My daughter had croup as a baby. From my understanding Croup isn't contagious, but the virus that caused it is. Everyone's body reacts differently to virus's. Croup is one of those ways.

I have a child who also had an extremely runny nose for weeks and weeks... it was like a tap I couldn't turn off! It developed as a cough and she had a horrible bark as well. I kept her in care as it wasn't going away and it didn't seem to effect her mood, no fever. She didn't fall into any of the "stay at home" catagories on my policies.

She did eventually go to the dr and he confirmed it was just a virus, could go as long as 12 weeks or so... just something going around.

I think that your son probably caught a virus from this little guy and it probably turned into croup. Your son will have croup for the rest of his child hood life I'm guessing. My daughter is 9 and she still has random nights when she wakes up and can't breath. We simply wrap her in a blanket, take her outside or in front of the fridge door and calm her down, she starts to breath normally and she goes back to bed. It's always around the time she's running with a cold though.

When children get sick in our care we always remind the parents that this is just part of group care... kids pass colds around. We often forget that this is part of running group care.. .our children will get sick.

I hope your son feels better soon. When my daughter had it for the first time she was admitted to the hospital with severe croup and 2 severe ear infections! She was just over a year old too.

Mama Bear is expected! You're only human.