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hugs, mama. Hearing them struggle for breath is the worst.

We've gotten through croup and a couple of nasty colds/coughs. Sometimes the only thing that works is for me to hold her and sleep (haha, yeah, no) in the glider while holding her upright all right.

Other things that have *really* helped:

Elevating LO's head with a pillow - elevating her head just a bit helps so, so much.

Vicks plug-in vaporizer (works best in a smaller sized room, or if you can semi-section off the area around the vaporizer and LO)

Spend time in a bathroom with steam (run HOT shower while you guys play on the bathroom floor)

For regular coughs/helping coughs:
Hylands children's liquid cough meds
Vicks type baby rub on soles of feet and chest

We are getting through some yuck with a cool mist humidifier, warm baths, hanging out in the bathroom with a hot shower running, and some baby Vicks.

I'm so sorry LO is sick Its the worst feeling in the world. I hope he's on the mend soon!

@rahlyrah: I do not want to scare you but GO WITH YOUR GUT! My LO had croup around 10 months and it was no big deal - she sounded awful but slept fine and napped a lot.

Then she had croup again at around 20 months and it totally kicked her butt. She is the type of kid that sleeps 11-12 hours at night and can shake anything off so we were not worried. She did the steam baths and humidifier in her room and kept her home and tried to give her Tylenol for discomfit. It started Friday night that we heard the coughing. We kept her home Saturday...but I could tell her breathing was super wheezy and I guess the main thing to look for is whether the wheezing occurs when she inhales and exhales...if just at inhale it's normal but wheezing occurs at both inhale and exhale it means the croup has severely inflamed their air passage.

The nurse line suggested we take her to urgent care or ER if we felt it was bad bc it croup often worsens at night. It was 7:30 and we felt like she could sleep it off. We did a hot steamy bath and she seemed better and put her to bed. She has the worst night sleep and I kept trying to comfort her (my LO never wants to be held to sleep but she was struggling ... She would whimper and cry and say "time for nigh night...and say "hi mama" and try to sleep but couldn't get comfortable. I sat with my wheezing coughing baby all night.

In the morning I decided we needed to take her to urgent care. I unzipped her pjs and was horrified to see her chest/ribs completely caving in with every breath...it was stridor. I screamed for my husband and we quickly packed a bag and took her to the ER. She had to get the breathing mask treatment and a shot of steroids and X-rays. It was an awful experience and I was so upset I didn't take her to urgent care that evening instead of deciding to have her sleep it off. The doc said she was almost to the point of needing to be admitted but she responded very well to the breathing treatment and later the steroid shot took affect and she was able to get some relief and actually rest and nap.

Croup can be mild for some and severe for others. It was definitely going around and most of our friends were fine after a day or two of coughing. My normally super strong/healthy LO just happened to get a bad strain or something.

So my advice is if you feel like your LO needs to be seen by a doctor...trust your gut and take them in!!! No one regrets going in and being told everything is fine but I had a lot of guilt about not taking her in somewhere on Saturday night.

@rahlyrah: how is DS? J just came down with croup and I'm wigging out

Cold air outside helped a lot along with a nebulizer from the pediatrician. They did a treatment in the office (I think an oral steroid), gave him a shot, and we did albuterol every 4 hours. It cleared up relatively quickly.

Hang in there! Cold air before bed helps a lot. I also have my kids sleep in our bed with a pillow so that their head is elevated and so that we are right there for the coughing fits. We run a humidifier, but I am in the camp that I can't really tell the difference. We once got the steroid treatment, but I didn't notice too much of a difference w/o it!