It was a monday evening.. I was getting ready to feed Anjali around 8:30pm, she seemed quite hungry. First, I gave her a small bottle of pumped milk with the vitamin drops (they taste horrible, so I give it to them with a small bottle to wash it down). She would not drink the bottle, she kept crying, coughing, and being very fussy. I tried breastfeeding after, but she was so upset by this time that she wouldn't eat at all. She started coughing really weird, it made a loud raspy noise, and then I was worrying that she was having trouble breathing. I tried feeding her for maybe 15 minutes, she would eat for a minute, then start crying again, coughing, and would go hysterical. And then, very suddenly, she just fell asleep. I was scared that she was passing out, she slept very deeply. We got scared, Prosanta would try to wake her up, but she just kept sleeping. We didn't know what to do, so we called 911. An ambulance came, they checked her out, they said everything sounded and looked normal, good pulse, good breathing sounds, good oxygen level.. but if we wanted he could take her to the hospital. We said yes. So I rode with her in the ambulance while Prosanta drove with Chaya (who cried the whole time apparently). By the way, once we were in the ambulance, she was wide awake and happy, looking around at everything. Didn't seem sick at all of course!
We got there, doctor checked her out, he suspected it was croup. They put in an IV to draw blood, and took a chest x-ray. She LOVED the nurse who came in to hold her during the x-ray. He was talking to her in a high pitched voice, smiling at her, she kept smiling back at him. What a little cutie. The doctor concluded that it was definitely croup, an upper airway viral infection, quite common in small children. It's not really dangerous, you don't always need treatment for it, but when it interferes with feeding, then they recommend getting it checked out. She also had a little fever. They gave her a breathing treatment, and then a steroid syrup. It seemed to make her feel better, because she breastfed really well after that, and then fell asleep. I also fed Chaya while we were there, to hopefully not have to feed them again when we got home.
She wouldn't need any more meds, it would go away on its own, and she would start feeling better right away. We got home around 12am. Anjali went to bed very easily, Chaya woke up when we got home, but fell asleep pretty fast. Phew! Glad it was nothing too serious!!! It was quite scary to see her like that and not know what was going on.
UPDATE: We saw our pediatrician 4 days later, and she isn't convinced it was croup after all. Anjali didn't cough again after, never had a runny nose, and never seemed congested at all. If it was croup, it wouldn't have lasted only one night like that. Might have been her choking on the milk or vitamin drops, causing a spasm in her throat, or some sort of allergic reaction (but not as likely since she didn't have anything out of the ordinary). She said to let her know if it ever happens again, but it was most likely just a one time occurrence.
