative.

I think we have 2-3 more days of draining/mucus and then hopefully it's over.

[Anonymous]

My DS has asthma and also chronic recurrent croup until about age 8 (many nights walking outside in the cold air, scary trips to the hospital). The thing to keep in mind about croup that is different from an asthma attack is that in croup the voice box is swelling, so an anti inflammatory can help, even motrin.

[Anonymous]

Always start the asthma action plan. A few puffs of albuterol is much better than a trip to the ER that requires Oxygen and steroid treatment

[Anonymous]

My 10 year old daughter has viral induced asthma and was advised to do one puff of Flovent only when she gets a cold. We did this for the last two colds she has had in the last year and it’s never progressed to pneumonia like it used to do every time she got a cold. It resolves in about a day or two.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Always start the asthma action plan. A few puffs of albuterol is much better than a trip to the ER that requires Oxygen and steroid treatment

For asthma. Albuterol doesn't help croup.

[Anonymous]

I always had a nebulizer for emergencies. Albuterol is rescue medication. Learn to treat at home long before your kid gets bad enough to stop breathing. I have end-stage COPD. I am well-educated on how to stay out of the hospital and keep my kids out of the hospital. Read everything you can find on lung disease, and be proactive.