At-Home Remedy Tips for Children with Croup

Croup is the scariest side effect of a cold or virus. My boys have been plagued with ear infections and croup almost every time they get a cold when they were little. I have a few at-home remedy tips to treat my children with croup.

My First Encounter with Croup

I have 3 boys. When my oldest was 18months old we first encountered croup. I took him to the clinic when he developed stridors. Stridors is a raspy noisy breathing sound. For some reason the doctor thought it was asthma and started him on a breathing steroid which put him into respiratory distress.

Asthma is in the lungs and croup is in the larynx. Steroid opens the lungs but does nothing for the swelling in the vocal chords.

Once his oxygen levels started to drop he was life flighted to the children’s hospital. He received the correct breathing treatment and was quickly on the mend.

Croup can be very scary and seems to come on suddenly usually in the middle of the night. Please don’t think every episode of croup ends this way. Croup is just the body’s reaction to a virus. The reaction causes the vocal chords to swell which narrows the airway. Hence the barking cough and stridors.

When my 2nd son was about 15 months old, I woke in the middle of the night because of the baby’s stridored breathing. I was terrified. I immediately got him out of bed and into a steamy shower. The steamy shower did not help. So I bundled him up and headed to the emergency room. When we got to the ER he was already sounding better but they gave him some medicine anyway and we went home. The next day we had a family event, my aunt said I was crazy, there was no way that baby had croup!

At-Home Remedy Tips for Children with Croup

Through practice I have come up with a croup protocol that seems to lessen the severity. We’ve been able to avoid any more trips to the emergency room.

• Set up a steamy bathroom and shower.
• Make sure the water is not too hot and put the little one in the shower. Drop 2 or 3 drops of Breathe Respiratory Blend on the floor of the shower.
• In another 5 minutes or so drop 2 or 3 more drops of the Breathe Blend on the floor of the shower.
• Wait about 5 minutes get the little darling out of the shower and dress them immediately.
• You need to expose their airway to cold air. If it is cold outside, bundle them up and take them outside for a few minutes to breath the cold air. If it isn’t cold outside you can stand with the freezer door open for a few minutes. They little sickling needs to be inhaling cold air. The cold air is going to get the swelling down in the throat area.

Here’s another article on croup that includes some homeopathic treatment from a physician.

What are your tricks for croup? Hope this helps. Croup is scary if you feel that this home treatment isn’t working then definitely take them to the ER or clinic. Love and Blessings!