The never ending croup

Going to start off by saying - very grateful for this sub when I was in the thick of my PPD/PPA journey. It was a great source of comfort for me during some very challenging times.

However, I’m back with a different issue and this time, it’s affecting my 18 month old. On the 11th my son woke up with the worst cough I’ve ever heard, rushed him to our pediatrician who got us in first thing and diagnosed him with croup instantly. No brainer. Barking cough, extreme hoarseness in his voice, minor difficulty breathing. Scared the living sh*t out of me. But he got a dose of dexamethasone and we were on our way.

I will say, we saw improvement within 24 hours of the barking cough and the hoarseness in his voice. We took it easy that weekend, humidifiers, warm water and honey, and rested/hoped for the best but honestly, we’ve seen no improvement since the first dose of medicine at the doctors. His chest is still full of phlegm, sounds like he is coughing up a lung (wet cough). In the middle of all of this, he spiked a fever of 101-103 for two nights as well. So he got some other sort of sickness at the same time?? According to Ped, yes, just unfortunate timing. And then, about two nights ago, we woke up to him crying and he was wheezing very bad. It wasn’t like anything we had heard before. We happened to have elevated half his mattress that night by putting a towel between his mattress and the spring, so barely a difference in height but we figured it couldn’t hurt especially if being in a more “upright position” can help flush out his system. Still the next morning my husband took him to the pediatrician again with our Nanny and I told him if you come home with no medicine again and an excuse of “he just has to work through it” from the pediatrician, I’ll kill someone (obviously being dramatic but I’m just panicked). It almost seems as if it’s rebounded, but is this just the normal course of dealing with this illness? Weeks of working through it with a wet cough? Or are my mom instincts correct and I should get a second opinion?

Thank you to anyone who reads all of this and offers advice. I think we all just want our children to be the happiest, healthiest they can be.