Croup

[Lee-Bee]

I suspect my daughter (almost 4yrs) has croup. I am bringing her in this afternoon to confirm. I don't expect she will need any drugs or anything. I am curious what other providers do for such an illness. I haven't had experience with croup before aside from knowing a handful of kids that required hospital care for it. But, from what I read it is more or less a cold that could turn worse.

I only do afternoon care and the children will not come today since I am bringing her to the doctor. I will check with the doctor as well, but would you still have the daycare children come for care tomorrow, leave it up to the parents? My daughter is relatively well right now, but the night was brutal with the coughing and struggling to breath and the darth vader breathing all night. I am fine to provide care...I just don't know what to advise the parents as to the risks of them still coming.

Should I be disinfecting all the toys? I don't really do that very often as aside from common colds we don't really have anything coming through here and I like kids to build up their immunity and not rely on disinfectants or normal everyday germs.

Thoughts?
Thanks!

[33 Daiseys]

My daughter gets it now almost every time she gets a cold. She end up on an extra inhaler, and cortizone in liquid form.
If a child develops the croup cough, then they have to stay home. Twice I have had kids that they developed croupand had to be hospitalized.

[Lee-Bee]

We saw the doctor. She does have croup. The doctor said some kids have it and can seem lively and well by day (my daughter has the cough and different voice but is happy and playful) but by night the symptoms all worsen. He said it is spread like a cold so the same cold precautions (hand washing etc). He said that it spreads as a cold not as croup. The child that then comes across the germs then reacts in their given way (croup or cold etc). So, she is contagious but won't necessarily spread croup versus just a cold virus.

He said the despite being well during the day today it doesn't mean tonight will be smooth, it could progress and her breathing become too hard and we need to bring to emerge. There is no way of knowing until it happens.

We got a liquid steroid (one dose) to give. I will likely wait until this evening to see how the night goes. It seems wrong to give an energetic happy child steroids. But I filled the prescription as it is equally wrong to not have it one hand when we know she could turn or the worse again tonight. Hopefully the worst is past though!

I've let the parents know that I will update them in the morning but if she survives the night at home and is the same tomorrow I am willing to provide care should they want it.

Apparently only about 5% of children with croup require hospital care. So, while croup seems like a scary thing as we only hear about the worst cases it is just a more extreme reaction to a cold where the airways swell some and make breathing noisy and harder but generally there is no extreme intervention needed. BUT you never know how the child will react and when and if they will will require that hospital care to breath...which makes it much scarier than a cold!

[ebhappydc]

I heard a lot of humidity/steam in room helps

[Lee-Bee]

I heard a lot of humidity/steam in room helps

Yes the doctor said to try that if it gets bad in the night. But, we don't have a humidifier and I don't much care to bring a boiling pot of water in her room in the middle of the night (like the doctor suggested lol). Worst case we will set up our camp beds in the bathroom and run the shower in there.

[5 Little Monkeys]

My friends almost one year old had croup just a couple weeks ago. He was hospitalized twice due to it and stayed 5 days the first time. It was very scary for her :(

In the past, daycare kids have had it. They stayed home for the first 24 hours after getting meds and then any time that it was too severe for them to be able to participate in activities. It's contagious so I'd encourage to disinfect. I'm the same as you and like for the kids to build up their immunity but there's a big difference between every day germs and illness germs. Disinfecting will help decrease the spread of any illness. I clean toys when needed but disinfect when any illness goes through

[5 Little Monkeys]

He also had rsv, as well as a handful of other friends kids. It is very bad this year apparently. I'd be cautious with that too.

[Van]

yes it is good to disinfect so to control the spread - I hope your daughter gets better soon as it is a scary illness and could go either way especially at night

[lemondrop]

But, we don't have a humidifier and I don't much care to bring a boiling pot of water in her room in the middle of the night (like the doctor suggested lol).

One of my kids had croup years ago, and we did not have a humidifier either. Instead we put an electric kettle out of her reach and kept it going all night. One night the steam wasn't helping, so we sat in front of an open window (it was about -10 outside) and the cold air helped quite a bit.

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