Think DD has croup, not thrilled about taking her to the dr's office...

[kayte]

DD started the seal bark and mild fever last night about 10. Her fever is now gone (no tylenol since 2). And she has lost her voice. I called the nurses line at our ped's office to see if they had advice and she suggested that it was best that we bring her in to insure it's not something else, including the flu.

There are a lot of flu cases in our area right now. So I am not thrilled to take her to the doctor's office.

Thoughts?

[ellies mom]

Honestly, if you aren't sure, call them back and ask if they use a "telephone protocal" or triage book or program. And then ask them to walk you through it. That way you will know what it is about your daughter's situation that leads them to suggesting you bring her in and why. The protocal book Kaiser uses in peds, list step by step, these symptoms suggest action X, these suggest action Y and almost every one list the reasons. And then gives a ton of info for home care. So maybe it wouldn't hurt to get her thoughts on why they want to see her and then you could go from there.

[Edensmum]

I always give things a few days before going to the doctor unless there is something that they can obviously treat anyway so I certainly wouldn't take her now unless she is struggling to breath. So often childhood illness just has to run it's course. Unless I suspect infection I typically don't go at all for a virus, as we expose her to other things, spend the money and time dragging a sick little one around and all they say is it's X virus and it will go away. I would put her in a steamy bathroom, get a cool mist vaporizer going in her room, push clear fluids, and take her outside if it's cool.
Then I would watch her closely difficulty breathing.

[kayte]

Thanks.

I have called back and asked for the main phone triage nurse to call me before our appointment.

I'll try and find out why is seems necessary to bring her in...

We spent a good bit of last night outside in the front yard. The cool air did help.

[brittone2]

The tough part with croup if you haven't been through it before is it often peaks at night...that's when many kids start to have trouble breathing. And for us, it is always after 9pm so no option to go to the office or even something like urgent care. So you are only left with the ER *if* things get bad quickly.

It is also usually worse (for most kids) the 2nd night.

DS has had croup several times. The first time it was very very scary (he was right around his 1st bday) with lots of labored breathing (we calmed it down enough w/ hanging outside on the deck in the middle of the night or in the steamy bathroom). We stayed out of the ER but saw the doc ASAP the next day. The 2nd night was worse but when had oral steroids on hand at that point. As he got older, we found it was more barky coughing but less trouble breathing. When he had trouble breathing we could get it calmed down by opening his windows and having him sleep on our chest (kind of elevated as we would sit up with him). The cold air always helped, or hanging out in a steamy shower. The problem is that if the breathing gets really bad overnight and there are chest retractions, etc. sometimes those things don't cut it and it becomes an urgent situation.

Our doc now usually gives an extra dose of meds (ours keep in the fridge for quite a while-just checked the expiration date and our Prednisolone doesn't expire for a year with refrigeration) to have on hand in an attempt to keep us out of the ER if we run into it.

[kayte]

Thank you Beth.

DD only slept on our chest as you described last night. She had one really bad batch where she did struggle a little to breathe, which scared her and seemed to then make it worse. I am concerned that you mentioned the second night is worse.

Other than DD's hoarse voice, which sounds like someone who had several bad fits of coughing and hurt their throat, she seems completely fine now. She is enjoying laying in our bed watching as much tv as she wants and eating popsicles.

In your experience does the fever tend to return only at night too or once it passes it's gone?

Our ped runs an after hours office with a couple of other local ped offices in the area. But perhaps they would be willing to prescribe some medication over the phone if it gets bad tonight and let us bring her in tomorrow if needed.

[brittone2]

Thank you Beth.

DD only slept on our chest as you described last night. She had one really bad batch where she did struggle a little to breathe, which scared her and seemed to then make it worse. I am concerned that you mentioned the second night is worse.

Other than DD's hoarse voice, which sounds like someone who had several bad fits of coughing and hurt their throat, she seems completely fine now. She is enjoying laying in our bed watching as much tv as she wants and eating popsicles.

In your experience does the fever tend to return only at night too or once it passes it's gone?

Our ped runs an after hours office with a couple of other local ped offices in the area. But perhaps they would be willing to prescribe some medication over the phone if it gets bad tonight and let us bring her in tomorrow if needed.


Classic croup is usually not too bad during the day, but awful at night. That has been our own personal experience. DS would honestly be minimally sick during the day (certainly no worse than a cold, except for the very first episode when he was 1 and he had more of a bark during the day and more of a "bad" cold, but after that episode his other bouts have been ones where he was really only very mildly sick during the day. That's where it gets tricky...you don't know what nighttime will bring in advance. :hug:

eta: here is what Dr. Sears has on his site about croup being worse at night in general, and often worse the 2nd/3rd nights.
http://www.askdrsears.com/faq/ci43.asp

[kayte]

Well, she does have croup.

My pediatrician (not the triage nurse) called me back after I left a message. We talked things over on the phone, she said normally she would just call in some medication but had some concerns because of the number of flu cases in the area.

She let us come in quickly through the back door, straight to a room, and they did a quick flu test. Test was negative.

She looked DD over quickly, handed me the script for pred and we were on our way.

[MommyAllison]

Glad to hear the pedi was understanding and hopefully didn't expose you guys to anything. I hope you have a quiet, boring night. :) It is comforting to have the pred on hand though!

[brittone2]

Well, she does have croup.

My pediatrician (not the triage nurse) called me back after I left a message. We talked things over on the phone, she said normally she would just call in some medication but had some concerns because of the number of flu cases in the area.

She let us come in quickly through the back door, straight to a room, and they did a quick flu test. Test was negative.

She looked DD over quickly, handed me the script for pred and we were on our way.

Sounds like a great office :cheerleader1: I totally hate taking my kids in sometimes, but honestly, there's nothing worse than it being 10-11pm and trying to figure out whether you might need to head to the ER. Much better to have the meds on hand and avoid a trip to the ER.

I hope she's feeling better soon!! Thankfully the croupiness doesn't usually hang on that long. Crossing my fingers that tonight goes okay for both of you :hug: