Page B& - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, March 10, 1993

February: warm, sunny and wet —

February’s weather was 4a
mixed bag, according to Environ-

HOW TO
HANDLE
CROUP

Contributed by
The Skeena Health Unit

It is the middle of the night and
your previously healthy child
starts barking and crying and
coughing.

As you rush to the bedside your
child is having raspy breathing
and struggling to get air in, What
do you do?

1, Calmly and quickly take your
child to the bathroom. Close the
door and run a warm shower. As-
sist the child into the shower. The
parent may have to shower as
well, if the child is very young or
very anxious. It may take 15 to 20
minutes for the cough and bark to
settle down.

2. Retum the child to bed and p
lace a cool humidifier at the bes-
ide. Direct the steam towards the
child’s head and add extra
blankets to keep off the moisture.
Stay at the bedside until the child
is calm.

3, See you family doctor in the
am.

4. If these measures do not help
go to the emergency department
at ihe hospital.

Croup is an old Scottish word
“roup”’ which means 10 cry out
in a hoarse voice. Hoarseness in
an adult is laryngitis. In a child
laryngitis is usually croup. Their
larynx is smaller, so when in-
flamed there is less air able to
pass through. —

Croup is mainly caused by
viruses. The croup attacks gener-
ally occur during the cold season
of the year. They may be
preceded by 1-2 days of mild up-
per respiratory symptoms. Usual-
ly there is no fever.

The majority of the cases occur
in children between 3 months and
5 years, Of these cases, most are
in the 2nd year of life. Boys are
more ;commonly. affected than

Bitls. ey

‘Gooey

Croup is characlerized by what

sounds like a seal’s ‘‘bark’’ fol-
lowed by a metallic cough.

Next is a noisy intake of air as
the child struggles to breath air
into the lungs.

With this struggle the child may
become anxious and frightened
and begin to cry, The crying and
anxiety can make the croup
worse. .A calm parent and
humidified air can do a lot to
settle the child.

The following day the child
usually. appears well, although
there may be a slight hoarseness
and cough. The atlacks may occur
for another night or so with
eventual complete recovery.

These episodes may occur several

times in one particular child.:.
Croup can be a fatal disease in

rare instances. There are a variety | {

of infections that can cause- dif-
ferent types of croup. Children
with a temperature over 39 C (or
102.2 F). with great difficully
breathing should be brought to
hospital at once.

If the child becomes very pale
and is blue around the lips he/she
should be brought in.

Parents who do not have access
to a shower, bath, or a humidifier
and find the child is not settling
down should bring the child in.
Often the trip in the cool night sir
on the way to the hospital is
enough to ease the child’s cough
and bark. ,

Croup can be a frightening ¢x-
perience for both parent and
child. Understanding its cause
and how to manage it can assist
parent and child through — the
crisis, The physician's input can
be valuable in terms of relieving
any anxiety about past or current
croup attacks.

What are your questions and
concems? Write us al;

March is
Red Cross
‘onit

The Canadian Red Cross Society © -

ment Canada’s
specialists.

The first 10 days of the month
were quite mild, The monthly
high was recorded on Feb. 5
when the mercury hit 9.6 degrees
and several records for mild
nights were established during
that period.

‘Because of the warm spell and

.. mild — temperatures ... at. month’s. .

end, average daily highs for Feb-
ruary. were. two degrees above
normal at 3.1 degrees, Average
daily lows — at -2.8 degrees —
were one degree warmer than
normal.

An extended dry spell from the
Th to the 24th brought the bulk
of the 118.2 hours of sun we en-
joyed. That’s 64 per cent more

weather.

than normal, but considerably be-

low the 144 hours recorded in

1989, .
1989 also saw the lowest Febru

ary snowfall on record here: 0.8 —

centimetres, We were well on our
way to breaking that record, with
just a trace of snow recorded up
to the 24th. Then we collected 17
centimetres in the final days of

Abe month, bringing us up to 23

per.cent of normal.

Rainfall more than made up for
the shortfall in snow, however,
with 147,.7mm falling during the
month (260 per cent of normal).
In the end, total precipitation was
up 35 per cent over normal al
165.6mm. More than half of that
(94.4mm) came in the final days
of the month.

WEATHER WATCI

a

For recorded weather I[n-
formation from Environment .
Canada, call 635-4192. ,

LAST Max. Min. Snow = Rain Sun @ Auman activifies con-
WEEK Temp. Temp.. (cm) = (mm) (hrs) —tributing to the greenhouse
effect may accelerate |
“Feb. 27 39 07 16.0 45.6 0 clumate change to rates 100 |
Feb, 28 a 70° 0 33.2. 0 times faster than during the
Mar. 1: 6.2 15° 0 10.4 2.2 ast ICE Age.
Mar. 2 742 O10. Trace 07 $.1 oe
- Mar. 3 60 11 0” 16 0.7 @ As early as the middle
Mar. 4 5.5 0.6 as: 38665 1.9 of the next century, climate -
Mar. 5 7.0 0.6 0 158 0 change induced by human
oe , activity may. be producing
LAST Max. - Min. Snow. — Rain Sun warmer average surface
YEAR. Temp... “Temp. -(em)-- (mm) — (brs) temperatures than. at'-any - |~
lime during the past million.
years, principally due to the -
Rew =i g«Rr@RHOUSe fect
Mar. 1 75 -1.8 0 0 7.4 a
Mar. 2 6.6 37 0 0 73 Environment Canada’s
Nan 3 Aq 06 0 0 0.2 environmental — citizenship
Mar. 4 4.8 0.8 0 3.8 0 messages courtesy of the
Mar. 5 5.6 2.6 0 2.8 0 Terrace Weather Office.

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