🩺 Symptom Guide
Stridor in Child
High-pitched noisy breathing from upper-airway narrowing; think croup first, but always exclude epiglottitis, bacterial tracheitis, anaphylaxis, foreign body, and other airway-threatening causes
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Red flags
- Urgent escalation / resus-level review if any of the following are present: stridor at rest
- marked sternal/intercostal recession
- cyanosis
- hypoxia
First actions / assessment
- Assess ABCDE first, but with minimal handling because distress can worsen obstruction. Observe before touching: work of breathing, stridor at rest versus only when upset, recession, colour, mental state, ability to talk/cry/feed, drooling, and posture. Clarify onset and tempo, barky cough, hoarse voice, fever, URTI prodrome, drooling, dysphagia, toxic appearance, choking episode, allergen exposure, known airway abnormalities, previous episodes, trauma, and burn or caustic exposure. Most viral croup presents with barking cough and hoarseness
- moderate croup has stridor and recession at rest
- severe croup adds marked sternal recession, agitation, or lethargy
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Symptom Guide · StatResus — Emergency Medicine Reference