Sorry there hasn’t been a blog post for a while, but the whole house had caught the dreaded ‘lurgy’ and we’ve been pretty poorly. I am currently spending the days and nights smelling of ‘Eau du Vapour Rub’, surrounded by snotty tissues and sounding like a man.
My other half and I both had stomach flu last week and luckily Toby didn’t have that, but he did catch a cold and has now given it to us. Who says you have to appreciate and love everything your kids give to you, eh?
It’s been a bit of a mare really. It’s his first time being unwell so he doesn’t know what to do with himself and, quite frankly, we weren’t sure what to do with him either! How do you get snot out of your baby’s nose? At 1.30am on the second night, we were a bit desperate and so resorted to the internet. Let me tell you what didn’t work for us; blowing up one of your baby’s nostrils, so the snot comes out of the other. It just irritated him even more. So, what have we been doing to help?
Little And Often Offerings
If their noses are blocked, they may find it difficult to eat and drink as well as they usually would. Feed them little and often and continue to offer them fluids to keep them hydrated. It could be a long week but it will absolutely get easier.
Dealing With All The Snot (nice!)
We decided to go to our local pharmacy to try and get a bulb syringe to help clear the endless torrent of mucous that was coming out of his little nose. They didn’t have them and so suggested that we use a nasal saline spray as this would help to “dry it up”. In my opinion, it didn’t make that much of a difference and I ended up buying a ”NUK nasal aspirator” from Boots. Now, they’re not the easiest things to use, just because babies don’t want to keep still and have something shoved up their nose, but it does work. Should your little one really detest it, there’s no surer sign of love than sucking it out yourself! Though that is a bit gross.
Vapour Rub
The next thing I would recommend is Snuffle Babe, the equivalent of our Vicks. I absolutely love the smell of this and it works wonders. Rub a bit on baby’s chest and soles of their feet (I’m told it helps) and, if your baby has one, I always rub any excess on their comforter or muslin. If you don’t want to put it directly on or near your baby, dissolve some in some boiling water and leave it to steam in their room.
We’ve also been making the most of the steam from our showers by bringing Toby into the bathroom with us and shutting the door. The shower lets off plenty of nice, warm steam and that always seemed to help shift some of the mucous around too.
Tipping The Cot
We placed books under the feet at one end and this helped no end with helping Toby to breathe a bit better. It just meant he wasn’t lying completely flat and that all of that horrible mucous didn’t all fall straight to the back of his throat.
Keeping An Eye On Your Poorly One
I know colds aren’t that serious but if your baby does develop a temperature it’s worth just keeping a little eye on them. Luckily Toby didn’t get too much of a temperature but when he did I just gave him a little bit of Calpol which really did help and it even helped him settle more than he had been over the last couple of days.
It’s so rubbish that we can’t cure colds but we can help to ease their discomfort when they’re poorly. If your baby is under 3 months old, it’s always worth getting them checked over by a doctor, even if you think it is just a cold. Mostly these kinds of things are a lot of guess work and always end up being a process of elimination.
Fingers crossed if you’ve got a poorly baby that they’re feeling better soon! Have you got any top tips on how you help your little ones?