Beware the croup

vibe666

I just wanted to make people aware that not only is it the season for croup, but it seems to be particularly bad and widespread at the moment and parents should be on the lookout for the symptoms.

I'm posting from my mobile so maybe someone can post details of the symptoms, but the most obvious is restricted air way and a strong cough like a bark from a seal, getting worse at night and if laying down.

It's usually caused by a viral infection on the upper air way, kind of like a baby version of laryngitis.

It's not normally all that bad and is usually a lot less severe than the barking cough makes it sound, but right now I'm sitting in temple street children's hospital with our 5 month old highly sedated in intensive care with a breathing tube keeping his Aire way open, hooked up to about a dozen machines, so it can potentially be a lot more severe than most people realise.

Thankfully, they say he's going to be fine, but I wanted to make people aware that it is going around and how bad it can get in extreme cases.

Look out for the symptoms and if in any doubt, get them checked at you GP right away.

How Strange

vibe666 I hope you're little fella gets better soon. Thanks for the info as I wouldnt have a clue what to look out for.

vibe666

How Strange wrote: »

vibe666 I hope you're little fella gets better soon. Thanks for the info as I wouldnt have a clue what to look out for.

neither did we tbh, I wasn't even sure what croup was when they first started mentioning it and even after that, checking online they don't say how bad it can get.

I would like to say how amazing everyone has been at the hospital both with looking after the little man and in keeping us calm and well informed and I honestly don't think I've ever seen anywhere get such a thorough cleaning on such a regular basis, it's spotless.

I really can't fault them one bit.

They even found a small room for us to sleep in with a bed and some showers nearby so we don't have to leave to sleep or shower.

cassid

it's a nasty ole thing croup. My son got it the second time just before Christmas, although viral, the gp put him on antibiotics,steroids and increased his inhalers, he's a prem so his lungs are not great anyway. He is still barking but nothing like before.
Hope you little one is better soon. If u are breastfeeding, you get all your meals free in Temple st and you should get a parents badge for discount food in the canteen.

Fran79

Vibe666 I hope things improve very soon.

I was that kid when I was 4 - was all hooked up to every machine, breathing tube etc etc. I was home after 2 weeks and now (at 32) am fine. Just to say my Mum still says it was the scariest time and I got bad croup every year at least once well into my teens.

I still remember my Mum getting me up in the middle of the night to sit in a very steamy bathroom which would ease my symptoms enough for me to get back to sleep without waking the whole house.

Again I hope little one is home very soon.

fgaha

Our dd got it just after xmas. doc said to just keep an eye on her, we got a throat syrup in chemist and just kept her dosed up with calpol. she still has a slight cough but the bark is well gone. hope your little one is home soon.

temple st are great. we spent a bit of time there with ds.

fgaha

vibe666

he's still in intensive care, but they have taken him off the muscle relaxants and they are gradually weaning him off the other drugs and he's going to have the breathing tube out in the morning, so fingers crossed, if all goes well he could be going down to a ward in a day or so and then hopefully we can take him home after a few days R&R on the ward.

I honestly can't say enough good things about all the staff here (we're staying in parent accommodation in the hospital, it's very basic but its all you need and as cheap as chips, just a bed and a sink and a telly, but there's a kitchen and wash room with shower and washer and dryer so you have what you need to survive.

anyway, fingers crossed i should have some more good news in a few days.

Gandhi

Our 3-year-old had it at the start of the winter. Luckily he was not bad enough to go to hospital, but at the worst point when he coughed the pain was so bad he would start crying and running as if he thought he could somehow run away from it. Broke my heart to watch him.

Hope the other little ones get better soon.

Tayla

Aw Vibe666, your poor little man, delighted that he's going to be fine, it must have given you a big fright to see him hooked up to all those machines.

My son got croup a few weeks before christmas, it wasn't that bad for him but I was afraid that my baby would catch it off him because they say that it can be worse for babies (even the mild kind) simply because babies get very distressed during the coughing episodes which makes it even worse.

Luckily she didn't catch it but when my son went back into school the following week there was a girl in the class with croup whose parents didn't take her out of school. The pharmacist had told us not to send my child to school so when my son went back he told the other little girl that it was 'illegal' for her to be there don't know where he got that from!

