Wednesday, September 16, 2009

the croup: waiting & wondering


All I'm wondering about today is whether or not to take my 2 yob to the doc's office for his croup??

Most cases of croup can be treated at home - yet there are instances where it's just safest to get a professional opinion.  Such as Elijah's drooling.

He's got the classic croup cough.  I've heard it before - namely in my sweet Selah when she was younger, although I do believe Isaac & Tali have had it as well.  Selah was our first child in which is sounded so BAD and so SCARY that we just freaked out and took her to the ER.  And I'm not saying it was the *wrong* thing to do.....yet now that we've been down this road a few times, I'm not automatically thinking a trip to the ER is in order.

If Elijah wasn't drooling, I wouldn't be wavering.  Yet drooling is one of those *signs* that the experts tell you may mean the child needs some stronger meds (i.e. steroids).  So here I sit, waiting for my doc's nurse to give me a call back and let me know what SHE thinks.

Also, Talitha has been using her nebulizer for a few days now.  She does *not* have the croup cough, but she does have a nasty cough - and the treatments DO help her!  I'm just hoping she's on the upswing....

So there ya go - I'm just waiting and wondering.

Yuck!  Sick days.....but the older ones are still doing math.  They love math.  silly babies;)

14 comments:

LLJ said...

I sure hope your sweet boy is healthy again soon!!

Unknown said...

Yes, croup can be scary. Benji had it pretty badly at times when he was little. We learned to always have some prescription cough syrup on hand. When caught early it worked well. Calvin (Nik's 4 yr old) drooled a lot, the Dr. took his tonsils out and that did the trick.

Danielle said...

I hope everyone will be all better soon. So many little ones are sick right now and it's just the beginning of the sick season. Yuck. Hopefully they'll get past this and stay healthy throughout the winter.

Virginia Revoir said...

Hi! I got your question on my blog. :D

I'm so much NOT a super mom that I HAVE to have a schedule just to survive. :P I was the baby of the family who never had to do anything growing up. I used to clean everything myself but the more kids you have, that gets tougher on the mom. So through 10 years of trial and error, I've come up with some things for us to do as a family and so we are all working together. I had some friends from Facebook ask me too so I'm gonna just go blog about it right now. :) Love your site

Unknown said...

Better to side on the err of taking him, then not.

Virginia Revoir said...

Yikes, thats scary! I always agree that its better to just check. Depending on the age. With little babies I get more scared. Right now the hospital said RSV is going around and the flu. So I'm really hoping it stays far away from us since Baby Caleb will be here in two weeks. Scary! Also, we are battling scorpions in our house and they can be deadly to infants.

The Ag Teacher's Wife said...

I hope your babies are feeling better soon. I will be keeping them in my prayers. I would take baby to the doctor, just to be safe.

The Ag Teacher's Wife said...

I hope your babies are feeling better soon. I will be keeping them in my prayers. I would take baby to the doctor, just to be safe.

Unknown said...

Actually, baby Micah seems to be doing better - he must have had a mild case. Elijah, well, his cough just sounded awful - and he's pretty much lost his voice, so that adds to his pathetic-ness ;)

I'm gonna see how he does tonight, as they say the first night or two is the worst. If he's still bad tomorrow - then off to the doctor's office we go. joy.

~Thanks ladies~
lori

p.s. looking forward to reading the blog, Jenny

Unknown said...

Lori... you might have tried this.... but have you tried sitting him in the bathroom, w/the hot water (the shower) on full blast, and just letting the steam open up his lungs?

Unknown said...

Yup, that has been a favorite home remedy around here - especially late at night, when they seem to feel the most miserable. They just end up falling asleep in your arms, *finally* breathing a little easier. Thank goodness~

But thanks for checking to see if I knew about that!
~Lori

Mary said...

You and you family are in my thoughts and prayers!!

Morgan said...

There is yucky cold stuff going around everywhere in the U.S. right now. Seems to early in the season (Fall hasn't even started yet!), yet here I sit with a cold that has settled in my chest.

I hope Elijah gets to feeling better very soon.

Anonymous said...

Coming out of lurker-mode to comment :)

My 2 girls just got over croup, they are 13 months and 4. I took them to the doctor and guess what happened? NOTHING! I was amazed they didn't give them any meds at all, they gave my 4 year old an inhaler to open up her airways, and my pharmacist thought the doc was nuts lol and I agree.

They told us to do the vaporizer thing at night which I had already been doing and even though they said not to I used Vick's vapor rub on them, baby Vick's on the baby of course and that really helped the coughing ease so they could sleep through the night. My pharmacist said I could use Musinex melt-aways(I probably spelled that wrong ;) ) on the 4 year old to get rid of the phlem but she started feeling better and I ended up not using it.

A trick for coughing spells that my granny told me about and it reall does work, put Vick's on the bottom of the childs feet and then put socks on, sounds strange but it really works!

Anyway, I love your blog, I really enjoy reading about your family. I hope your little one feels better soon :)