Croup Treatments Childrens Medicines

A single dose of an oral corticosteroid medication called dexamethasone or prednisolone will usually also be prescribed to help reduce the swelling in the throat. In this podcast, Specialist Health Editor, Alice Windsor, https://myhealthcarezone.com is joined by Bupa GP, Dr Samantha Wild, to discuss common childhood viruses. Find out why children pick up so many viruses and illnesses during childhood, how to manage them and when to seek medical advice.

• Dexamethasone does not make you sleepy and so it’s usually safe to drive or ride a bike while taking this medicine.
• The word stridor is derived from the Latin “stridulus”, which means creaking, whistling or grating [1].
• A single dose of an oral corticosteroid medication called dexamethasone or prednisolone will usually also be prescribed to help reduce the swelling in the throat.
• This includes people who do not need hospital treatment, or a ventilator or oxygen to help them breathe.

In particular, we seldom ask for an X-ray because croup affects the windpipe, not the lungs. Antibiotics are not given because they are not effective against illnesses caused by viruses. The good news is that most children “grow out of” croup by the time they are five or six years old.

Paediatrics

Stridor is often most noticeable when the child cries or coughs. But in more severe cases of croup it can also occur when the child is resting or sleeping. They may also have a hoarse voice and find it difficult to breathe because their airway is blocked.

If you notice your baby is not feeding as well as usual or seems unusually sleepy, or if you have any other concerns about your baby, talk to your health visitor or doctor. You could be having a serious allergic reaction and may need immediate treatment in hospital. For soluble tablets, dissolve them in a glass of water then drink it all. For other tablets, swallow them whole with a drink of water.

Guidance on croup

On an average 1 in 10 children are admitted to hospital but are usually discharged within 24 hours. As with milder cases of croup, oral dexamethasone or prednisolone will usually be given to help reduce any swelling in your child’s airways. The school health nursing service also forms part of the multi-agency services for children, young people and families where there are child protection or safeguarding issues. Pharmacists are experts in many aspects of healthcare, and can offer advice on a wide range of long-term conditions and common illnesses such as coughs, colds and stomach upsets.

Health Visitors

If your child is very distressed and finding it difficult to breathe, they will be given oxygen through an oxygen mask. You should not try to check your child’s throat yourself, because it could trigger a spasm (sudden narrowing) of the airway. This could cause the airway to swell even more, making breathing even more difficult.

Sadly, there is no medicine which treats the cause of croup (the virus). However, your child may need medicine to reduce the swelling in their windpipe, until their own immune system can fight the infection. Early use of a single dose even in milder croup should be prescribed at the earliest opportunity.

You need to contact a doctor or nurse today.

For some conditions you may not need to take dexamethasone every day. Your doctor might tell you to take it every other day instead. Unless your doctor gives you different instructions, take your full dose in one go. For example, if your dose is 6mg, your doctor may tell you to take three 2mg tablets at the same time.

There is no published evidence to support its use and small trials failed to show an improvement in oxygen saturations, respiratory rate, heart rate or croup score. In addition, there have been cases reported of scald injuries in children treated with hot humidified air [10-13]. All patients with croup who have signs of breathing difficulty should receive systemic steroids.

Croup can be passed to other people, but only young children or people who are in poor health are likely to be badly affected. Once your child is feeling better, they can go back to nursery. It can be caused by any one of several different viruses—the most common one is called the parainfluenza virus. Shorter hospital stays and the reduction in readmission rates from about 20% to 10% are important outcomes for health systems and commissioners of child services.