"Croupy"(?) cough--what to do?

Jul 14 21:36 UTC 1994

Help!  My almost-15-month-old has a "barking" cough and wheezy
breathing that develops during the night, then pretty much dis-
appears in the morning.  No other symptoms.  I've been taking her
into the bathroom with the shower running hot for steam, which 
seems to help a little.  She's an exceptionally healthy child
(30" and 25 lbs.) who eats a vegetarian diet and hasn't been 
immunized yet.  Except for a couple of colds, she's never been
sick before.
Any suggestions?

response 2 of 36:

Jul 14 23:34 UTC 1994

Thanks for responding.  I have cut down on the dairy (which she didn't get too
much of anyway (she drinks soy milk, but I give her a little organic yogurt,
too), and also cut down on bread (her favorite thing--I make chewy homemade
bread and gumming it relieves teething pain).  She is still nursing--more
now that she doesn't feel good).  She sleeps with us in the futon so I'll 
try to figure out some way to raise the head of the frame or something
so she'll breathe easier.  I haven't really planned on taking her to the dr. 
unless she gets more symptoms, but I though there might be a natural 
"magic bullet" that someone might know (ha, ha, is anything that simple?!).
She's kind of whiny/cry-ie today, and is barking worse when she cries...
i probably feel worse about it than she does!
thankx again! :)

response 4 of 36:

Jul 15 06:23 UTC 1994

I've considered allergies--I have a slew of them and they are really starting
to kick in this time of year...i always dread august.  seems like thirty days
of not getting to take a deep breath.
however, i haven't introduced anything new into her diet recently (tho its
true that they could develop even to something she's *been* eating...
but why just at night?  and the weird barking cough (sounds like a seal's bark)

I went to Perry's and bought a cool mist humidifier.  Tonite we'll sleep in 
the little back room (easier to humidify), which I've carefully cleaned and
dusted (no rugs, just hardwood floors).  I'm also trying homeopathic Pulsatilla
and Rescue Remedy... The humifier also supposedly cleans pollens & dust (i'll
be able to tell if  that claim's the truth, fer sure--see if my eyes are
swollen up when i wake tomorrow.

thanks for the reply--it was nice to check in at 200 am when i can't sleep
due to worrying about her cough and not wanting to miss anything that might
go wrong and finding someone trying to help :)
g'nite!

response 6 of 36:

Jul 15 15:50 UTC 1994

(yep--that's the reason for tilting the sleeping position)

response 8 of 36:

Jul 15 22:48 UTC 1994

Back up a sec, this child is 15 months old and hasn't had
any immunizations yet?  

response 10 of 36:

Jul 17 21:42 UTC 1994

Gee, I hope you will please take that child to a doctor. 

response 12 of 36:

Jul 19 05:26 UTC 1994

Kami, Timothy is plenty old enough to have a lactase replacer once
in a while so that he can sometimes have e those kid-favorite foods.
My eldest needs to do that and has used lact-aid since he was 3.
(Only occasionally, since the lact-aid is so expensive -- but it
beats having a little one come home from a friends with a *very* bad
tummy-ache.  (It's unbelievable the number of mothers who thought
I was just being mean when I said no milk, no ice cream, no pizza.

The sugar probl was one they believed after the first time they
tried it for themselves.  ;)  By the time I got him back he was
generally ready to "sleep it off".  

))

response 14 of 36:

Jul 20 03:45 UTC 1994

My doctor is Dr. Chamness, of child Health Associates, here in
Ann Arbor.  phone: 971-9344.

Yeah, both David and Tori were lactose-intolerant - Tori 
more so than David.  Both seem to have outgrown it, although
I am reliably told that it *will* recurr as they grow older.  Tori
still doesn't care for milk or cheese as much as David does - she's
part American Indian, sothe lactose intolerance is much more
a concern with ere  than it is with David.  I have to 
make sure to feed her calcium-rich foods, and not let her have
too much cheese.  We'll just watch her carefully for awhile, I guess.

Yeah, the price of lactose-free stuff is fierce.  You
also have to be careful, because some "milkless"
foods have casien in it,which is amilk protein...

Lis z, I hope your child is doing better.  If that chest
cold gets too much worse, it could go into pnemonia, although you
sound pretty aware and well educated about children's 
health issues.

Who was your midwife?  Was it in Dearborn?  If so, that may
be the same midwife clinic that saw Thea before Tori was
born - als as, in an emergency c-section; but oh, boy
was it a true emergency!  I thought very highly of Valerie.
Odd, I'm blocking on the name of the clinic...tired, I guess.

response 16 of 36:

Jul 20 16:01 UTC 1994

She seems to be back to normal today, although there were a few coughs last
night, so probably it will hang on a bit yet.  Yes, she was born at the Garden
of Life, luckily for both of us.  She was sucking her thumb when labor started,
and  that made it hard for her to move down the birth canal; she kept crowning
and  sliding back in...but Valerie and Rahima were patient, and her heartbeat
was  strong, so we finally made it.  If we had been in the hospital, we might
not have been so fortunate.  What a great experience!  My husband actually got
to pull her out and hand her to me...and my best girlfriend was there, too
(she's  considering studying midwifery...).  She was 8 lbs 11 oz and began
nursing within 10 minutes.  The first pains woke me at 5 am, we got to the
clinic at 11 am, she was born at 4 pm and i was home in bed at 9:30 pm, being
pampered by said friend and husband (altho he was probably in more of a dazy
than i was)   Somehow I just don't think a hospital experience would have been
right for me. I wanted a home birth, but my husband was afraid, so this was a
compromise.  I will go back again...

response 18 of 36:

