1st time mommy, 1st baby's cold...questions.

[Ldavis24]

DD is just 6 months and has her first cold. Actually everyone in the house has the cold too so it makes it even more fun.
She has no significant fever, slightly elevated and while she is extremely conjested she is generally still playful and perky although a little bit more cranky and clingy than usual (me too).

We have her humidifer on high in our bedroom so for naps she is getting the benefit of that but would it be worth it to add some eucalyptus(sp) oil to it? I am wary of vicks because of the article I read about how it can in fact harm babies or something like that?

What else can I possibly do to ease her and my misery? She really could use a bit more help and I don't think what we have going on warrants a trip to the doctor to be told that she has a cold and to keep her hydrated and use a humidifer.

Soooo a mentholated product like vicks?
A natural thing like eucalyptus oil?
Something wonderful I have never considered. I made myself homemade chicken soup yesterday from bones leftover and I know that is good for me but she is still entirely EFB and hasn't started solids yet and besides I don't know if that would be a good thng for her to eat a little bit of with all the different ingredients including rice and seasonings.
So any suggestions would be so greatly appreciated! Thanks mamas!

[Qbear'smama]

A homeopath recommended Olbas oil to me when DD was a baby, but she suggested I mix a few drops into DDs' baby lotion and rub that on her chest since the oil alone is too strong for a baby. Since then, we love it, I now rub it on her feet to help a cough (it really does) and they also make Olbas oil ointment which I rub on her chest instead of Vicks (again, I think it's too strong for a baby). You can find it in a health food store. This is what it looks like:

http://www.florahealth.com/flora/hom...ucts/R1001.htm

Other than that, we also got this amazing nasal aspirator that has a tube that you suck and the snot goes into a recepticle (not in your mouth, don't worry...), I can't find a picture of it online but anything like that works WAY better than a bulb aspirator. Other than that, Bfing as much as she wants, of course...Good luck, mama!!!

[Megamus]

I didn't want to be a view and not respond, although I don't have an informed answer re: the eucalyptus.

Xander had his first cold at 8 days old (*shudder*), and the best thing I found for him was to keep his head elevated all the time so things could drain.

I hope other people give you suggestions...(ETA: Oh look! Someone did while I was posting! Yay!)

Oh! I think we gave him saline drops when he got really bad, but they kind of suck. I think they worked a bit, but he got so upset when we gave them that it was a last resort only.

I hope you all get well soon!

[Qbear'smama]

The aspirator we have is kinda like this one, works SO well if you could find something like this, it really made a difference for us, slight gross-out factor but:

http://www.peapods.com/browse.cfm/4,968.html

[bebebradford]

Also, vaporizers help a lot. I bought the KAZ Vick's one.. you can add the special vicks liquid to the top. Really makes a difference.

[askew]

Hot showers help my LO. Meaning I take a hot hot shower and have her in her bouncy seat in the steamed up bathroom. We also give homeopathy to our LO but our Ped is also a homeopath. We have been giving a remedy for cough as our colds settled in our lungs. We get the Boiron 30C blue tubes to match symptoms, and I dissolve the pellets in a bit of water for DD. She is 5 months old.

[kamane18]

Originally Posted by askew

Hot showers help my LO. Meaning I take a hot hot shower and have her in her bouncy seat in the steamed up bathroom.

In addition to this, I SWEAR by Vick's baby rub (the baby one, not the vapor rub) on the feet at night. Then cover with socks or footed pajamas. Really helped us. Few drops of peppermint oil in the bath helped too.

[Ldavis24]

thanks for the info ladies. I had no idea such fancy nasal aspirators existed. We stole the one from out hospital room and have hardly ever used it. My ped told me that we should never use an aspirator, but I don't think he meant anything but the traditional type!

We have used the saline drops with DD since she was newborn because we have very dry air and didn't have a humidifier at first. Now she absolutely hates them but I can usually sneak them into her nose if I do it fast enough

We also did the hot shower this morning and it really helped. We will do it again tonight...

How do you keep your LO elevated at night? DD can crawl and rolls like crazy and sleeps on our bed with us, so I don't think towels rolled up or a pillow would do much of anything

[Icehockey18]

My 6 mo just got over his first cold. We did the hot shower thing every day and I kept him elevated. To keep him elevated at night I craddled his neck and head under my arm and then would lay down next to him. I also kind of tilted him to face me so his nose could drain. Luckily he was never really stuffy, his nose just ran a lot. But he did like being elevated over flat on his back while he was sick.
Feel better

[Kelly1101]

One good thing-- if you're sick, your baby will get over being sick easier, because you're steadily passing the antibodies you're making against the illness, to her through your milk.

Emma and I both had a cold when she was about five months, and she was sooo much happier sleeping kind of upright laying on me, during the day. I would fix up the table beside the rocker with anything I needed (hot drink in thermos, cold ice water, book, TV remote, some good soup or citris snack or crackers), and just let her nap for as long as I could stand to sit and rock in the chair-- it got me rest I needed, too.