Help for toddler with croup

Our DD (17 months) had what we thought was as cold for the past 5 days only last night she began wheezing badly and had trouble breathing, so we called an ambulance and the children's hospital diagnosed croup. We were allowed to come home quite a few hours later once they had given her medication but they warned us that we may end up back there late at night for a few nights as the wheeze phase of croup can take a few days to pass and gets much worse at night.

I know croup is a virus so it kind of has to run its course but does anyone have ideas/ experience about what might help to support her immune system at this age and get some of the congestion in her chest down? (She is still having 2 bottles of milk a day and she's EXTREMELY dependent on these so I don't think I can cut that out. She also refuses orange juice unfortunately).

Thanks so much

Try a vaporiser at night.


Hope she gets better soon!

What MM said

Try a vapouriser or if you haven't got one steam from a hot shower is great.

Eucalyptus oil is great popped in the vapouriser. You only need a tiny bit!


Sent from my iPhone (via Tapatalk) so please forgive the spelling mistakes...

Also put Baby Balsam on her chest, back and soles of her feet then put socks on.

DD had a terrible cough in April which the doctors thought was croup and put her on croup meds but it didn't improve so they tested her for whooping cough but it wasn't so we still have no idea what it was! Anyway, it was awful so big hugs! I found DD actually increased her milk intake while she was sick as she lost her appetite and was obviously comforted by her bottle. Don't worry about it, just keep her comfy for now. She may vomit from the congestion though so don't be surprised if that happens - DD did that Friday night due to horrible congestion.

Good luck hon. Hopefully the medication kicks in soon, it should do :hug:

DS1 and 2 both get croup whenever they have a cold. DS1 gets it bad and several times we have had to go to the hospital. What we have discovered that works for us is to give him a dose of nurofen before bed (anti inflammatory and croup is inflammation of the voicebox) since we have done this we haven't had to make the midnight dash to hospital anymore;he still has the cough but not the stridor/breathing difficulties and sleeps all night. I have run this past our GP and he says it is ok to give nurofen for croup. HTH.