My baby is always sick - what can i do?

[pishajane]

She is nearly 6mo now. She came down with a terrible cold at 3mos, and was wheezing a lot - the ped said it was bronchialitis, but due to her age, size and the fact that she was still nursing ok, he said not to do anything.
Well, she seemed to get over it after a few weeks, but has never fully recovered i believe. She gets a badly blocked nose, particularly at night, which means she wakes up a lot because she cant breathe, and is still wheezing esp after any kind of tummy time.
Right now it's pretty bad - she has a cough again which sounds 'wet', her mucus is green and im pretty sure she's got bronchialitis again. This will be the 3rd bad cold she's had and she's not yet 6mos!
Is there anything i can do without resorting to abx and asthma meds? The ped did mention the asthma possibility, and i really dont know whether its the right way to go or not. I dont want dd to be in pain, but i also dont want her to become dependent on drugs so soon!
She's exclusively BF'd, size-wise she's a whopper, and generally she's a really happy, smiley baby. Im just not sure what to do...
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

[allnaturalmom]

Maybe you could consider putting her on a good infant probiotic. My dd had to be on one very young (for different reasons, though) and I believe it made a big difference. Also, since she is ebf, maybe you could increase your immune system. This is what our hcp recommended for me at that time. Double dose of clo, lots of vit c, very healthy diet, etc....
gl
hth
Hope your babe is feeling better real soon!

[mommy2maya]

babies need to breath. the longer she is having wheezing and bad breathing that can be stopped or helped with abx or nebulizer, the bigger chance that she will end up with scarred lungs and windpipe, which will in turn make the breath all that much worse.


I would treat this very aggressively.

[karika]

nak so this be 2 the point.
I am not a health professional,

I would suggest at this time to avoid giving the child any vaccinations. Come to the vaccinations/ I'm not vaccinating forum for lots of info in the stickies. Remove all forms of dairy, gluten & soy from your diet. This is a classic food allergy/ intolerance IMO. It will take at least 2 weeks to remove all dairy form your body, and 6 months for the gluten, but you will see improvement before 6 months. If not, then remove eggs and nuts from your diet. If you can, remove all these at the same time, but only if it does not overwhelm you to do so. Since it is a respiratory thing, it may be eggs and nuts before it is the others. As I said, I am not a professional. Speaking with a ND, allergist or nutritionist that is pro bf and understands food intolerances would help probably. But to save you money, you can just tweak your diet on your own.
If you did vaccinations, this increases the likelihood of an allergic reaction to egg and nut (both are used in the production of vaccines on some level) by an astronomical number according to what I have read, and they are usually to do with breathing. Gluten also affects the same way. Many people eat gluten, but the truth is no human can properly digest it according to what I have read.

I agree with a pp about strengthening your immune system. Mega dose on vitamin d3 (I use NOW brand). You can even use the drops for baby. rule of thumb is 35 IU per pound of body weight, and at least double it if sick. Most people are very deficient in this since 'they' have been telling us the sun is dangerous for years. Take vitamin c in abundance, and eat foods high in vitamin c to help with the absorption. Make sure you are eating organic as much as possible and for sure the dirty dozen. Make sure the water you drink is not fluoridated and chlorinated, use a filter.
Take a probiotic and open a capsule, put a bit on your finger and let baby suck it off. Especially if baby has ever had an antibiotic, or you did while pregnant, delivering or post pregnancy.... Avoid ones with FOS, and strep strains.

baby rolled off, is why it got long... hth

[Marnica]

While yes, I agree that the baby needs to breath, to treat aggressively with antibiotics is not seeing the forset through the trees IMO. Besides bronchiolitis is usually caused by a viral infection. A nebeulizer may be helpful however if the baby is wheezing.

I agree with PP, that this very well may be a food intolerance issue.

