[geo_girl]

hi there,

our 8mo DS has had croup (gone to emergency for masks to help his breathing) twice in the last 2 months.
I was chatting with someone about this today, and she said that this likely means that he has asthma.

Of course I'm going to consult our family dr., but, could she be right?

I'm trying not to jump to any conclusions about our otherwise very healthy son.

TIA.
charlene

 

[Momily]

My son had both frequent croup and asthma as a baby. However, the two conditions involve different parts of the respiratory system -- croup is an inflamation of the epiglottis (at the very top of the trachea) while asthma is deep in the lungs.

I guess maybe a baby who is susceptible to one might be susceptible to the other, or they could both have the same underlying cause (e.g. in my son reflux played a major role in both). But I don't see why they'd have to go hand in hand.

Frequent chronic coughing is a big asthma indicator, but that's coughing from lower down, not barky/croupy coughing.

I also don't know that I'd characterize 2 episodes of croup as all that frequent.

 

[rzberrymom]

I'm a little nervous to even offer advice on a medical issue, but with my DD once she got croup, she got it every single time she came down with a cold--it was weird, like something in her body was triggered and colds just led eventually to croup.

 

[Mama Phoebe]

My son had many bouts of croup between ages 2 and 3. Similar to the pp who said that each cold seemed to trigger a bout of croup. After a while the staff at peds ER started to recognize us, and the pediatrician told us it looked like ds had "chronic spasmodic croup that may be linked to asthma". Our family doc prescribed two different types of ventolin inhalors that when used in tandem have (touch wood) helped lessen ds's symptoms through a couple of illnesses. I haven't seen much in the way of straight asthma from ds, other than the croup though. He's nearly 5, which we were told is an age where they start to grow out of the really scary croup episodes. Best of luck to you and your family!