on-going congestion in 6 month old

[71newmom]

My 6 month old son has been congested for about 6 weeks now, with some days being worse than others. I am having to suction his nose multiple times daily and I can hear all the congestion in his nose when he is nursing and sometimes while he is sleeping. He doesn't have a cold or any other symptoms. I did start him on brown rice cereal at 4.5 months on the advice of his ped. - my milk supply was low and I was having problems bringing it up to where it needed to be, and my son had actually lost a few ounces over a 2 wk period. Anyway, normally I would not have started cereal so early...can congestion be a sign of an allergy or hypersensitivity, and if so, I thought the rice cereal was the least likely to be allergenic - we do not have a history of allergies in our family. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[mamafish9]

It could definitely be a reaction to the rice, the timing sounds right. The way to tell is to stop the rice and see if the congestion clears. Many little babies can't handle grains of any kind. I'd go back to exclusively breastfeeding if you can - did you try herbs and things to bring up your milk supply? Oats worked really well for me. Have you talked to a lactation consultant? They can be really helpful with supply issues. Not all pediatricians (maybe most, sigh) are well informed on breastfeeding.

If you can't get your supply up, you could try other foods - many use meat broth as a first food, we tried avocado. When babies are just starting to eat, though, they don't get many calories from the food they take in. And if you are getting some food reactions, that's probably a sign to approach food slowly.

[kjbrown92]

And what kind of rice cereal? Some brands add soy to it.