Anonymous wrote:

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.

This sounds a lot like my child's "asthma" attacks. She used to get asthma/wheezing with every cold during the winter, but seems to be doing better this year. Her asthma sounds like a dry cough/bark where she is sucking in air and having a lot of difficulty breathing. We used to treat it with pre-emptive albuterol at night when she had a cold, and puffs from an inhaler during an attack. Our doctor never mentioned croup, but maybe that's because she was still wheezing (though not as noticeably) when we would bring her in during the day.

My son is 7 years old now and gets croup all the time since he was younger. I'm told every time nothing can be done. I do place him on the nebulizer with steroids to lessen the cough and that does work along with tylenol and sometimes some over the counter cough meds. The croup usually lasts a week or so. I feel so bad for him. He gets it every couple of months. But I did read on here about the allergy meds ( claritan, zyrtec, etc) and I'm going to give that a try. Thanks everyone!

Anonymous wrote: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.

Yes, ours did - both of them. Until we yanked the tonsils and adenoids of the older one and ran humidifiers in the younger one's room at the first sign of a runny nose. (humidifiers did not do the trick for the older one - and he got recurrent strep).

My daughter been having the croop since she was 3 yrs old. She is now 8 and matter of fact she has it right now. Dr says that its just in the air outside, but there has to be something else causing this. She has gotten it a total of 9 times!! Including today. Ive given her the steriod doses prescribed by her physician, and it works and she gets better and then a month or two down the way she gets it again. Theres no wheezing. I feel bad that she gets it alot.

OP here. It is interesting to see this thread back up.

My DD is now 25 months old and was diagnosed with Reactive Airway Disease or intermittent asthma. She does not have any asthma symptoms, but an X-ray showed her airway was slightly narrowed on one side which leads to croup when her throat is aggravated---by reflux or sinus drainage.

Basically, when she gets a runny nose 24 hours later she will develop the croupy cough. We let her try to go unmedicated for croup once, at 14 months, and it lasted a full week without getting better. Since then, when we hear that croupy cough (typically in the morning after a night's sleep), we give her one dose of prednisolone and that nips it in the bud. We also give her an inhaler/spacer with flovent, nasacort spray for adenoids, and ranitidine at night to protect the airway from reflux (she was a bigtime spitter as a baby).

I am getting a bit frustrated that for all the preventative care she still needs the prednisolone. We have another appt. with the pulmonologist. After allergy testing was negative, we are still keeping that on the radar because she had a one-time allergic reaction that needed an epi pen in the ER after a slow reaction (itchy eyes, swelling of cheeks, drooling) over the course of 3 hours. I now carry an epi pen just in case, although we have no idea what could have caused that and if it has anything to do with her RAD.

I wish that someone could just tell me what is going on and how to keep her healthy. I know many kids have much more serious problems, ours is more sporadic with our DD. It is just frustrating as a parent to not really know what is going on with your kid completely or how to keep her healthy.

Anonymous wrote: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.

Similar story at my house. My DD got the croup every year, at least once or twice, until at age 8 she started to get laryngitis along with upper respitory illnesses. Taking daily zyrtec helps minimize it a great deal. So glad to be done with the nebulizer and steroids.

Yes, my youngest was very susceptible to croup. If she got a cold or had any sinus drainage it would typically turn to croup.

She's now 6 and we have not had a bout in 18 months. They do outgrow it, but it is painful until they do.

Recurrent croup should be looked at by an ENT as it is an upper airway issue. Also, for acute attacks, COLD air is beneficial NOT hot.

To 16:48 - that is absolutely correct! What a great explanantion by your doctor (and amazing recall by you.

My son woke up with croup again. He is nine and has not been diagnosed with allergies or asthma. We are glad we bought a nebulizer.

If it's cold outside, 10 minutes standing on the porch (with the little one well-bundled of course) can stop a croupy cough in its tracks. I suppose the freezer, as PP mentioned, is a good substitute in the warmer months.

I'd never heard about a connection to asthma or allergies. My kid has no allergies, a little asthma, and has had croup one time.

When I was a child, I had croup about once a year; I have never had any allergies or asthma.

Our DD (10 months) got the croup at the end of March for the first time. Since then she has had reoccuring bouts of croup, usually starts with a cold, but has never really lost the baseline bark. Last week we took her to a pulmonologist (after getting frustrated with our pediatrician) who ordered a chest x-ray and upper GI. Both came back normal. He prescribed predisone(which has made her incredibly restless and hungry) and twice daily treatments of flovent (using a spacer). Today is her last day of steroids. Her bark seems to be less severe, but is still present. Has anyone ever experienced this? I am getting increasingly frustrated and concerned.

Our youngest got it all the time. It always scared the crap out of me as I could see her straining to get air. We had multiple trips to the ER, even on vacation. She finally grew out of it at about 5. I don't miss those days.

We never had her tested for allergies. The docs always dismissed my concerns about why she was prone to croup.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Would've appreciated more info on this--why you think it's related and what you see as the causal relationship.

same here - mine drink only refrigerated water/milk. I can see how the cold drink can make the vocal cords inflexible. Perhaps that's the reason?

agree with 7:51 ... actually, having the child stand in front of the freezer really helps with croup symptoms. at least that's been our experience. alternating that with the hot steamy room treatment was really effective for my 16 month old's last bout of croup -- his 4th, followed by his umpty-jillionth double ear infection.

Anonymous wrote: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.

Would've appreciated more info on this--why you think it's related and what you see as the causal relationship.