What is croup?
Back to the digital age and having an infant. Last night, just when we thought Tin was getting over his cold, he woke in the middle of the night with a barky cough. This went on intermittently and of course, I got no sleep worrying about him. Then I got up early and looked up barky cough online and it said croup. Apparently this strikes children under three and all of the identifiers fit him although he does appear to have a mild case.
Some instinctual things were right on – I had already gotten a humidifier, needing one myself due to this dry heat and dry air. But I cranked it up early in the morning. Then we ran a hot shower and I fed him his bottle in the bathroom in the moist air. We changed his feeding to be bottle, then cereal, then his banana and whatnot and that at least got the fluids down that we want to keep him hydrated.
The reality is that being cooped up is not good for croup. Dry heat and stuff air is what keeps the virus alive. So now I’m going to get a stroller so we can take this big boy out for a spin in the fresh air now that the temperature has risen to 40 degrees.
We want to go home – we miss the bayou, our dogs, our house with its heating system! But the internet has been my mother’s helper, along with Flower and every other person I’ve told.