Advice Please

Maddie has been sick lately, and now she has a stuffed up nose. She's finding it really hard to breathe. Last night she had us up every couple of hours cause she was having trouble breathing and because of that she didn't get a very good sleep and is even more exhausted today than yesterday. Poor little thing!
She wakes up when she spits her dummy out and tries to breathe through her nose... Poor little thing can't!

Is there anything I can do to try and get some of the gunk out of her airway?
We have been bringing her into the bathroom with all the steam when we have been showering. It works for a little bit, but not long.

I know there are little devices you can get that suck the stuff out of the nose, but i'm really not keen to use one of those.

Any advice would be much appreciated!

I would squirt some saline solution up into her nose and use the bulb syringe to suck out the snot.

Breastmilk up the nose is also good and you wouldn't have to suck it out. BM is very healing~ it's antibacterial, antifungal, and antimicrobial.

I've used that saline stuff Angelsgirl and it's good. You can get it from the chemist without a prescription - I've used one called FLO Baby and it was quite good.


Sigh. This is one of those times it'd be good if we lived closer together. I could come over and give you some and make you have a little sleep.

How are you feeling today?

Tis hay fever season here unfortunately angelsgirl, are you a sufferer yourself? If you live in places like the ACT or surrounds and South Australia it's usually heaps worse in these states because of the desert and flora that is around, particularly wattle and certain desert grasses.

You haven't said how old she is so things you can do vary depending on age.

The biggest thing I find helps if I'm already giving mine medication like panadol I would swap to neurophen as it has an antiflamatry component to it which can help to unclog but that depends on age. Jgonz's suggestions though are really good for a natural and gentle approach, but I would be trying to work out if it is just a cold or if it's actually sinus. If it is sinus you'll have to watch it to make sure that it doesn't turn into sinus infection (keep an eye on her ears for running wax discharge rather than clumpy), also if the area behind her ears feels squishy under the touch like there is fluid there go see a doctor. If you can work out if it is just a virus or sinus you'll know whether to expect it every year around the same time but at least then you can be proactive in your treatment of it.

Edit: Another thing you can do for both possible causes is place a drop or two of tea tree oil on a tissue and tuck it in between the layers of clothes or in between the sheet and mattress.

Ditto on a saline and bulb syringe (aka the booger sucker). I get perverse pleasure in sucking snot out of my kiddos nose....

I never used the syringe... I used to give it him before we nursed and then after we nursed I'd hold him upright and the snot would drip out.

gracepaints - I can understand that pleasure lol. I liked it when the tissue caught hold of a big one and pulled it out.

gracepaints said:

Ditto on a saline and bulb syringe (aka the booger sucker). I get perverse pleasure in sucking snot out of my kiddos nose....

Click to expand...

Hehe... I'm the same... I love getting boogers out of Maddie's nose when they are almost out. Same with her eyes after a sleep and the wax in her ears. She hates it when I pick at her though!

I went and bought some stuff for her nose today as well as some vicks for babies.

I'll let you know how we go tonight.

If she keeps waking up i'm going to bring her into my bed with me... Just so she is close to Mummy! Poor little darling girl...

angelsgirl said:

Hehe... I'm the same... I love getting boogers out of Maddie's nose when they are almost out. Same with her eyes after a sleep and the wax in her ears. She hates it when I pick at her though!

Click to expand...

I'm glad I'm not the only one

What I did for DD was I would put a pillow under her so she is sleeping a bit more upright - I found this helped her nose drain better and so she could breathe better. It might not work if your little one wriggles a lot when she is sleeping.

The best baby advice anybody ever gave me was to buy a humidifier. It literally changed my life! I can't tell you the difference it makes to her breathing when she is a bit sick. You just have to make sure it is out of baby's reach...saved me a lot of trips to the bathroom!

I second the bulb syringe & this may not be a good thing but I've used a Q-tip as well.

Another thing you could do if you don't feel comfortable with the pillow is to chock the two legs of the cot up a little. I did this because mine had really bad reflux, it worked really well at keeping everything clear and clean.

I used the baby vicks last night. And she was 100 times better. She didn't wake up at all, when she did wake up in the morning, her nose wasn't as blocked. Thankfully it worked.
I started to get sick again last night and didn't want to be up and down all night!

Stupid flu... coming and going. It's horrible!