Valerie

I'm a 26 year old married mom of 3 ages 4 months, 5 years and 7 years. A friend of ours who is 22 brought her two children ages 9 months and 3 years over to our house to play. They were here around 10 hours. My friends 9 month old is a crawler and the 3 year old is VERY active. Right before they left my friend informed me that her 9 month old has CROUP for the second time.

Now I had been wiping her 2 boys noses all day long. Both of them had been coughing ALOT the whole day. She had beat around the bush that the kids had a simple cold. As the sun went down BOTH of them started coughing so badly that they were having a hard time breathing. That's when she confessed about the croup.

I didn't say anything to her because all I could think about was, OMG there is my 4 month old baby who has now been introduced to croup. None of my children have ever had croup. This was my first time being close and personal with a child with croup so I didn't know that was the problem until she told me. It made me feel like a bad parent for not knowing the signs. So now I am freaking out about my littlest one getting it because I have been told that it can kill young babies.

So I have a multi level question.

1) Do I call the doctor to tell him about the exposure to croup or wait till he starts to cough?

2) Do I confront the mother or just drop her from my friends list?

3) Please, if you have been through this with such a young child, tell me how your experience went and any tips you may have learned along the way.

Thank you sooo much for any insight you can give.