Croup

[pebilz]

Does anyone know if croup can be passed onto and unborn baby? We've been invited to a birthday party and the poor little birthday boy has croup so we are unsure whether my unborn bub could be affected by the virus even if I'll be ok? We probably won't bring our DD since she could catch it.

Thanks guys

[kirstenriley]

well croup in the early stages can be highly contagious as its a viral infection, dont know about passing onto unborn though.....heres a good website to look at....just do a search for croup and it should bring up all the info....



www.cyc.com.au

[annsam]

No it cant. I asked about this when my son had croup just recently.

P.S. I ended up with an inflamation of the trachea causing me to cough everytime I breathed in and out and gagged till I threw up after every meal which my Dr believes may have been a result of the virus that DS had that caused his croup. I had it for 4 weeks very bad and still cough a bit now (7 weeks later).

[my_lot]

i have a 7 year old that gets croup more than once every single winter. this is the second pregnancy ive had with her being ill. she has just had croup and just like ANNSAM i got a virus from it- its made me so sick i ended up in hospital on a drip. every time i coughed i threw up...now im on 8 hourly maxalon and im still coughing away and my 9 year old has it too.

i say stay away!

[pookiesossige]

My DS has had croup a few times and needed steriodal injections and adrenaline asap.
I always thought that the croup istelf isn't contagious- but that some kids are suceptable to getting croup when they pick up certain strains of the cold or flu. that's the bit that's contagious. Some kids tend to develop croup when they have a bug- other's don't.
I think that this is what the doc's said in A&E anyway.

[RachWA]

My son gets croup quite often and this info below is what I get told at emergency and also from books I have read:

Croup is not contagious. The child first gets the contagious virus or cold and then if susceptible it will devlop to croup.

Is caused by a viral infection or cold that progressivly inflames and causes swelling of the upper airway (windpipe and vioice box)causing a harsh barking cough.

Children most susceptile usually have respiratory problems aleady such as bronchilitis or asthma.

I would very likely say that although you or your child may pick up the viral infection or cold that another person has you are not actually picking up the croup part of it. And whilst pregnant your unborn child does not get common colds passed through the womb.

[annsam]

Hi

I just did a google search on "croup and contagious" as my Dr had said it was contagious and all links I looked at say it IS. Generally its not the same virus as the original cold/flu virus but very similar and just as catchy. The exceptions are of course croup brought on by asthma and other respiratory tract conditions which are not contagious.

My son has no respiratory issues and has had his fair share of colds in the past and no problems until he got croup recently. Its nasty stuff and very scary. My son had steriods for it too and I had to have a steroid inhaler and antibiotics which wasn't flash for pregnancy.

Heres the first 5 links that came up if anyone wants to read:
http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Croup_in_detail
http://www.femail.com.au/croup.htm
http://www.askdrsears.com/html/8/T084200.asp
http://www.drspock.com/faq/0,1511,863,00.html
http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/ate/childrenshealth/203801.html