Chronic Croup - is there such a thing?

I noticed Morgan was coughing a lot in her sleep last night. Then, I noticed tonight that it's getting barky sounding AGAIN. ARGH!!!!!! She's getting croup AGAIN. I don't know what to do. This will be the 3rd time in a 6-8 week time frame. Every time we get over it, she gets it again. So, this will ALSO mean another double ear infection.

We do have an apt. for an ENT consult, but it's not until March 27, that's the earlier we could get her in. Even tonight, during one of the coughing episodes, she held her ear adn looked at me funny. GREAT! I've seen that one MANY times before.

So, is there such things are chronic croup? If so, is she really "contagious" every time she has it? Every other time she still goes to the sitters (luckily she's been getting it on the weekends or close to it and I work from home on Mondays) and NO ONE else there has been sick.

I'm SO sick of sick!

 

Ever since my oldest son was a baby his coughs always turned croupy by the 3rd day, we would get steroid shots at almost every visit, to the point where we just took care of him at home with cold air/ steam showers. Our pedi thought he might be borderline asthmatic, well, now at 6 years old, he does have asthma. And Micheal has started with the croup cough as well. Some kids I am told are just prone to croup coughs. I am interested in what your ENT doc says, Please let me know if you can.
Thanks, Kathy

BTW-
Any more ear infections??

 

I'm not positive but I'm pretty sure that, yes, sort of. What I mean is that I read that once a baby gets croup once, they are more susceptible to getting it repeatedly up until around age 5.

I'm so sorry she's getting sick again. You all must be so tired of the illnesses by now. Your ENT consult will be here before you know it. Maybe your pedi can call and see if they can bump her up? My pedi did that for us.

 

I beleive there are two types of croup. One that is just a one time sickness thing. The other is a kind of "chronic" problem. We've had similar problems with Eli. Our ped gave us an inhaler to use when he's having croup symptoms. This has worked wonders.

 

I think yes. All of my boys seem to have issues with croup. We've been lucky that two of them only needed an ER visit/steriods once and the other has been twice. At least every third cold they get seems to turn into that croupy cough but we haven't needed any treatment most of the time. Did you ask the ent to call if they have a cancellation? If not, I'd call every few days and see if you can get in sooner. ~~~ healthy, happy vibes~~~ to your house!

 

THis is a great post! Zach gets the croupy barking cough with a cold too. But usually only at night and is better the next day. Now Felicia my 7 year old has had a croupy/mucously cough off and on - mostly at night- for atleast 2-3 weeks. Now Josh gets a horrid mucousy cough with every cold and needs a nebulizer with pulmacort and.or albuterol to clear it up. I am wondering if Felicia needs this too but too a much lesser extent? She did have a lingering cough from a cold when she was young (just like Josh and I think at his age too) that lasted a month or more. We finally gave her an Rx of Robittussin with codeine to get her to sleep and it finally cleared up. But I wonder now if the nebulizer would have done the trick too?

 

Becky, I agree... some babies just seem to get it again and again. That's been happening with our Sam. He's been sick on and off all winter again. It's lousy! He has tubes now, and that has helped tremendously! And we have inhaled steroids as well as a nebulizer here at home. I think tubes would help Morgan a lot. Also, talk to your doc about her coughing. There might be some things you can to at home to help her improve a little... I know the "sick of sick" feeling!

Honestly, I'm not sure about the "contagious" thing either... but I do know that with 3 of my kids, 95% of the time, only Sam is sick. Usually with the lungs and the cough, he is the only one with it - the others might have a minor cold, but that's it... and not often.

 

quote:
I am interested in what your ENT doc says, Please let me know if you can.
Thanks, Kathy

BTW-
Any more ear infections??



OMG, they both had double ear infections in the past month. It was horrible. They both had croup on top of those too. UGH! That made about number 8-9 for Morgan and that's when we got the ENT referral. Reagan's only ever had 3, so we'll see where the rest of the winter takes her.

 

Becky,

No advice on your question, just wanted to say I am there with you. We are waiting for our ENT appt too. Josh has only had "infections" twice - but he has had fluid in his ears for 8 weeks now along with one red ear. Every time I blink he has an infection and it isn't cleared up. The oral abx haven't worked at all, and we just finished another round of shots of Rocephin, but he still has the infection. He has had 6 shots now . . . last week we were at the clinic four out of five days. My pedi is trying to get us in sooner too, but the ENT is booked. They got us moved up a week to the 8th of March, but if he gets another infection before then (or before surgery), I am going to have him admitted to the hospital since IV abx are the only thing that get rid of his infection (found this out when he was hospitalized for his pneumonia). That way we can get an ENT consult that day and tubes hopefully the next day. So that's my plan. It probably won't work for you though because they won't admit your daughter to the hospital if oral abx take care of her infections (which it sounds like they are). But just a thought . . .

good luck,
Amy

 

quote:
The oral abx haven't worked at all, and we just finished another round of shots of Rocephin, but he still has the infection. He has had 6 shots now . . . last week we were at the clinic four out of five days. My pedi is trying to get us in sooner too, but the ENT is booked. They got us moved up a week to the 8th of March, but if he gets another infection before then (or before surgery), I am going to have him admitted to the hospital since IV abx are the only thing that get rid of his infection (found this out when he was hospitalized for his pneumonia). That way we can get an ENT consult that day and tubes hopefully the next day. So that's my plan. It probably won't work for you though because they won't admit your daughter to the hospital if oral abx take care of her infections (which it sounds like they are). But just a thought . . .


Oh wow Amy, guess I shouldn't be complaining huh? When is Josh getting tubes? Our apt. the end of March is just the inital consult. I'm not sure what to expect after that...if they will want to see her again or just schedule to have tubes put in. We shall see. Best of luck at your ENT apt. o nthe 8th though. I hope that Josh stays out of the hospital and healthy until the surgery.

 

my daugther gets it all the time. really all the time. our pedi hasn't said anything, but i wonder if it's Asthma in the makings or something...

 

Have you ever had them tested for allergies? Or possibly asthma? I know if you have mold in your home it can cause a lot of asthma like problems. If you have ever had a roof leak or flood you probably have mold in the walls or in the floor.