Q&A: congestion in teeny kids

Thanks for the suggestions yesterday. I've been thinking about it a ton, and realized that the guilt I'm feeling is not about being a working mom (I love working, and am so much better at that than I was at staying home, although I certainly don't regret my time at home), but about the logistics of my current situation (teeny apartment that's difficult to haul supplies into, a custody/time-management situation that I don't think really works well for any of us but that we can't figure out how to change easily, the commute that defeats me every day, having my kids in two households, etc.) and about somehow raising kids who won't eat pasta or grilled cheese.

Anyway, thank you. I'm going to play around with the moving parts, and I'll report back in in a few weeks.

Now on to Amy, who has a 9-month-old with a really stuffy nose that's not letting him sleep. She wonders what she can do about it.

The bad news: There's no magic bullet for relief. And baby/toddler congestion is really hideous. It's gross and snotty, and your baby can't sleep and gets super-cranky, and it can drag on for weeks.

There are some things you can do about it, though, so you might as well try what you can.

The standard treatment (and what my friend the ER doctor told me to do about my own congestion) is to steam it out. Sit in the bathroom with the hot shower running so the steam gets unavoidable and then just suffer through it for 15-20 minutes. The steam should help open things up.

Another treatment is to put sterile saline drops in each nostril, wait a few seconds, and then suck them out with the bulb syringe.

If your child is a little older and you're OK with giving a little medication that doesn't go through their entire system, just in the nose, Little Noses brand makes a decongestant that's basically baby Afrin--you put a drop in each nostril and it helps clear things up. This isn't something that will be in their entire system, but it *is* medication, so use your own judgment.

Another treatment is to rub Vicks Vap-o-rub on the child's chest or the soles of the feet. Again, it's not like giving oral meds, but anything you put on the skin (especially the feet) is going to absorb into your kid's system--the skin is the biggest organ in the body. (OTOH, unless you go super-crazy with it, Vicks is unlikely to do much to you--my mom remembers her mother making her swallow a lump of it to help her congestion, and she's still alive, so...)

Anyone have anything else? Or just tales of snot?

Comments

[marci]

i was a big believer in the saline and snot sucker.

my personal magic bullet was the adult pillow (wrapped in a waterproof case, because sometimes snot comes with puke) under one side of the crib mattress. that put the whole mattress at a gentle angle that i felt helped his little head drain, sorta like sleeping on me in the recliner.

which i always thought of as the next step but never had to do.

once or twice i also used a humidifier (on a towel, with distilled water, cleaned out every day), and i also thought the johnson&johnson stuffy nose bath squirt stuff worked some. and even if not, the bath usually was calming in itself and who doesn't like a baby smelling like eucalyptus?

nowadays, (he's three) i will totally cop to occasional benadryl.

[juberzilla]

We just went through a month of congestion (one cold followed by another) and found that a couple things helped: steaming; nasal bulb (get a good one), and gentle face massage around sinuses. My one-year-old liked the nasal bulb so much that he would stick it in his nose and ask for help. He'd also come and lie on me and grind his head into my chest until I massaged his face. But! His nose was running the whole time. If it's all stuffiness and things aren't moving, try the saline in the nose. It really works.

[SarcastiCarrie]

A nice warm bath in the bathroom after you've run the shower. My kids like to fling themselves forward face-down into the water so it gets in the nose and then snot is soft and easily removed, right into the bath.

And if you don't have a humidifier or the noise bothers you, just take the towel after the bath and dunk it into the water. Wring it out a little and then drape it over a laundry basket near the heat register. It will be dry in the morning and the humidity will be in the house.

I've never tried anything other than saline drops, baths, and humidity. I don't even use the bulb syringe. I just wipe it away with tissues or go after it with a cottom swab moistened with saline.

[paola]

Although I never did it with my kids, using a piston type nebuliser with a mask can be quite helpful. This seems to be all the rage amongst Italian kids. The solution consists of salt water with a teaspoon of bicarb soda. The bicarb soda does a great job of clearing the nasal passages.

Nasal irrigation is great for the 2 and up crowd. We do it twice daily or more if the kids have colds or once a day as a preventative measure. I've noticed that colds are much shorter since we started doing it.

[Shalini]

Nasal bulb and saline drops all the way on the teeny tiny! The gentle angle idea is great too esp if there is lots of drainage.

A neti pot if it's allergies for older ones... Prolly over 3...

Overall I hate medication for myself if I can avoid it... So I try to steer away from anything for the little ones.