I would cut out gluten, dairy, soy , and corn from your diet. Stay off all for a good month (I know it's not easy, Ive been there!) Also be careful as many things have hidden ingredients...you need to be a super label reader . If you see improvement, then start adding 1 thing back at a time. If after 2 weeks, there is no increase in sxs, than it's most likely not that that is causing the problem. Do this with all of those and if you see an increase in sxs, than you know your LO has issues with that food. Not suggesting you don't treat the acute infection, but if the underlying issue if an allergy/intolerance, than the problem will just recur. If you do need abx this time around make sure to take probiotics yourself and give directly to the baby. Choose a hypoallergenic brand designed for infants. Also work on boosting baby's immune system with vit c. Not sure how great your diet is, but if you are not eating nutritious food and eating processed stuff, so is your baby. Good luck mama

[mommy2maya]

Given the history with bronchiolitis, chances are this is not food related. Wheezing is serious business especially for such a small infant. It is one of the 'bring baby in immediately' things for my laid back peds.

[sept04mama]

Some people have asthma. That is not anything to be ashamed of. I have it and am glad for modern medicine and my son is already outgrowing it at age 5 but had a nebulizer as a baby/toddler.

[Marnica]

Originally Posted by mommy2maya

Given the history with bronchiolitis, chances are this is not food related. Wheezing is serious business especially for such a small infant. It is one of the 'bring baby in immediately' things for my laid back peds.

My DS had a simliar hx with bronchiolitis, since we figured out that it WAS food related, he is SOOOOOOOOOOO much better. So like I said before, I am not suggesting OP ignore wheezing or the acute problem. Acute issues have underlying reasons....the underlying reason could very well be food related. Food intolerances are often at the root of ashtma as well.

[pishajane]

Thanks everyone for weighing in. A little bit more info might be helpful...

Dd has never been vaxed, we drink filtered water, take clo and bo, drink raw milk, eat pretty healthy.
I will certainly be taking her to the ped, but I wanted to know common causes of constant illness in babies, as well as advice for alternatives to mainstream meds. Thanks for all your advice, I have a few ideas now for what I can do.

I think I'll take dairy and eggs out and see how she goes to start. She does have mild eczema, so you're probably right with the food allergies.
Can I give dd the clo directly or should I just ramp up my own dose? I'll look into some infant probiotics, anything else that will really help her immune system? I should probably hold off on giving her any solids yet is that right?

[tanyalynn]

DS got sick a lot when he was little, it's taken a lot of linking subtle symptoms to start seeing things clearer.

For us:
--vitamin D was probably very low, I was slow to see this one
--vitamin C helped reduce the severity of colds a lot; I don't think it did anything to reduce the number of colds, but he didn't get so stuffed up at night that he couldn't sleep... when he was EBF, I could take a lot and it would help him, once he started solids, it worked better to give it to him directly
--zinc, I was probably pretty darn low, finding an older version of a nutrition book may help, some of the old ones link stuff like stretch marks in mom, and mood stuff like depression/anxiety--they run in my family, most of my family has the same susceptibilities and we end up low in similar nutrients
--probiotics weren't a big factor for us, but they are for some and are an easy thing, just find a good quality infant probiotic
--eliminating food intolerances seems to help quite a few kids--didn't help DS, he got sick just as often after we cut those out, but if we hadn't cut them out, I think it would've just been that much harder to get him healthier

If you can find a knowledgeable healthcare provider, that may help--good ones can link things you wouldn't consider and hone in on the things that will be most helpful.

re: cod liver oil, I think the change in levels in your milk will be slow, so if you want to make a big impact short-term, you'd need to give it directly to your LO. I'd really suggest considering whether you and your LO could be more D deficient than A deficient, took me a long time to realize that with us. I should've been giving the kids D + CLO. I wouldn't expect giving your LO cod liver oil directly to reduce the number of illnesses--it may be good nutritionally, I'm not sure if it would counter-balance adding in solids before your LO is ready (unless your LO is ready now). DS's colds got more severe after he started solids.