Vicious snot!

[sugarbeet]

Hi mamas,

I thought I had the "child with a cold" thing down until two weeks ago when DS, 22 mos, got some congestion. After a while he developed a runny nose with green mucus and sometimes brown. His cheeks are red from wiping the mucus across them and little pimples have appeared where he rubs the mucus in the most (this is when I wasn't able to intervene!) Now, his nose has become dry, crusty and maybe even slightly inflamed and bloody inside. He cries out of discomfort but luckily will get distracted easily like "Ehhhhhhhhhhh! ... *makes helicopter sounds while pretending to be a helicopter* .. Ehhhhhhhh ...") but I am getting worried that the mucus is actually pus now from an infection in his little nose, and that he is inadvertently spreading the infection around his face (one spot is particularly raw and weepy). His previous colds have had clear or whitish mucus -- this is the most toxic one I've seen!

Have any of you seen mucus as vile as this? Did you go to the doctor? And how did you end up treating it, if at all?

Thanks in advance ...
Patty

[pbjmama]

It really sounds like a sinus infection to me although I'm confused about if he is still having the colored snot. I would do saline in the nose for sure to help with the pain, possibly oral pain reliever too depending on pain level. And we would go into the doc for further evaluation.