Croup cough often affects young children in the rainy season. what is the reason?

Entering the rainy season, children get sick with coughs and colds more easily. Well, one type of cough that most often affects children during the rainy season is croup. The typical symptom of croup is characterized by a wheezing sound every time the child coughs.

This disease can make it difficult for children to breathe freely, especially if it occurs in infants. Come on, find out more about the symptoms, causes, and treatment of croup cough in children in this article.

What is croup cough?

Croup cough is a respiratory infection that occurs when the larynx (voice box), trachea (windpipe), and bronchi (airways to the lungs) become irritated and swollen.

This swelling makes the airways narrow, causing faster, shallow breathing and a severe cough. As a result, the child will have difficulty breathing.

Croup is most susceptible to attacking babies aged 3 months to children aged 5 years, but it can also affect children over 15 years.

The symptom of croup cough is a wheezing sound

Croup causes the child to cough frequently. However, the sound of coughing is different from coughing in general.

The cough caused by croup will sound very distinctive like a muffled whistle. The sound was more shrill and sounded "giggling" instead of "coughing up" like a normal cough. Breathing sounds like this are called wheezing sounds.

In addition to coughing, wheezing, your little one will usually experience cold and flu symptoms, such as an itchy and congested nose, sore throat, and fever.

In severe cases, a severe cough can make it difficult for the child to breathe, which can cause the skin to turn pale or turn blue due to lack of oxygen. These symptoms are usually worse at night or when the child cries.

The cause of croup cough based on the type

The cause of croup cough is viral infection such as influenza virus, RSV parainfluenza, measles, and adenovirus. Initially your little one will experience common cold symptoms and over time will experience a wheezing cough with fever.

Other less common causes are allergies or acid reflux. If the child's croup is caused by this, the symptoms will appear suddenly and often occur at night. You may find your little one wakes up in the middle of the night gasping for a wheezing cough and hoarse voice.

Croup caused by a viral infection is contagious within a few days after the child is infected or when he has a fever. Apart from these causes, croup due to allergic reactions or gastric reflux is not contagious.

How to treat it?

This type of cough can generally heal on its own in about a week. But for faster recovery, you can give paracetamol or ibuprofen to relieve pain in babies over 6 months of age.

The cough medicine dextromethorphan should only be given to treat coughs in children over 4 years of age.

In addition to using drugs, you can also relieve the symptoms of croup cough in children in the following ways.

• For children who are more than 1 year old: give 1/2 - 1 tablespoon honey 4 times a day. Honey should not be drunk for children under 1 year of age. Alternatively, add 1 to 3 teaspoons of apple juice with a little lemon juice.
• This type of cough usually gets worse when the child cries. So immediately calm the child if he starts crying.
• Keep the child's room and house temperature moist by installing a humidifier.
• Make sure the child gets enough sleep and rest, compress his body with warm water, or take a warm bath.
• Expand drinking warm water, fruit juice, or warm soup to relieve breathing and reduce coughs.
• Before going to bed, give him a glass of warm water before going to bed and tuck a thick pillow under his head to relieve breathing.

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