Nose suctioning troubles-HELP!!!

[Debobu]

HI

My 20 month old has a virus now with very think nose mucus. The Dr told us to make sure we suction it as much as we can so the lungs stay clear, etc.
Our son is absolutely terrified when we try to do it- we use the nose Frieda and it is a horrible experience for all of us involved.
I am not talking about a toddler being a little upset and fighting the suctioning and then when it is over going back to playing ,laughing, etc- he is in sheer terror and wailing while I hold him down and my husband suctions. He is shaking, screaming and then hyperventilating and looking like he can't breath from the stress!!!! Tonight we tried before bed and my husband said he is not doing it again...
We have tried talking him about it, showing him done to us, etc, but he is still afraid. Now he won't even let us wipe the snot or put saline up his nose (which we got him used to)-he seems pretty traumatized!

What do we do?
Any techniques we can use? Better devices? Any alternatives?
Can we get away with not suctioning at all? -Don't want it to turn into something worse either... We just went through croup and it was horrible!!!

WE are also doing steam in the bath, humidifier and homeopathics....

Any ideas or suggestions?

Thanks!!!

[LadyCatherine185]

I would teach him how to blow his nose and have him blow it. If he is scared of tissues, etc have him blow into the sink or bathtub. Lots of steamy mist from a hot shower, etc to help it flow. Also, we had great luck with the baby vicks (basically eucalyptis rub).

[Debobu]

Great suggestion to blow his nose on the sink!!!
Will try that tomorrow!!!!
Thanks

[pantrygirl]

We started having our daughter blow her nose with our help at 20 months as well.
At first she thought that meant, put tissue on nose and blow air out of mouth but soon she got the hand of it.
As for the nosefrida, at first she loved it but as she got older she did not like it. Still we use it but we started an approach where she holds the nosefrida with us and that has made it much easier. We also allowed her to use it (clean) on her dolls and that's made a world of difference regarding fights. Unfortunately we found you need to do these things when they are well and not feeling all lousy with congestion.

Hope the congestion passes soon.

[LadyCatherine185]

we started teaching DS to blow his nose accidently, actually. around 8-9 months old we were doing a sort of sniffy-blow thing to be a little "pig" and he started doing it. So whenever he was congested after that we'd hold up a tissue and tell him to be a pig.

[butterfly_mommy]

My son had the same reaction to the nosefredia. It was horrible so awful trying to suction him, thank god it works really well so it did get tons of mucus but I hated doing it. DS has had really bad bronchiolitis sp? twice and when he gets sick it seems his lungs are most vulnerable So I do try to keep him desnotted.

Anyway At around 22 mons or so he was sick and didn't want me to use the nosefredia so I told him that he had to learn to blow his nose or I would have to use it. he caught on to blowing his nose quickly, i would put his hand to my nose and blow out and show him what I meant. Now when he is sick and I need to clear his nose I aks him if he wants to blow his nose or use the Nosefredia and he always chooses blow his nose and it has been great!