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The evils of croup are on our doorstep again. The Adorable Child is coughing like a demon and had so much trouble on Friday morning that the lovely NHSdirect sent an ambulance round, leading to us being in A&E at 7am.

I know it clears during the day, and at night I'm sleeping him as propped up as I can, but I'm wondering if anyone knows anything else I can do for him? He's 3, becoming less dairy intolerant, and this is the only thing he ever seems to get, aside from the interminable and unavoidable glue ear.

Last time he had it he was still a booby-baby, so getting nutrients into him wasn't a problem (look on the docs face when I said I was still feeding my over 2 year old was priceless though!) this time he's currently still eating like a horse, but says his throat is getting sorer and sorer.

Any ideas greatfully received.

Sarah

The only things that were suggested to me were taking the child in the shower and putting it on mega hot so he can breathe the steam. Obviously not 'in' the shower - you know what I mean.

A friend of mine used to take her wee one in the sauna if she started crouping at night.

Perhaps a humidifier in the bedroom or hanging on the radiator? Although the radiator necessitates having the heating on in that room high enough to get any use out of it.

Yeah, steam is what we used. Trying to keep the air in the bedroom humid helped a bit, but we still did our share of sitting drowsily in the bathroom in the middle of the night running the shower on full and boiling kettles to try to steam the place up. Thank God we didn't have an extractor fan.

Have you tried using eucalyptus or chamomile essential oils along with the steam? I use a the following mixture to rub on my childrens chests and upper backs when the cough at night, and it's the only thing that stops them coughing, but that's for a normal cough, not croup, and is supposed to be for 4 year olds onwards:
1 tspn almond oil
3 drops eucalyptus essential oil
2 drops thyme essential oil

You could try substituting the thyme with chamomile, it's not so effective
but the thyme is maybe a bit too strong if he's only 3

Hope he's feeling better very soon, poor little mite.

Croup is terrible isn't it.... scary for the child AND for the parents.. the first time J got it I panicked.. I had no experience of it - neither of my older children had been bothered with it.

Steam.. as suggested.... but I've heard also that taking the child to the door to breathe in cool air helps too.

We were advised to prop the head end of the bed up a bit... in fact I've kept it that way... just on a couple of old books.


A quick google gave a few links...

http://www.kidshealth.org/parent/infect ... croup.html

http://www.patient.co.uk/showdoc/23068967/ (this one actually doesn't recommend steam!)

I hope he's better soon... it's not fun for any of you.

If its regular it could be a reaction to dust mite.
I have also heard that soaking brown paper in vinegar and hanging it over the radiator helps. Apparently theres something in the paper that reacts with the vinegar - not sure what but allegedly it works.
Having said all that - I used steam and eucalyptus - and that worked too!

Helen and Chris

my brother used to suffer from this really badly too, even up to being 7 or 8 years old. my mum used to but him in the bathroom as it was the smallest room and boil the kettle over and over the get the room steamed up