Congested Baby & Treatments for Her Cold Virus

We all caught a cold. This is always what happens when my son plays with other kids (as all children are disease vectors, right?). But to keep him away from everyone because someone has a runny nose? Not worth it. I didn’t figure that SweetPea and I would get sick too, but that, also, is a no-brainer.

Can you tell what I do when I’m in bed with her? Knit, read, and work on my laptop? Guilty.

She’s a mere nine weeks old and so I really hate to see her congested, and snorting when she nurses. Thankfully I am nursing so at least she can get some antibodies from me, since she probably got the virus from me!

After consulting doctor google, and my own med staff, here’s my brief assessment of how to help your congested nursing little one. Please add what you’ve found to be helpful!

1) Nurse nurse nurse.

Your breastmilk has the best medicine in it. Try to offer nursing as much as you can, especially if baby is having trouble staying latched due to congestion. Breastmilk has healing amazing qualities (insert all the medical benefits of breastmilk here).

2) Vaporizer.

Warm misting vaporizer can help clear baby’s passage ways. These can also be bacterial breeding grounds. So when you use it, clean it out and don’t let water sit in it for too long. Also, best to use if baby is in the room with you. It will spray mist, so don’t put it on a wood table without a towel.

3) Nasal saline drops + aspirator.

I hate this thing, and I hate these things. Both parts. SweetPea hates the saline drops and I feel like I’m mangling her nasal passageway and leaving permanent damage. There’s a little article (and video, I think) on BabyCenter that shows how to do it properly. Of course, even having watched it about 5 times, I still don’t feel like I’m doing it correctly. Check out the thingy here.

4) Breastmilk in the nose.

I haven’t tried this, but have heard it can work to help loosen up the mucus.

5) Snuggle.

AA is pretty sure this is a medically based treatment for a poor little sick snuggle bug. So we’ve been snuggling a lot. Of course, she’s also not made a BM in over a week, so we’re just anxiously awaiting her blowout. More on constipation after she actually has one!