Croup, croup, croup

What?  Did the circus come to town?  Did the seals escape?  Did the dogs let them in?

Just when I thought things were gonna settle down around our house, Bean goes and gets croup!  Croup, you say?!?  Yep, if you've ever been woken up at 1am to the sound of a barking seal in your house, then you've met Croup.

I had never met Croup before so I was sure that Bean had either become possessed or eaten a squeaky toy.  Either one is not high up on my list of things I ever wanted to deal with.  I didn't even know my child could make those kind of noises.  So off to the pediatrician we go for another visit.  Bean must have thought they had been missing her at the doctor's office, I guess.  After another visit and another few notes on her medical chart, she was diagnosed with croup AND another ear infection!

For those of you that have never dealt with croup, here's a quick overview of what it is exactly (nope, I didn't know either) and what advice I was given to help Bean through it.  I'd also like to apologize to my sister-in-law because I had no idea it was contagious!  Oops...

Croup is a viral infection of the vocal chords, voice box, and windpipe.  It is usually part of a cold and can cause hoarseness (check) due to swelling of the vocal cords.  There is a distinctive cough (check) that occurs with infections of the voice box.  The cough is tight (check), low-pitched (check) and barky (check) like a barking seal.  [Checklist is complete, Doctor.]  (Information taken from Your Child's Health by Dr. Barton D. Schmitt.)  The peds told me they could either give me a prescription for some steroids or I could wait it out for about 72 hours.  I decided to forego the steroids because I just am tired of trying to force medicine down this poor baby and if there are other alternatives, I'd much rather try those first.  The other advice I was given was once the coughing started to stand with Bean in front of the open freezer door and let her breathe in the cold air or I could wrap her up warmly and take her outside for a few minutes to breathe in the cold winter air.  Thankfully, I only had to try the freezer option once for just a few minutes and that helped alot.  No medicine!  Yay says Bean!

I think the Beanster is on her way back to good health, and I hope the barking seal won't be heard around our house again.  I never was a huge fan of the circus anyhow.