[obabe]

snot sucker with saline, humidifier, steamy bathrooms and the propped up crib mattress is all ive got. i HATE SNOT AND RUNNY NOSES. :-)

[tk_zk]

Just wanted to recommend the Nosefrida... It's another option for babies who hate the bulb. You don't actually stick it up the baby's nose, which makes it slightly less annoying to him/her. I also found that I got a lot more snot out with it (but that might just be b/c I could see the snot better).

[rani]

Saline drops and then this: http://www.nosefrida.com/
You will not believe how much snot you will get out. It takes some serious sucking from you but it's hugely satisfying to hear your baby breathing happily afterwards.
The bulb doesn't come close to getting it all out.
Our baby fights it, but we hold her down and calmly get to work. 5 minutes of screaming baby versus waking up every couple of hours at night, you choose.
Also, elevating her head with a few towels under her mattress helps.

[Jen]

How timely! We're dealing with this at my house today. A suggestion that my grandmotherly and uber-organic daycare provider gave me that helps for nasal and chest congestion is to add a few drops of tea tree oil to the reservoir in the humidifier or vaporizer. Add enough that you can really smell it strongly. You can also shake a few drops on the shower floor when you're doing the steam up the bathroom routine.

[Bianca]

After using the "sucker ball" (as my husband and I fondly referred to it) with our twins, I would rub a mixture of olive oil and eucalytpus and rosemary essential oils on their little chests. The eucalyptus does essentially the same thing as Vicks but doesn't have that awful medicinal smell. Plus, the rosemary calms them and helps sleep.

Vicks does make a bubble bath that is tolerable and seems to help a bit. Of course, any topical agent is temporary, but the hurdle is getting them to sleep!

[Erin]

Nosefrida -- I second it! Freaky, strange, gross and strangely satisfying (like popping a pimple). It is SO much easier to use on a struggling baby then a bulb syringe, and you can see what really comes out, although it does feel like you are going to suck their poor little brains out. My baby is almost 4 months old and has been super congested lately. Steamy bathroom works, but my go to remedy is to lay him on the changing table or my lap (with help) and put a few drops of saline in his nose. He HATES it, by the way. Sometimes it makes him sneeze, which means no suction is necessary. If not, I give it a minute to loosen everything up, and then go after it with the Nosefrida. I got HUGE amounts of mucous out of his nose this morning, poor thing, and he WAILED! He was quite happy he could breath easier afterward though! Good luck!

[libbyllama]

I swear by humidifiers. They help every time. There have been times when the walls were wet because I had it cranked up, but my son slept well with it. (I grew up in Florida and often went to sleep on wet, humid sheets before we had air-conditioning.)

If I let it get really humid in there during the night, then I just make sure to really air out the room during the day.

With humidifiers and the saline/bulb combo, we get through. It's never fun, though. Good luck!

[lwh]

Just want to third the suggestion of the Nosefrida--one of the best purchases I ever made.

[Regina W]

Just want to make the comment that when using Vicks Vapor rub on babies, you really should use the baby stuff, not the adult stuff. The adult Vicks has camphor in it which can be poisonous to babies if they absorb too much--and "too much" varies from baby to baby, so it's best just to avoid it all together.

That said, this was a very timely post. My 1 yr old is very stuffed up right now thanks to teething junk. I'll be trying some of these ideas! Thank you!

[amanda]

As mom to a tot who's had asthma from very very young (around 8 mo) i'd be very wary of the vicks. i know its what all of our parents used on us, and we turned out fine, and have fond (or maybe not so much!) memories when we smell it again. but our pedi advised us last year that they no longer recommend using it AT ALL on babies and toddlers because of the potential to INCREASE mucus (sorry gross) which is the opposite of what you're going for in these situations of congestion, respiratory illness, etc.

my solution has been to delegate the nose issues to my husband. it is just not fun to do the squirting/sucking with a thrashing baby. i have to leave the room.

sorry no more constructive suggestions, just sympathy...

[amom]

At our house we use a nose spray called Xlear (pronounced Clear). It is a saline base with Xylitol in it. The Xylitol helps dry up the mucous, and also coats the nasal passage and keeps the bacteria from being able to stick and multiply. You can also use it preventatively (which we did on days the little one went to day care his first year). We've had very good results with it, in combo with Vicks and a humidifier at night. These days we also supplement with Vitamin D3 and try to avoid the colds in the first place...

[eta]

Not to be alarm-y, but if you have a family history of allergies/asthma, be cautious about using the humidifier. When we stopped using the humidifiers, things got actually a little better for us. (Plus, the allergist stopped screaming at us for using the things.)

