Nursing a babe with a super stuffy nose

[Laurski]

(Mods--I didn't know if this should go here or in breastfeeding, but it seemed more baby related to me.  Please move if in incorrect place!)

My poor little Bean (5 months) has some sort of a nasty bug.  Went to the doc today after she ran a fever all weekend (including a temp of 103.3 at one point--scary!), and doc swabbed her nose to test for the flu and RSV.  As you can imagine, the Bean is less than comfortable, and the worst of it is that she's having a really hard time eating.  This afternoon it was so bad that I ended up feeding her some expressed milk with a syringe.  She's nursing now, since the mucus seems to have broken up a little bit with her being carried upright for a few hours, but I'm wondering if anyone has any advice for helping her when she's really blocked up?  Any tips for nursing?

(Oh, and we have a humidifier in the bedroom and a NoseFrida that I've been using, but she really, really hates the NoseFrida (sometimes she cries so much when I use it that her nose seems worse!) and I don't want to overuse it b/c I don't want to give her a nosebleed...)

Thanks!

[Knitting Mama]

So frustrating! If you use baby saline spray first, it will make the Nose Frida more effective, and also help prevent drying and cracking.

[whozeyermamma]

nak

nurse w/ babe almost sitting up & nurse in bathroom w/ hot shower running to make steam ...

good luck!!!

[karen1968]

Try squirting breastmilk up her nose, either straight from the breast (I can not do this!), or express and use a dropper. Breast milk has antimicrobial qualities in addition to it just helping loosen the mucus.

I hope she is feeling better soon!

[McGucks]

Agree with the saline spray, though my sweetie pie hates it.  He has allergies despite being EBF until 6.5 mo.  When he is too clogged to nurse and saline isn't doing the trick, we do use some Benedryl.  I don't love using it, but the stuff works.  We also take a long shower together in a hot bathroom, which helps it all drain.  Being clogged really impacts his sleep--he was up every hour last night.  We are TIRED!  Good luck!

[Laurski]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions!

I'd forgotten to mention that we do use saline drops (which oh my goodness, does she hate!  poor little babe!)

Great ideas about nursing upright with the shower running, and about the breastmilk (I definitely think I'll need to go the dropper route...not coordinated enough to spray it up there! lol).

After an awful night's sleep she's finally sleeping in the carseat (which is hooked into a swing thing).  I think being more upright is helping her. 

Oops...she's up.  Thanks!

[neonalee]

DS has had a persistent sinus infection since Oct, it's just now finally going away.  (We did see the doc twice and an ENT).  We used saline daily, sometimes twice a day - morning and night.  Sometimes we would lie DS on his side and use it like a netti pot.  Oh does he hate that (and the nose freida) but we kept doing it because otherwise he couldn't eat and couldn't sleep.  Sometimes I'd nearly be in tears because he was wailing so hard, I felt like a terrible mom.  We discussed with his doc (she's more natural than mainstream) and she said keep doing what we're doing.  Sometimes we gave him lots of saline then either carried him upright or gave him tummy time after to help everything run out.  Also have a humidifier and lots of baths in the warm bathroom (the only time he had a fever was after a particularly long time in the very warm shower and then staying in the steamy room longer).  Good luck!  This was such a long horrible experience for us.  And now we're getting teeth ;)

Honestly, I know it's coincidental, but it feels like it was the ENT visit that helped it finally clear up.  She stuck a long thin rubbery tube up his nose to look around and I swear he sneezed out every bit of snot he had!

[angela67j]

My LO had a stuffy nose from birth on and off till about 4 months....really not sure why (C-secction?)!  When it was real bad we had a routine for BF I would turn the shower on and put menthol bath in it I would let it get real steamy before we went in there....in the meantime I would put a few drops of saline in her nose.....then we would sit in the bathroom (I didn't give her a bath at that time) playing and she loved hearing the echo in my bathroom...after about 15 min or so we would come out and I would put Little noses (a natural vapor rub) on her and on my neck....we would rock and I would hold her propped high on a pillow and nurse.....I would also rock her for her nap and if she seemed to have trouble I would use the Little noses on my wrist and hold it in front of her nose while she slept.  I tried the nasal aspirator but it just seemed to really upset her and I never really got that much out.  This all would help for the most part....Hope your LO feels better soon.  Also I love the putting the breast milk in the nose didn't think of that...I used my breast milk to clear up an eye infection when LO was a newborn GREAT STUFF!!