My DD (almost 4) gets croup quite regularly in winter. It's just at night, it's just a barky cough. The first time it scared her, she panicked and her breathing suffered. Now, it's just the cough and it's just at night so we never bother worth doctors.

My DS (18 months) is a different story though. He gets very wheezy very easily. He's only had croup once, but he does get bronchialitis a lot. Any cold or virus he gets leads to wheezing, and it's day and night. To me, it sounds a little more like your DD is in this category rather than just croup. When DS gets sick, we need to watch his rate of breathing, his throat and his chest. He always gets a tracheal tug, but if it's pronounced, his breathing rate increases, and his chest is noticeably sucking in, we have a trip to the ed.

Like your DD, he's fixed with a ventolin puffer and spacer. We've only just gotten this treatment over the weekend during our latest visit to hospital. We now have an asthma action plan, so any wheezing and he has the puffer, if he's sick and wheezing he gets the ventolin and a different puffer (can't remember what it's called) and if he gets worse he has two rounds of each, calling an ambulance if they don't work. Then he gets steroids at the hospital.

The problem is that their oxygen saturation levels drop - on the weekend DS was at 90%. This will be higher when they're upright, lower when they're lying down/sleeping.

We were told it could just be that he has narrow airways and he'll grow out of it; it could be asthma that he'll grow out of; it could be that he's the second child and he's catching everything under the sun and it's taken a toll.

If I were you I'd see a pediatrician if you're concerned, breathing problems in little ones are always scary.