In our half-decade of fighting the mucus, we've had great luck with elevating the head of the bed/crib as people outlined above, the steamy shower (excellent for the midnight cough), and also with the Vicks--yes, the baby stuff. And, of course you all know this but it's worth repeating: drinking water. Lots and lots. Or nursing lots while you drink water, if the baby's that tiny. When Younger was over a year old, we also developed the "shower-bath with bubbles"--let the shower run and steam up the room, then add some cold water from the tap and have a bath with one of those menthol-smelling baby baths. Stinky, but nasal-helpful.

Best of luck to you all. For those of you with just the tiny ones, they'll learn to blow their noses eventually. Then it's all "Not the Sleeve . . . nooooo!" Which has it's own charm, too, I find.

[MrsHaley]

@Regina, I was just going to warn about Vick's too! The BABY version has lavender essential oil in it, which is an endocrine disrupter in males. Our policy is to avoid anything with lavender essential oil in it so the baby boy is not exposed.

We use saline drops, the bulb syringe, the plug-in vapor strips, a humidifier with eucalyptus & tea tree oil added to the water and the Vapor Bath stuff in the tub with lots of steam. Also sometimes the cold-formula Shower Soothers. I have heard raves about the Nosefrida but don't have one.

[eta]

Just saw @amanda's Vicks caution above. I didn't mean to contradict--we started using it when the kids were a little older, now that I think about it. Information changes so fast! It's only been a couple of years since mine were tiny and already there's so much more info. As Emily Litilla used to say: Nevermind!

[Julie]

@people who have used the nosefrieda....my baby squirms and hits and fights the bulb and I literally have to PIN HIM DOWN with my forearms etc. and sometimes the bulb jabs into his nose and causes some bleeding because he is fighting it so much. I'm a single mom, so I don't have an extra set of hands to hold him down. How does the nosefrieda work with an unenthusiastic participant?

[the milliner]

Nothin' new here:
1- saline drops + nosefreida
2- propping up head of bed
3- humidifier

Also way on board with saline drops & the nosefreida sucker (though we use a slightly different version). You can use it effectively, quickly. Less torturous for the little ones than trying several times with the bulb syringe. DS goes from totally excepting it to arching his back and wailing.

I now usually clear his nose every PM before bed & every morning, weather he seems stuffed or not. Most often, something comes out. And great relief on those days when he's really congested. When he was 9 mos I would do it before every nap too. Didn't want to take the chance that a stuffed nose would wake him.

But there are some times now (usually when he's teething), that I can hear the congestion but can't get to it...even with the nosefrieda. Since he's been really fighting it lately (yay 18 months!), I've gone down to only clearing his nose in the AM (after stuff's built up over night). During his evening bath I basically just use a wet facecloth to wipe anything out that is near the opening of his nose. He doesn't seem to mind it as much.

We prop up the head of the bed using ramekins under the crib feet.

And I've got the humidifier going every night since it's gotten cold. I figure it can't hurt (prevention!) and we have the added bonus of it making white noise which helps DS sleep.

[Susan]

Nosefrida is great, but not for the faint of snot. My husband and MIL want to puke every time I use it! Oh, and I've found that my baby is fine with me using it on him, but NOT if I try to hold him down (hysterics!). If I let him sit or stand, he thinks it's funny.

[caramama]

With my first, I didn't understand what people meant when they said use saline in the nose, so I mixed up some salt with warm water and used a q-tip to swab the inside of the nose with the salty water. Worked really well for my girl!

I hear great things about neti pots, but I've also heard that kids find it uncomfortable and can freak out when using it. Can anyone explain how you use one?

[Amy]

Just wanted to chime in again about the Vick's. If you google Vicks vapo rub and respiratory distress you'll find information on why regular Vicks should never be used on young children.

[caramama]

Oh, propping up the "head" of the mattress doesn't seem to work for us. My daughter would just slide to the bottom of the crib, and my 7.5 month old moves around to much to have just his head elevated. Any suggestions there?

My guy is teething, and the congestion is causing him to wake up more (ugh!). I don't want to have to sleep in the recliner with him, as I did his sister.

[Kathy]

my daughter got really sick with major congestion back in november and what saved us was doing the following:
-hydrasense (which we did 6x/day recommended by the doctor)
-then used the ariana baby nasal aspirator to suck out all the goop - this thing is totally amazing and is completely safe - WAY better than that useless bulb manual aspirator thing
-for sleep, i would use the vicks vaposteam (turn it on about 20mins before sleep to get the room nice and steamy)
-i would also rub baby vicks on chest, back and back of the neck

i'd like to point out that all of these methods are safe and i've confirmed this with her doctor. the thing that bites is that congestion often leads to ear infections if the nasal passages/cavity is not properly cleared and children under 2 don't quite know how to blow their noses.

