Onset

• Croupy cough is an acute illness. Like many seasonal viral infections, this condition usually occurs during the cold months of the year. It is characterized by a quick onset, often overnight. This viral infection brings about loud coughs that are persistent and often painful due to the swelling of the throat, palate and vocal cords. It is accompanied by a hoarse voice, decreased appetite and sometimes a high fever.
  
  The cough usually presents as only a cold in older children, being more severe in younger ones. Like the common cold, croupy cough is incurable, but its symptoms can be managed using some home remedies.
  
  

At-Home Treatment

• To sooth the child's cough, expose him to super-humidified air. This can be in a bathroom with all the hot water running and the door closed, or a room with a child-safe humidifier/vaporizer. For further relief, let the child breathe air from a freezer or refrigerator, or bring the child out into cool, wintry air outside (if applicable).
  
  Give the child over-the-counter fever reducers, such as products that contain ibuprofen or acetaminophen. Cough medicine is unlikely to combat the symptoms, although it may settle the child down. Soothing the child's agitation will make the symptoms less noticeable.
  
  

Other Treatments

• Use an inhalable steroid, such as a rescue inhaler prescribed for asthmatics, to relieve some of the uncomfortable swelling in the throat. In most cases, coughing will settle in less than a week, yet the child will continue to have coldlike symptoms for several more days.
  
  More severe cough may require administration of injectible steroids by a doctor. Other less common treatments include non-air gas mixtures and epinephrine shots. Do not use antibiotics, as croupy cough is not a bacterial infection.