Last week the bambini and I flew to Utah to visit family. We had a good time--the kiddoes ran around with their cousins; we visited "the bouncy house place," Pirate Island (it's in Orem--a cross between the Pirates of the Caribbean ride and Chucky Cheese's), both McDonald's and Del Taco's playgrounds; we played in a tiny bit of snow; the grownups got lots of sweet toddler hugs, and a good time was generally had by all.
Then the inevitable occurred, which was that (most of) the kids got sick. It started with Cookie-Nut's cough and fever (she was also teething, I found out later). I got up with her in the middle of the night our last night there, and had just settled back into bed when I heard a strange noise, which I eventually recognized to be a cough, a barking, hacking cough that sounded like a braying dog. I was lying there, wondering foggily what to do, when the bedroom door opened, and in walks Dangerboy, tears streaming down his face, gasping for air, his voice wheezing as he tried to take breaths. He was terrified.
And so was I. Is this croup? I thought. But where did this come from? I remembered he'd been coughing a little during the day, but nothing serious. I remembered two things--the Anne of Green Gables episode where Diana's little sister Minnie May gets croup and Anne saves her, and what I'd read in my "What to Expect" book about treatment for croup, which I'd read in my paranoid days as a new mom.
I'd always wondered why Diana's parents left her with such a sick little sister, but now I realized that croup could come on with no warning at all. My book said that you could try taking the child into the cold night air, so we tried it, but after a few seconds of cold coughing, it didn't seem to be working fast enough. Anne instructs that water be boiled, lots of it; and I remembered that my book said you could sit them in a steamy bathroom, so I put the shower on hot and had DB sit on the edge of the bathtub. I gave him a puff of albuterol just in case it would help, and tried to call PDaniel.
No answer. No answer again. And again. (He's a sound sleeper) DB kept coughing. I tried to call a nurse at Kaiser, but they wouldn't help me because DB's not insured through them (arghhh!). He currently has no insurance, scarily enough. I was imagining astronomical ambulance bills, then the dreadful cost of NOT getting him the help he needed, when finally I got ahold of an urgent care nurse at Bristol Park.
She casually told me to put him next to the shower, exactly as I'd done, and said that croup is actually swelling of the larynx (who knew?), which could be brought on by a virus or dry heated air (the air in Utah is very dry). By this time, thankfully, DB's coughing had slowed. By the time I hung up, he was sleeping on the couch, and my poor Granny was awake, wondering what in the world was happening. I put DB back to bed--then CN woke up, and refused to go back to sleep until noon the next day. Sigh.
I told my Utah cousin and her husband about it, and they said it used to happen to their daughter all the time; they just take her outside until she stops coughing, no big deal. Anne used ipecac, but apparently this just makes you throw up, and probably doesn't help the underlying problem. But the steam would have worked. So now I know, and you do too!
We were indoors all week, fight a nasty case of what the pediatrician said yesterday was most likely RSV. I got it too, in the form of a devious head cold that's left me unable to smell or taste anything. What with RSV, our vacation, and hand-foot-and-mouth the week before, DB hasn't been to school in three weeks! His mind is fried on television! Wahoo!! And this is Cookie-Nut's third bad cold since Christmas, not counting aforesaid hand-foot-and-mouth and a sinus infection. We are sooooooooo ready to be back among the land of the living.
But, we're feeling a bit better now. Please, please, please, let us get back to boring old everyday life again! And soon!
Note: I just read on Wikipedia about croup, and it says that inhaling hot steam hasn't been "shown" to be effective in treating croup. It says steroids are better, but it seems as though there's a lot of common wisdom that says a hot shower does the trick. Of course, if the croup is severe, and the child starts to be lethargic or is turning blue, then it's a 911-emergency. Just sayin', because you never know what you'll read and then remember later on.
2 comments:
I used to get croup all the time as a kid. When I was a baby my mom would take me outside until it was too cold. Once I got a little older, she stuck me in a shower with the water (aimed at the wall, not me) turned up as hot as it would go. I would sit in the shower until either my cough or the hot water was gone. I eventually learned how to take care of it myself and my parents would hear me an all hours of the night hacking away in the bathroom with the shower running. I think I had episodes of it clear until my teen years, but it never necessitated a trip to the hospital, thank goodness.
I was initially sad that you were here in UT and we didn't get to see you, but then I read through your entire post. We just took Henry out to church for the first time today. I've heard countless stories about RSV circulating around this season. Glad you're all feeling better!
We had croup for the first time in Oct., all three kids and to varying degrees. I took Belen in because I was worried about H1NI (which is another virus that can cause croup, they just wouldn't test her to confirm b/c she wasn't sick enough) and she had a high fever on Motrin. Two of the kids got steroids for a couple days and they seemed to help but they were very nasty and difficult to get them to take. It's no fun. We've had a sick month too, and with all the rain, I'm ready for March and hopefully a clean slate tomorrow! :)
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