Croup

Croup is a respiratory tract infection. It affects the nose, throat and trachea. It happens to infants and young children. It is usually a severe condition that needs immediate medical attention.

Here the throat, nose, and trachea are flooded with mucus. Mucus is produced by the body as a defense mechanism to prevent bacteria from getting into the body.

Symptoms last from 2 to 10 days.

Small children up to the age of 3 are susceptible to get croup. Croup happens when virus infects the respiratory tract.

So how to detect croup…

Here are the symptoms of croup…

- There is a slight increase in body temperature initially

- The patient develops a cold and has severe coughing

- There is pain in the throat when eating or drinking

- There can also be wheezing or difficulty in breathing. The breathing can also be sonorous, and irritable.

- The child will experience insomniac situations during croup. There will be lack of sleep, and increased restlessness.

- Due to difficulty in breathing, the child might breathe poorly, causing an oxygen deficiency in the body. Oxygen deficiency is detected by discolored skin. This is often a bigger problem than thought. You need to increase the oxygen intake of the child by taking the child to a medical care facility, and using a ventilator if the oxygen deficit is serious

- Croup causes the trachea or the windpipe to narrow. Therefore the breathing problems are even more for children due to this. Adults getting croup is rare, as their windpipes are generally developed into bigger passageways.

If your child has croup or is showing croup like symptoms, you can do the following…

- Use an air humidifier to humidify the air.

- Try to get your child to take in some warm steam.

- Use medications that abate the fever

- Use harmless syrups to tackle the cough condition

- If the fever or swelling or any of the symptoms don’t go away, you need to take the child to a doctor

- Don’t expose the child to smoke

- Try to calm down the child, as crying can aggravate the symptoms
How can you prevent croup?

Here are some pointers for prevention of croup…

- Avoid getting the child to contact other people in hospitals or any place, where you feel might have sick people

- Encourage the child to use his or her ‘own’ things, which includes eating plates, glasses, towel etc.