[Rachel]

NOSEFRIDA! My daughter (5 months) laughs when I use it and it clears her nasal passages really really well.

[Kathy]

i forgot to mention that my daughter hates hydrasense and getting the snot sucked out so instead of pinning her down (which she loathes and will scream bloody murder), i show her what i'm going to do. seems counter-effective but i find when toddlers feel forced to do something or taken by surprise, they don't like it will vehemently refuse it even more. kayla is a very stubborn toddler but during her cold, i guess she just got used to it and didn't put up a fight with either.

[Barb @ getupandplay]

Amen to the humidifier.

And I never had luck with the bulb syringe to get out the boogies and finally asked my pediatric nurse friend for help. She told me I had to occlude (aka block) the other nostril to get some good suction! Voila! Squirt a drop or two of saline in there, block the other nostril, then suck those boogers outta there!

[AmyinTexas]

I concur with the saline drops and suction... once you get the hang of it, it gets a lot out and becomes an oddly satisfying task. All three of my kids will run at the sight of a bulb syringe... though I'm sure they can't remember why. ;-)

[Nicole]

The Nosefrieda!

Also, my second was extremely congested- I thought he kept getting colds, but in reality he had a dairy allergy. Once I cut it out, his congestion went away.

[hydrogeek]

I just can't get over the part about your mom having to SWALLOW a glob of Vicks. Bleagh. Don't have any suggestions other than the ones above. I remember a particularly nasty cold/flu with my oldest when she was about 7 months old. She couldn't breathe well enough to nurse, so we just went into the bathroom with the shower on hot and the steam would finally clear her up enough to nurse. I remember stripping down to my undies to tolerate the heat of the shower and her fever, and the snot just running down my boob as she nursed, and how I never thought I'd be so happy to have snot on my boob, but since it meant my baby could eat I was SO HAPPY about it!

[Johanna]

We use a combination of a humidifier on high, the mattress propped up at the head-end, plus extra pillows (my kid is 2) and a good syringing before bed. She's got a NASTY cough and cold right now (so do I!) so I'm definitely going to try the saline drops, I totally forgot about those.

[akeeyu]

Will they still sleep in car seats? The girls were small, so they didn't get out of infant car seats for a while. We would just put the whole seat in the crib and strap them in loosely.

After they didn't sleep in carseats anymore, we'd jack up one end of the crib mattress with rolled up towels underneath, or they'd just sleep with us propped up on a million pillows.

Also, fluids, fluids, and more fluids (with fluids on top).

Don't forget the WHO's oral rehydration solution. If you don't add any other flavorings, it's approximately 1/90th the cost of Pedialyte. No, that's not a typo. I really mean 1/90th the cost of Pedialyte.

http://alittlepregnant.typepad.com/alittlepregnant/2006/01/yes_again.html

[Anon...whooo boy am I anon for this]

Warm wet wash cloth gently wiping the nose will sometimes get a big gush out all at once.

[wealhtheow]

Little man is snotalicious right now, so this is timely. We've always had good luck with saline, but doing whatever you can to increase fluid intake is important too. Milk and dairy products do not increase mucus production (which is what I'd always heard), so little man is downing the chocolate milk like crazy over here. We've also had lots of luck with the Vicks plug-ins, which release menthol into the air when he's sleeping.

[Susan]

I second the hydration comments. And, I'm thrilled to learn about that homemade Pedialyte solution! Brilliant. My little boy will only drink watered down Pedialyte, so I've been buying the small containers of it so I don't have to waste the large liter versions. I don't get why unused Pedialyte must be thrown away after 48 hours. I think it's a big scam!

[Nick]

Another technique is to irrigate the nose with a little bit of freshly expressed breast milk, then aspirate. It's a technique I originally read in the Girlfriend's Guide to the First Year that my ped heartily endorsed, but feel free to check with yours (it sounded odd to me, so I checked with him).

Apparently, the taste is familiar on the back of the throat, the temperature just right, the fat and anti-inflammatory elements in the milk are soothing to often irritated passages, and the natural antibacterial elements prevent it from transmitting or encouraging the development of any bacterial infection, so it's perfect. Who knew?

I tried it twice to good effect, but in my house, we tend to skip the stuffy-nose portion of a cold and go straight to ear infection. Fun times.

