The kiddo has croup. His third "major" illness in his lifetime (he's had two ear infections). I suppose we're doing pretty well as far as that is concerned, but it's still no fun to have a sick kidlet.
He woke up coughing strangely and with a 101.9 temperature on Monday morning. Alternating Tylenol and Motrin brought the fever down to the 99 range, and he was doing better by the evening. He didn't eat anything all day, but was getting enough liquids in the form of juice and water.
Today he woke up coughing horribly again, and Hazen and I both commented that he sounded like a seal. His temperature was up to 101.7 again. I googled "seal cough" and learned that my child probably had croup. A trip to his pediatrician confirmed it. They gave him a single-dose of steroids to open up his airway and he is doing MUCH better already. His doc said that he will likely wake up tonight coughing, but the steroids should keep his air passages mostly open.
The hope is that the fever is gone in the next couple of days. Once that goes and he's acting normally again, he should be past the contagious stage. We need him well by next week--he has to go stay with the grandparents while Hazen and I get the house packed. We need to be out in just over 2 weeks!
2 comments:
For future reference, know that a fever is a GOOD thing when you're sick. It's what is fighting the illness. If you bring down the fever, you actually prolong the illness because you're taking away the body's fighting power. Definitely try to bring it down if it's terribly uncomfortable or get's very high (but in small children 104 is still an acceptable fever--so long as they are not lethargic or acting strangely).
Daniel got croup several times. The first time it was so bad he had to go to the hospital and get breathing treatments! The next couple times, we recognized it coming on and used a vaporizer with eucalyptus oil in the reservoir. Being outside breathing cold air helps, too (just be sure to get him all bundled up).
I used to get croup as a child, too. It hurts pretty badly--makes for an awful sore throat. Let him eat popsicles and make him drink hot tea with honey to sooth it.
I hope he gets better quickly! Good news is that croup is one of those illnesses that only small children get because of the size of their little airways.
We got him bundled and took him outside but it is SO COLD here (below zero) that we can't stay out long, even in layers. I didn't even want to take him to the doctor because they sometimes get exposed to worse things there, but Dad's wife used to work at an oxygen place and she said it was horrible to watch the little ones come in with croup to have treatments. So she scared me into it! :)
We don't treat his fever when it's 100 or below, but at 101 we do. We're really paranoid about fevers. Hazen's brother's little boy passed away from a gran mal seizure when he was three 6 years ago. He'd had a high fever--104 range--so we tend to panic more than we should when we see the temp creeping up. We even know that we're worrying too much about it, but we just really can't help it.
He barely coughed last night, so he is on the mend!
Post a Comment