My 12 year old son was born 5 weeks early due to preeclampsia. He was born completely healthy at a whopping 6lb 7oz - the most beautiful baby I had ever seen! (He was my first after all, :)
While he was an infant, he got croup and seems to be susceptible to it ever since. He has had croup every year since, sometimes twice a year. Most often, we'd end up in the ER because he simply couldn't breath. I was told he'd out grow it but so far, after 12 years, that's not been the case. In fact, just last year we had to make a trip to the ER because of croup. We've tried all the other home remedies - steam showers, breathing in cold air, popsicles and even coffee. Nothing has really worked for us except for prednisone steroids.

After coming home from camp last week, he was exhausted, sore and he's immune system seemed to be lower. He came down with a cold which turned into to croup yesterday. Barking like a seal, the poor boy was definitely not feeling awesome. So I began a search on essential oils that might help and came across several "recipes" that have worked for others.

I made up a recipe consisting of 10-15 drops of each of the following oils:

Marjoram
Rosemary
Peppermint
Clove
Tea Tree
Eucalyptus

I put it in a roller bottle, topped it off with sweet almond oil. I applied it to his back and his chest several times through out the day. Within a few minutes of the first application, he said it already was helping and his cough lessened considerably. Last night, I put Marjoram and Frankincense in the diffuser in his room and he slept soundly ALL NIGHT long. He still has a very mild cough this morning but is about 95% better than just 24 hours ago.

I'm quite impressed with the success we had using essential oil to treat his croup. Lord willing, this will be the last time we have to deal with croup, that he'll finally "out grow" it. But if not, I feel quite confident we will no longer have to resort to steroids for a solution!

DYI Croup Remedy