Experiences with croup?

wellfleet04

Kate woke up this morning with a terrible wheeze and barky cough.  As I suspected, she has croup.  Pedi said to be prepared for a long night.  If your kiddo had croup symptoms during the day, how bad was the night?  How long did it last?  We are supposed to fly for Christmas on Tuesday.  Thanks!

MelissaMc22

Jack had it. the nights are alot worse than the days.

Here is what really works:

Run a really really hot shower with the door closed to get it really steamy, go sit in there with her for about 15 minutes. Read, play, whatever.

Then, bundle her up and go outside for 15 minutes...The warm plus cold air will relax the vocal choards and ease up on the cough.

There were 2-3 bad nights for us. you should be fine by Tuesday. GL!

Sulla

My best advice is to steam up the bathroom at bathtime tonight. Everyone will tell you to do that once she actually starts barking, but I've found that that doing it at bathtime can actually be preventive.

Both times E has had croup, I did this and only had one bad night. (although the mythical "they" say night two can be the worst.) Good luck.

Sulla

Oh, and another useful thing is to remember that croup sounds a lot worse than it is. There's something called "stridor" where they breathe like they're choking, and it's terrifying. Try not to get too freaked, although if she's really having trouble breathing and you can't calm it down with steam or cold air, you might have to go to the ER for steroids.