Baby Born with a Stuffy Nose

[HayLeol]

I want to post a note to let you know that my son was born with a stuffy nose. My husband and I both remember clearly in the delivery room that he was stuffy within a few minutes of being born. I thought it would go away in a few days and it didn't.  I have researched for months online trying to find an answer, only to find that "doctors say it is normal and he will grow out of it".  Sorry, this answer isn't good enough.  There's always a reason when something is out of the ordinary.  He is my fourth child and my other three have not had this.

I found a theory that it could perhaps be that he is dairy/lactose intolerant. I tried cutting out all dairy from my diet (he is breastfed) only to see his stuffiness slightly subside but never go away completely, and after a time, flare up again even though I wasn't having any dairy products at all, and nothing with dairy even in it (milk, by the way, is in practically everything!).

He was only stuffy at night, even waking around 4am unable to breathe.  I would sit up and hold him while he slept.  It was very frustrating because I knew there had to be an answer somewhere.  I have looked and looked and looked at what feels like hundreds of posts inquiring of the same thing without any helpful answer.

A friend suggested a theory.  So, three weeks ago I began taking a vitamin supplement called "Betain HCL" (I bought it from a local health food store) with every meal. This is to help level out my stomach acids.  This therefore means there is nothing wrong with my son, but with me that needed to be fixed.  Now that I've found a remedy (very easy remedy mind you) his stuffiness has completely dissipated, which is the first time since being in this world.  He is now five months old.

The reason it may seem that a baby may grow out of it, is because when you stop breastfeeding the baby is no longer affected by your own body's digestion.

[Asiago]

Just a thought but overly-aggressive nose suctioning can cause trauma to the tissue. It can also make it difficult for baby to latch to the breast.

I don't know if this is your baby's issue but it may be something to investigate.

[HayLeol]

I was not able to suction anything from my son.  He was born stuffy.  He would have a hard time breathing at night, mostly.  But it wasn't that there was anything really there for me to even see to try and suction.  So I didn't even try to.  I'm curious to your suggestion.  Would you explain more what you're encouraging me to investigate?  Thanks.
 

[LilyTiger]

I think the PP might have been referring to the aggressive suctioning done on some infants at birth.  My daughter had a lot of mucus when she was born, both in her lungs and in her sinuses.  She was aggressively suctioned by the medical staff at the hospital and was very stuffy for the next few weeks.  It lasted about a month.  So my daughter did in fact grow out of it.  Many babies, even those not suctioned at birth, will have a buildup of mucus which makes them stuffy.  Most do grow out of it by one to two months.  Since it took as long as five months for your son to get better, that indicates a different problem.  It's possible that if he was suctioned at birth it could do longer term damage, I suppose.  But it sounds like your particular problem has been resolved. 

[HayLeol]

Thank you LilyTiger for this clarification.  My reason for my post was just to give an alternate remedy if someone was struggling with the same thing with their new baby.  I was quite frustrated that everywhere I read said that it was just normal and the baby would grow out of it.  I've not heard of aggressive suctioning causing a baby to be stuffy for a couple of months and then grow out of it.  It's amazing how much there is still to learn with each new baby. 

It's possible that the baby doesn't have any issues relating to their being allergic but in fact the mother's digestion (as in my case).  I hope what I've learned will help someone else.