This disease is started up by a slight catarrhal cold. Then, if the child is of a nervous character, the difficult breathing may cause it to be irritable; it will struggle, and the struggling causes the suffocation to be greater, or it may cause a spasm to take place in the larynx. Some authorities claim it is purely a nervous affection.

Treatment

Place the child in a hot bath. At the same time wash out the bowels with a fountain syringe. Whatever is wrong with the child should be corrected. If it is teething, and the gums are very much swollen, lancing them will relieve the irritation, and possibly through this relief the laryngitis will be relieved. Inasmuch as this disease is of a nervous character, anything that will produce nervous irritation will have a tendency to make the disease worse.