Baby got flu?

[taysty]

Recently my 4 month old baby got a blocked nose and her breathing louder than before. Also after her bottle she will have mucous like milk colour substance coming out from her mouth when I burp her. We brought her to dr and he said maybe she has got a slight flu. However, the dr said since she is still so young unless very serious he suggest not giving medicine.

Is there anything I can do to make her feel better? She is not in her top form and is being more cranky than usual. Not drinking as good too.
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[carang]

you could get a humidifier... other than that, your dr is right... there's not much you can do about it.

it's a terrible feeling when your child is sick. it's a feeling of complete helplessness.... especially when there really isn't anything you can do. and even when there is, you still feel awful watching your child suffer.

both of my kids have had fevers for 3 days now....so i know how you feel.

 

[taysty]

Thank you Cara. Hope your kids get well soon. Oh, regarding the humidifier, how it helps on the flu?
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[carang]

it helps with scratchy throats and stuffed nose.... Like when you are sick and have a hot shower, you feel better because the steam clears you up.
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[taysty]

Thank you. Will look into that.
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[elle]

you can also get a saline nasal spray made especially for babies (do NOT use the adult version on a young infant) that will help clear her nose. it can be used several times a day and our pediatrician recommends this rather than the suction bulb to remove musus from baby's nose.

 

[nicolejoy]

For viral infections, any medicine is just to help with the symptoms. The best thing is just the saline nasal spray as Elle mentioned to help clear the nose (if you get it at the pharmacy make sure you ask for the infant one - it must be saline ONLY and a lot of the adult ones have other medications in them that are not good for infants).

If the baby has a fever or is obviously in pain, you can give some infant panadol - but it doesn't fight the flu, it just helps them to feel a little better.

If the congestion gets a lot worse, you can take them back to the doctor - there are decongestants that you can use for more serious colds, but if it's just mild, it's probably not worth it.

 

[taysty]

@ nicolejoy & Elle
Thank you both. I nearly used the saline for my contact lens on my baby thinking all saline is the same.

Yes, I won't want to make another trip and feel helpless as the dr will say there's nothing much that I can do.
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[nicolejoy]

You can check and if the contact lens solution is ONLY saline and NOTHING else, then by all means, use it I would But sometimes they have other things in there, not JUST salts and water.

If you have no saline, I sometimes wash the nose quite "wetly" in the bath, carefully splashing water around the nose. It's not as good as squirting saline up there but it can help to loosen the mucous, and I know it's actually less uncomfortable for my six month old too. She'd much prefer me to splash water all over her face than to squirt it up her nose

 

[carang]

i think i'd prefer you to splash my face rather than squirt water up my nose, too! LOL!