Chronic Croup in 2 year-old - Spasmodic Croup?

[AdrianaP]

Our daughter is almost 2 1/2 and has just had her 9th bout of croup. She has been to the hospital for it at least 4 times and was hospitalized twice, the last time in June where she stayed for a week and then had a rigid bronchoscopy after the inflammation subsided. Fortunately, she looks really good - no congenital narrowing, subglottic stenosis, vascular rings, etc. Also no acid reflux (esophogeal biopsy), although she is on Prevacid just in case.

For the past  6 1/2 months, we have not taken her anywhere, except to grandma and grandpa's houses and a few careful select places. This policy of isolation has worked well, even when her older brother had croup himself twice. She has three older siblings and we strive to be very careful about hand washing, etc.

However, this last episode (this past weekend) started with no warning - no previous cold. Just a struggle to breathe in the middle of the night, which triggers an ambulance call. I am wondering if she may have something called "spasmodic croup" and if that makes a difference at all in her treatment? Currently, we keep prednisolone (oral steroids) on hand for emergencies and she is on daily pulmicort and prevacid. Our other method of treatment is isolation from other children's viruses as much as possible.

Another question is how dangerous are these episodes of breathing difficulty in the middle of the night? We live 35 minutes from the hospital, and this is very much concerning me as a potential life-threatening risk. Her saturation levels have always been normal (except when she was an infant), so I am not sure about the direness of the situation upon presentation.

-Adriana


This discussion is related to Chronic Croup?.