My son gets croup 3-4 times a year. He's just under 4. Last night was the worst; he was convulsing b/c it was so hard to breathe. This thread helped explain what it was, so thanks for that. Typically we treat it via hot shower rooms, steroids, a prescribed multi-symptom medicine we refer to as "C-phen", as its name seems to start with that. We also use a nebulizer with 2 different drugs....

He's been diagnosed as allergic to dust mites and cats, but those allergies seem unrelated to his bouts with the croup.

Typically it starts with a runny nose. It almost always first manifests at night. I'm guessing this is because his sinuses drain into the back of his throat at those times. But I'm not sure this is anatomically accurate.

Anyhow, unlike a poster above, for us the shower does seem to work.

I won't say it's nice exactly to see that other parents and children have to deal with this. But it is at least reassuring.

OP, does your child get cold foods/drinks from the fridge/freezer? If so, I'd try to discontinue that for a while to see if the problem is reduced.

my 3.5 year old has croup now and it is her 4th time. the dr said she is just prone to it. when it happens, the dr puts her on prednolosone and it helps a lot. i am pregnant again and hoping this baby is not also croup prone!

Thanks everyone, OP here. We have an appointment with a pediatric pulmonologist to get my daughter evaluated just in case. My concern is that she had croup 4 times within a 6 month period, the last 2 bouts both in October. She gets the runny nose for 24 hours, then the stridor and breathing difficulties with barking cough that night. Steroids have been effective. She also get croup without being around any other child with croup, so it appears to be her typical reaction to a cold virus. We are getting it checked out just in case, but I am glad to hear there are cases of "just getting croup" without necessarily having another underlying condition.

Anonymous wrote:I was wanting to post about croup so I'll ask you Mom's here:
Our 3 1/2 year old DD woke at 1:30 a.m. on Saturday wheezing and coughing. She wheezed for about an hour and then it was gone. It seemed as if she had swallowed wrong and it was mostly in her throat.

Now today she seems wheezy in the throat again. No cold symptoms, but it seems she may have something coming on. Is this how the croup typcially starts and do 3 almost 4 year olds get it?

As my child's doctor explained it to me:

Typically the first night of croup is the worst; the child might have just had small cold symptoms, maybe a runny nose, during the day, but wakes at night with a barking seal like cough. The child has stridor -- difficulty breathing in. It may be mistaken by parents for wheezing, so the doctor was always careful to ask me to mimic what the difficulty sounded like.

The croupy, barking cough will go away usually in an hour or so-- especially if you open all the windows or take the child outside for some cold air. I think the moist shower techniqu has been proven ineffective, but don't take my word on that. It certainly never worked for us.

Then the child will be OK the next day, but the croupy, barking seal like cough will return the next night and maybe even the third -- but will be much less severe -- usually the first night is the worst of it.

My children have never had asthma attacks so I don't know how they differ.

Yes, both of my kids have been croup-prone, and neither has been diagnosed with allergies, asthma, or any problem other than "getting croup frequently."

FWIW, my older child outgrew croup, had the last episode at about age 5.

Younger child is still croup-prone. Throughout the baby and toddler years we had more than our share of croupy nights. Very healthy otherwise, and hopefully putting croup behind us soon for good!

Also FWIW: all of the doctors we have seen (Capitol Medical Group) have believed that both of my kids were just croup-prone, with no underlying issues. So far, so good with that line of thinking. (Not to say that this is the case for other children, but happily it has been for ours.)

And yes OP, my son got croup with almots every cold, until about age 5. Only when he was under 3 was the croup really bad. Then at age 7 he had a very bad bout of croup. He had a lot of trouble breathing and I did take him to the ER. They said they didn't know exactly what it was, but treated for asthma. I kept saying, "Gee, it really seems like the croup he used to get -- only he's 7, 7 year olds should be getting croup". The ped the next morning reviewed the records and examined him and said it wasn't asthma, it was croup, and I had been right.