Jul 24 15:51 UTC 1994

Yesterday, a friend visited with her mother.  Her mother is(has?) a *doctor*
of nursing.  When I told her about Rosi, and what I had done, she seemed to
think it perfectly appropriate (perhaps because she is Swiss, she is less
prejudiced against homeopathy?).  She said that a fever of 101 is not in itself
a total indicator of when a child should see a doctor, but that the child's
demeanor, level of activity and energy, and frustration level, besides other
symptoms are also important.  She said that sick kids show it and their mothers
, if they are very aware of their child's behavior patterns, will *know*
when to call a doctor.  I neve felt that she really needed to see a doctor, or
I certainly would have taken her to one.  But, as I commented earlier, her 
behavior remained essentially normal, perhaps a slightly reduced energy level,
and she was only slightly cranky (perhaps in response to my own tension?)
And even though she had a slight congestion of the chest, she responded to
steaming.  
I feel that the opportunity to comment on Rosi's illness with the folks on

Grex has been a positive experience, much like chatting over the back fence
or around the kitchen table...unfortunately, I can't offer you all a piece of
my maple-walnut coffee cake:)  I am not so ignorant as to take every piece
of advice as medical gospel, and I must gently protest any implications of the
same.  And, I don't think that any of the kind folks who responded expected
to be taken any differently.  

Well, Rosi is fine today, although I've come down with whatever she had.  I
wish I would bear it with equally good humor!

response 20 of 36:

Jul 24 17:33 UTC 1994

It may well be that she is perfectly fine, but that doesn't mean a visit
to the doctor still wouldn't be a good idea.  There are lots of illnesses,
especially at that age, that can come up  without the parent noticing them
at first.  What does she have to lose by going to a doctor, just for a
checkup?

response 22 of 36:

Jul 25 16:08 UTC 1994

Well, I called the doctor's office to see if I should have done something
differently.  Spoke with the nurse; she said she would have told me to 
monitor the situation, etc., and call back if it had gotten any worse.  
She said there's not much that the doctor can do in the case of a mild
virus, anyway, except wait and see if it gets better or worse...which is
what I did.  She said it didn't seem like anything serious, but that since
this is my first child, she could see why I would call...and not to worry,
I did "fine".  
Although she didn't sound in the least put out by the call, I certainly
feel at this point that I did "fine", both in my book and the doctor's.

I should comment that Rosi and I spend all day, every day together, and 
she sleeps with us (except when she was sick, when she and I slept in
the little back room together, to avoid infecting my husband and because
it was easier to humidify.  I carried her around in a sling all day
from the time she was a few days old (well, I carried her whenever I
walked around *much*, which wasn't often the first few days), and when
she wasn't in a sling, she was in my arms or her father's.  This is just to
say that, although it might sound overconfident or even arrogant, I am
extremely sensitive to her physical and emotional state, and even the 
few times she's had a cold, I could predict she was going to be ill before
the first sneeze...she changed, and although I couldn't describe the change
in concrete terms to a doctor (in words that would make medical sense),
I *knew* something was out of the ordinary, and that she was not in her
usual state of physical health.  Does this sound too weird to be under-
stood?
And yes, exposing her to foreign (to our family) germs, perhaps of a more
serious nature, especially when she already had a mild illness, not to mention
spreading her germs around, definitely is a consideration when considering a 
visit to the doctor's office.  So I take her with a mild cold and some
child with chicken pox sneezes on her (or whatever).  Then the doctor
confirms my instincts by saying, "You could have just waited it out"...
then two weeks later, she has chicken pox?
I guess we each have to do what s/he thinks is best for our children,
given all the information we can gather by reading and listening to
the voices of experience, consult ourselves, what our instincts are 
telling us, and make a decision.  And, ultimately, it is each parent
who must be comfortable with the decision taken...
I am not personally against physicians, and I will take her to one
the VERY MOMENT, day or night, that I am convinced that it is in her
best interests to be seen medically.  As someone kindly commented near
the beginning, for a child of 15 months to have had only a couple of 
colds means that something must be right...at least for her.  I will
say, too, that one of the few advantages of living in the Cass Corridor
in Detroit is that the very well-respected Children's Hospital is
only 3 minutes from my front door.  I find it quite reassuring that
help in any emergency is so close, and I would certainly avail myself
if the needs arises.
I guess I believe that a child who is a healthy as she is, who still
derives a significant portion of her nutrition from breastmilk (with
all of its antibodies, one of the finest antibiotics, etc., known),
who demonstrated only a fairly low temperature (in children), chest
congestion that responded readily to home treatment, and id not
demonstrate lethargy or unresponsiveness, but continued to *do her 
usual thing*, would be perfectly able to fight off whatever it was in
her own way and time without any adverse effects.  And since I am her
mother and I know her better than anyone, I am the one most qualified to
make that initial judgment...and carry it through, provided the factors
contributing to that decision did not change.
For those folks who disagree, either with my choice or my philosophy,
I thank you for your concern, and I know you are responding with the 
best of intentions, and I appreciate the moderation with which you have
approach this debate.

response 24 of 36:

Jul 26 20:43 UTC 1994

Liz, I feel much the same, although I am apt to call the doctor in regard to 
colds just because it's often hard to pick just the right remedy.  On the
other hand, Timothy got burned by hot oil a week or so ago, and Michael had a
hard time with the fact that I didn't rush to call the doctor.  I knew what
had happened, what do do about it, etc. so I didn't see any need to bother 
him.  A bit of time and lots of calendula ointment later, all is well.  I don't
think there'll be any scarring or anything.  But I can see how it might be
scarey for someone who wasn't as sure of what they were looking at and what
to do.