[Lauren]

I just wanted to add that in a pinch you can suck the snot out with your own mouth. They think you're coming in for a kiss :) I know it's gross, but really, it's your baby. And your own snot goes in your own mouth- how bad can it be? at 4AM you come up with what you can. :)

My itty bitty has teh snotties right now. I so wish he were old enough for benadryl. It works wonders for sleeping and de-snot-ification on my toddler.

[CaliBoo]

That's really interesting, Nick, I had never heard of that one. And just think of all the times I unintentionally squirted milk up my DD's nose and freaked out about it...
At about 8-9 mos she "got" the connection between getting boogers sucked and yummy warm milk once we started the routine of bath-saline-syringe-boob in pretty rapid succession - it made it go a bit easier since she knew that something good was around the corner if she would just put up with some minor inconvenience. And sometimes I had to let her just try to eat until she got frustrated enough to "let" me help.
Also, we love the California Baby colds/flu bath stuff, it doesn't smell synthetic like the J&J.
Unfortunately, we still spent many nights in the rocking chair to keep her upright enough to prevent the snot from collecting in her head. The only silver lining I can give is that the next cold season is usually better.

[SLM]

For the Nosefrida fans out there--
I don't know that brand but the one I get is sold with a piece of foam that's sits at the base of the part you stick in the kid's nose. It's supposed to keep you from going overboard and sucking too hard, but we've actually found that it does the opposite since it makes it harder to get the snotty stuff out. So we remove the foam and just suck without a vengeance. Shot of saline with head to the side, same on other side, then suck everything out. Lovely.

@Julie-- We call it the football tackle. Should say "I" because although I am not a single mom, I'm the only adult around here doing the dirty nose work. So. Sit on kid's legs (without full weight), pull together kid's arms and hold with your elbows/forearms as you lean over to do the job. It'll provoke wailing for sure, but it really helps them breathe better and keeps colds at bay or shorter.

[akeeyu]

Susan,

Unused Pedialyte is supposed to be thrown out because the weak salt/sugar mix is the perfect hospitable medium for bacterial growth. I think that's it.

Theoretically, there IS a scientific reason for it, but I don't think there's a good reason to actually PAY for what is essentially salty sugarwater.

I'm lazy, so in our house we always have tiny containers full of pre-measured sugar and salt (Morton's Lite Salt has potassium in it), ready to mix into water for instant homemade pedialyte. When somebody's sick, the last thing I want to do is look up a recipe and screw around with measuring spoons.

[akeeyu]

Oh, and if you add a squeeze of lemon, it tastes like lemon-lime gatorade (ie, still not great, but tolerable)

[Erin]

I'm a big believer in steam myself. We also have a warm mist humidifier for in-room steam. But really the best thing was when we were able to teach our toddler how to blow. He learned early (before 18 mo), much to the amazement of everyone. I don't think he's gifted, I think my hubby did a good job of mimicking blowing, and it made sense to DS. Now he can even get his own handkerchief and blow into it. Much better all around.

[Kathy_B]

Got nothing for you on the snot issue; just wanted to say THANK YOU for admitting that you do not feel guilty for being a working mom. That is something I fought for many years until I gave myself permission to be OK with it. Truthfully, I would have been a MUCH WORSE mom if I'd had to stay home with the little felker all the time!

[Stephanie]

We're big fans of nosefrida too, but recently have hear of this one, that uses tissues as a filter, instead of those spongy filters that you have to buy for the nosefrida:

http://www.babycomfynose.com/index.html

anyone use this before?

[Stacey]

We swear by the Nosefrida! My son asks for it when he is stuffy and for a 2 1/2 year old to do that tells you even he knows it's working!

As for the little sponges you need to buy for it...when I ran out I just tore off a little piece of a brand new kitchen sponge and stuffed it in the hole :o)

[sweetpea]

Saline mist and nose frida (http://www.nosefrida.com/) = best combo ever.

[lwh]

@julie--Much like SLM, I have to sit on my DD, pinning her arms and legs under me. Then I hold her face with one hand to keep it still. I always feel a little bad about having to do it this way, but the benefits are so worth it. The advantage of the Nosefrida is that you don't put it inside their nose, so you won't have the bleeding issue you mentioned. And it really gets all the snot out.

[Tracy]

My doctor recommends a very cool room (like 60 degrees), steaming, vaporizer, and using Simply Saline (they make a baby version..shoots it straight up, and then the crap just oozes out!). We've had a noticeable drop in congestion/colds since we turned the heat off in my son's room (just double up on warm jammies) and started following the other advice. We never had any luck with the nosefrida or suctioning, and my doctor says that suctioning is only good for little infants anyway.