I think as an earlier poster said, some kids get croup a lot because they have narrower windpipes.

My child's doc explained to me, (I may have it wrong but this is the explanation I remember):

When a child gets certain cold or other viruses, it makes the vocal cords swell. Then you see either "croup" or "laryngitis" depending on how inflamed the cords are, and whether the inflamation blocks breathing or not.

If the swollen vocal cords block air between them and the trachea, the result is called "croup". If the vocal cords swell but do not get in the way of breathing, it is called "laryngitis".

Boys are often more affected by coup than girls, because they have narrower tracheas. But girls also get croup.

Most kids "grow out" of croup by around age 5 or so. For one thing, they have had a lot of the cold and other ciruses that cause the swelling of the vocal cords. For another their windpipes are wider, so even if they do get sick, they just get laryngitis not coup.

Croup is completely different from asthma, but you can have both at the same time, and one can be misdiagnosed for the other. Croup is a swelling of the vocal cords. Asthma is the bronchi (airways) not the cords inside the trachea.

Croup is difficulty breathing in (stridor) and asthma is difficulty breathing out (wheezing) --

I was wanting to post about croup so I'll ask you Mom's here:
Our 3 1/2 year old DD woke at 1:30 a.m. on Saturday wheezing and coughing. She wheezed for about an hour and then it was gone. It seemed as if she had swallowed wrong and it was mostly in her throat.

Now today she seems wheezy in the throat again. No cold symptoms, but it seems she may have something coming on. Is this how the croup typcially starts and do 3 almost 4 year olds get it?

My DD has it right now (she's 4.5) and has had about 4 or 5 episodes of it since she was 22 months (we remember well because it was the week that DS was born!). DS hasn't ever had it. They are suffering the same cold at the moment, but only DD has croup with it. I don't think she has asthma (no other signs) and each time she's had it, it's all been fine after 5 days. It's just very disruptive to night-time sleep. I was told by a doctor to give benadryl, but just today I read on-line that I shouldn't be giving that. So will probably just try the steam thing tonight. I won't have her tested for asthma unless it seems to get worse.

i do think younger kids are more likely to get croup because their windbox is smaller so i think kids do outgrow the tendency sometimes. other times it's a precursor or a sign of allergies/asthma.

My son has had at least one bout of croup a year since he was born (he's 5 now). One time he was even hospitalized overnight for croup. My doctor has never mentioned asthma as a possibility. She said some kids "just get croup a lot" from "6 months to 6 years" and then outgrow it. I'm still hoping that is the case because it SUCKS!

I'm wondering what is the difference between croup and asthma attacks? My son will get a mild cold, where the only symptom is a runny nose. Within 1-2 days, it moves into his chest, he starts coughing and wheezing. He'll be on steroids and albuterol, and the symptoms clear up in about 2-3 days. But my doctor calls it asthma where as yours calls it croup?

My kids "just got the croup alot" ... until at 2 I put them on Claritin. Now my 4 yo is on Singulair and Claritin, and my 2 yo is on Claritin. They don't get the croup anymore. Allergies? Maybe. Grew out of it? Possibly. I am inclined to think allergies, since the cessation of recurring croup coincided with the Claritin.

Dovetailing on the other croup thread, I have heard from several doctors and nurses "some kids just get recurrent croup" and that nothing is particularly causing this. I have yet to hear from another parent that this is their child. Most threads have the answer being allergies or asthma.

My 15 months old has had 4 bouts of croup in her life. Every runny nose she has had has turned into croup, except for one. After 24 hours of a runny nose, the croupy cough and stridor will start that night. We have a prescription for steroids and usually one or two doses is all she needs. Because I have noticed no other symptoms, and she is very healthy otherwise (no wheezing), I am wondering if she is just "one of those kids who get croup a lot." I was wondering if anyone else had further testing and were just told that, too.