I'm lucky that my kids don't pick up very many bugs or viruses but when they do I would be very conscious of exposing other kids to the bug, in particular if those kids have little baby brothers or sisters at home who are at risk of catching it.

Fran79

Thats fantastic news vibe666.

Hope hes home really soon.

vibe666

well he has most of the tubes and stuff out now and the only thing left in him is the feeding tube in his nose, but that's only there for oral administration of mild medicines like nurofen & calpol as he refuses to swallow them. his mum has been able to lift him and feed him and hopefully he should be coming out of the ICU in the next day or so, then another day on a ward to be on the safe side and then fingers crossed home in time for at least some of the weekend.

one thing the doctors did stress is that catching it once is a good indication of susceptibility to it and that it's quite common for them to get it again (quite often multiple times), although usually not as bad as the first time, so we will have to be on the lookout for the symptoms and do everything we possibly can to encourage a strong immune system and healthy home going forward.

but, fingers crossed, we're near the end of our first very stressful early parenting episode.

Gandhi

Tayla wrote: »

Aw Vibe666, your poor little man, delighted that he's going to be fine, it must have given you a big fright to see him hooked up to all those machines.

My son got croup a few weeks before christmas, it wasn't that bad for him but I was afraid that my baby would catch it off him because they say that it can be worse for babies (even the mild kind) simply because babies get very distressed during the coughing episodes which makes it even worse.

Luckily she didn't catch it but when my son went back into school the following week there was a girl in the class with croup whose parents didn't take her out of school. The pharmacist had told us not to send my child to school so when my son went back he told the other little girl that it was 'illegal' for her to be there don't know where he got that from!

I'm lucky that my kids don't pick up very many bugs or viruses but when they do I would be very conscious of exposing other kids to the bug, in particular if those kids have little baby brothers or sisters at home who are at risk of catching it.

I don't think Croup is a disease in its own right, it is a syndrome caused when a cold or other virus leads to a lower respiratory infection. So even if other kids caught the virus that had caused the little girl's croup, it would not necessarily have led to croup in the rest of them. It is similar to how some kids are prone to develop an ear infection if they get any bit of a sniffle.

vibe666

it was explained to us as primarily an upper airway infection similar to laryngitis in adults which can lead to some bronchiolitis in the upper portion of the lungs in more serious cases.

they also said that although it is primarily caused by virus's, there can also sometimes be a secondary bacterial infection which can make the symptoms more severe.

apparently though, in our case at least there was no bacterial infection despite how severe it was.

they did also say that their initial worry was that as he was so young and it is very unusual for someone so young to get croup, that it could have been caused by a strawberry type birthmark on the inside of his airway constricting the air flow, which sometimes happens in younger babies and can present croup like symptoms (hence the trip to theatre and lower airway endoscope).

Tayla

Gandhi wrote: »

I don't think Croup is a disease in its own right, it is a syndrome caused when a cold or other virus leads to a lower respiratory infection. So even if other kids caught the virus that had caused the little girl's croup, it would not necessarily have led to croup in the rest of them. It is similar to how some kids are prone to develop an ear infection if they get any bit of a sniffle.

I was just surprised that she was in school when the pharmacist had told us not to send our son. I presumed that that girls parents may have been told the same thing, maybe not though. I regularly got croup when I was a child and I never missed a day of primary school so I presume I must have been sent in with croup at some stage. I just thought maybe the recommendations had changed and that all pharmacists would have advised the same.

I wasn't necessarily talking just about croup when I said that I would be very conscious of sending my child into school when they weren't well, I would just worry that if I sent my child into school with some kind of bug or virus that wasn't that bad for him, that another child may get a particularly bad dose or that their baby siblings would and I would feel guilty about it if I had sent my son into school with croup and then I found out that someones baby ended up in hospital because of it. My baby girl didn't catch croup off her brother even though they are always together.

It's just something that I think about myself, I don't expect others to all think the same

vibe666

Tayla wrote: »

It's just something that I think about myself, I don't expect others to all think the same

i had exactly the same thought about going into work myself as both myself and my wife caught whatever the virus was (albeit a lot milder). i didn't want to go into work and risk giving it to several people in the office who i know have small children.

i know what we've gone through with our little man is a bit on the extreme side of what croup can do, but i'd be devastated if it turned out i passed it on to someone at work and their baby ended up in hospital as a result.