Croup, which is marked by a harsh, repetitive cough similar to the noise of a seal barking, can be scary for both children and their parents. After all, attacks of croup may jar your children awake at night and leave them gasping for breath.
The harsh, barking cough of croup is the result of swelling around the vocal cords (larynx) and windpipe (trachea). When the cough reflex forces air through this narrowed passage, the vocal cords vibrate with a barking noise. Because children have small airways to begin with, those younger than age 5 are most susceptible to having more symptoms with croup.
The doctor prescribed Jacob a steroid to reduce the swelling and within a half an hour the coughing had stopped. I am so glad because that coughing that he was doing last night was breaking my heart. He's sleeping now and only coughing every once in a while. I sure hope he gets a good night sleep. The Croup! Go figure. I now realize that he has probably had this before. When he gets a bad cough it always turns into that horrible barking seal sound. I only brought him to the doctor this time because he had a fever as well.
Jordan also had an appointment with the doctor today because she was also coughing. not as bad as Jacob but coughing none the less. She just finished taking Amoxacillin(sp?) on Friday for an ear infection, only the 2nd time she's been on antibiotics, her 1st ear infection. Well, that antibiotic did not work! She still has an ear infection. New medicine for her.
So we are just a bunch of sickies around here. No time for that. We started swim lessons today. Their teacher was amazed at their swimming. I'll post pictures of that later.
The girls get croup all the time too. Madeleine will cough and cough, it she's up all night and it sounds like she'll never catch her breath; it IS sad. I'm glad the swine flu seems to have missed them though! Hope Jordan's ear gets better. I heard that if the amox. doesn't work, they have to take some sort of sulfur? I was SO glad Sami's double ear infection was gone (contrary to my belief since she was still pulling her ears---aren't I lucky that that is just her "thing to do" now!) because she had just started to like her amox and it wasn't a huge fight to get her to take it (after the 10th dose of 20!) I posted pics on facebook of Jacob in the car with the girls.
ReplyDeleteSee ya!