my baby has the croup

Is this as scary as it sounds?
She was coughing last night very loudly but at about 2:30 she quieted down and slept till morning. We took her to the dr this am who gave some cortizone drops and scared me so much talking about how if she can't breath and coughs for more than 10' we should take her to the er for an adrenaline inhaler.
She's been doing ok all day but I guess this is one of those things that gets worse at night.
Anyway, I'm hoping for any tips and suggestions to help us get through this in the least dramatic way.
thanks so much.

 

Hannah just got over this, and yes, we had drama, too. She ended up getting an albuterol inhaler treatment late at night at Patient first after she developed trouble breathing. I would just keep an eye out for rapid breathing, a "sqeeky toy" sound deep in the chest, fever, or use of accessory muscles to breathe (looks like they're panting). If they do this, I would get them to the doc ASAP. The inhaler treatment really helped Hannah a lot and I was finally able to breathe easier once I knew she could. A cool mist humidifier in the room is supposed to help, also, at night.

 

Sorry to hear you had to go through this. Glad your Hannah is feeling better. Thanks for your post.
Just one question: do you think I should stay up to monitor the baby or will she let me know if she's distressed during the night? our bedrooms are next door to each other so I pretty much hear everything going on.

 

I think you'll hear if trouble is brewing, but I might pop in and do random checks every couple of hours. It made me feel better, anyway.

 

Oh no! Croup is not fun! If you hear her start with the cough in the night, go in the bathroom, turn the water on in the tub/shower as hot as it will get so the bathroom steams up, and keep her in there for 15 minutes or so. Then, you can take her outside. The difference in the air usually helps them.

Watch for rapid breathing, and stridor (when you can hear them breathing in and out). Josh had to get a steroid shot because his stridor was so severe, but I assume that is what the cortisone drops are for. It definitely gets worse at night.

I hope she feels better soon. :hug99:

 

Thanks for your advise.
It's almost 11pm here and so far Nefeli is sleeping ok. She sounds like she has a stuffed nose but hasn't coughed once yet. hopefully the cortizone will keep her well through the night. she was just in the hospital 3 weeks ago and i hope we can skip the midnight run to the er this time around. we bought a humidifier so maybe that will help to. i'll let you know how the night goes.

 

definitely keep us informed. I hope you're getting good sleep right now, in fact, I'm praying for you and your little one now! Take care!!