Help me know what to do...

[babysparkler]

I was up most of the night with a "croupy" coughing 2 year old. I don't know if I should take him in to see our ped today or not.

 

Here is some background...

 

We are asthmatics, and we recently had a pretty bad case of swine flu hit us hard 5 weeks ago. We all seemed to recover mostly after 2 weeks, but all have a cough remaining (I hear that is normal). Last night, my 2-year-old was having such difficulty with his newly-barking sounding cough (croup without a fever?) that I put my older son's nebulizer mask with albuterol on the toddler (he has never used it before, but my older son did at this age so I knew it would be safe). At that point, he was having difficulty breathing in and out, with horrible sounding bark sounds for both in and out breathing. It seemed to work wonders and he slept for a few hours straight before the cough started up again.

 

I am not one to rush into the dr. for illnesses that I can treat at home. Should I go out and get a humidifier/vaporizer and treat him myself, or do you think it is time to go into the ped?

[amy g.]

I would take him to the doctor just to rule out a secondary infection.

[Chris in VA]

I'd also take him to the ped. If he needs breathing treatments, you will need the dosage and the schedule--they may have you do a clear out first, but you will need the exact dosage to prevent any side effects (heart-related, mostly).

They can also see if he has any secondary infection--oops I see Amy already mentioned that.

[Stacey in MA]

I don't love to run to the dr.'s, but breathing problems are definitely a good enough reason for me. I have kids who get mild asthma when sick, but ALSO croup. (My older 2 - they don't get it any more - outgrown). I would want the Dr. to be aware, rule out infection, get an official DX, and then write the kiddo his own RX (yes, doses are different for each age/size). That's just me....

 

I remember racing around in the middle of the night, waking up to a child struggling with breathing. I feel your pain! The first thing I did was give them a lolly pop. Weird, huh? Well, they'd be so panicy, and that actually aggravates croup and makes it worse. So a lollypop would calm them and keep them from getting their airway tighter. Then it was off to prep the nebulizer b/c I had to get rid of the asthma attack first. Then after that was not as urgent, we'd run outside to deal with the croup. While kiddo was sitting just outside in sight, I'd run in and nuke a cup of hot water to make fast and furious steam. Then kiddo would breathe that in for another few minutes. If we still had serious issues after about 10 min., I'd wake DH to tell him we were going to the ER. Ugh. I don't miss those moments - that was scary.

 

Hang in there. They do eventually outgrow croup as their bodies grow. My kids' asthmas has been mostly outgrown too (for now - I hear it comes back). Nothing urgent ever happens any more at least. My younger 2 don't have those same problems....

 

Hope your kiddo feels better soon!

- Stacey in MA

[babysparkler]

Thanks, Ladies... I will call this morning when the office opens.

 

BTW... I love the lolly pop idea, Stacey!

[Pippen]

I'd also take him in. True croup doesn't respond to Albuterol so something else is going on here.

 

http://serialprocrastination.blogspot.com/2007/03/croup-and-albuterol.html

[babysparkler]

I just got back... the ped put him on zithromax and prednisolone and told me to use a cool mist humidifier for the croup.