Mucous impaction in surgical patients can lead to a large area of atelectasis, hypoxemia, and pulmonary vasoconstriction in sequence. We describe two cases of mucous impaction following endotracheal intubation in children with an upper respiratory infection (URI) that were successfully treated with a rigid or fiberoptic bronchoscopy. These cases show that the administration of general anesthesia to children with a URI is not benign and that these children require close observation and management in the preoperative and perioperative phase of their surgical procedure.