Croup

The traditional method was steam - sit him in a steamy bathroom! I'm sure modern medecine will have something better.

DD had this and I was not used to it......its all to do with their throat being a bit tight and small and they cannot breathe well if they have a cold etc. We had to do the whole running a steamy bath in the middle of the night - think the old cure was a steaming kettle in the bedroom.....a H&S nightmare!
Perhaps nowadays a nebuliser type cure is offered - but whatever it is we were told its a problem that they will grow out of as they develop.

In the 60's I put a small hand towel in a bowl of hot water then wrung it out, wrapping it around D's neck to help her breathe when she was coughing. Other than that I also used an old bowl with boiling water and friars balsam, a towel over her head to breathe in the balsam. Hospitals used steam kettles at the time.

Our grandson has had croup a few times. Quite often ends at A&E as it comes on at night. Treatment is steroids and works very well ... usually a single dose is enough.
It's frightening to hear the stridor ... we thought he was starting again a while ago while we had him but turned out he was just doing pig snorts!!!

When DS had it, we put a pan of water on the gas, kept it boiling so that the kitchen became steamy and sat in there with him until it stopped.

We used to have to sit in the bathroom with DD, running a hot and steamy bath, and read to her until she felt better.
We also had a Vicks Vaporiser, that was a metal container, some liquid that was dripped into a shallow vessel, and warmed by a night light. Anyone else remember those?
Probably not sold anymore due to Health and Safety, but I loved the smell.