2.5 year old with possible sinus infection?

[Athora80]

My son has allergies we just don't know what to yet, he also might have obstructive sleep apnea. We won't have insurance until June sadly, so we have to wait on taking him in. For the last week he has been congested, once he got some of the mucous out thanks for ACV in juice. Last Friday he had a 99.1 temp but no real fever since. He doesn't really act like he doesn't feel well but he has said that sometimes when he eats the food will give him "owies" and it was bananas and peanut butter or honey. Yesterday I used saline in his nose and a big neon green booger came out! Doesn't green mean infection? Could it be a sinus infection? He is fine during the day but the congestion on top of his other usual issues are making sleeping really difficult. I do not want to have to give him antibiotics, we just got over battling thrush. I heard wild oil of oregano in some maple syrup can cure infections. Anyone have experience with it? I will take any other suggestions :) TIA!

[Cynthia Mosher]

It's been a few days. How is he doing now? 

[Marnica]

2 things.

99.1 is not a temp. That is within the normal range.

Green boogers doesn't necessarily mean a sinus infection either.

I would keep up with the saline and try and get as much gunk out as you can. Id also be giving him tons of vitamin c and probiotics and CLO. Does his face hurt? Does he have that pinched peaked look with puffy eyes? that usually is an indication of a possible sinus infection along with complaints of feeling crummy. Also sinus infections come after a cold or flu usually.

[Mama505]

My DS (just turned 3yo) keeps getting little bugs from other sniffly/sneezy kids at the library or park.  We have been giving him Emergen-C with some Echinacea tincture squirted in it.  Last time he really had the green goopy  nose and a hard time sleeping we did lots of ginger/honey/lemon tea, black elderberry syrup, and osha, as well as the Emergen-C/echinacea drink.  That seemed to work for us.  Are you trying to avoid honey b/c of potential allergies? 

Also, to help with sleeping when colds are keeping DS up at night, we use Rescue Remedy (http://www.bachflower.com/).  It is kind of expensive, but goes a long way, just a couple of drops at night under his tongue.  When he was a baby and having trouble cutting teeth, we used the spritz bottle version and sprayed a little over his head. 

Hope things are already on the up-and-up!

[Athora80]

I have never seen green boogers come out of his nose until the other day, they aren't green anymore but yellowish tinged with dried blood sometimes. He did have a little virus in February but it seems too late to be connected to that. I use the saline but he won't blow his nose so I am not sure how much it is helping. He eats raw local honey often, on a spoon or in smoothies but it doesn't seem to change his allergies much. Nighttime is bad and I already suspect enlarged tonsils and/or adenoids but can't take him to the doc until we have insurance. It seems like it is getting better though, even if a tiny bit at a time but he still isn't sleeping well, in fact he never has really. I bought some Zabrees Nighttime Cough Syrup with Vit C, Zinc, Honey and .5 mg of Melatonin. I have read conflicting things on Melatonin so I am hesitant to use it until I read a little more. He is getting his last 2 molars in and then he is done so I know that can factor in the not sleeping part. But he is so congested he can hardly breathe and I am losing sleep. My husband said to just give him benadryl but I really don't want to do that. I hope last night was a sign he is getting better.

[Athora80]

Oh and also, he has constant reddish/purple circles under his eyes and lately, frequent diaper rash. He is refusing to take his cherry animal parade vitamins because he is saying they burn his mouth. My nipples are getting sore again so I really hope the Thrush isn't also rearing it's ugly head. I suspect food allergies but I have to wait til June to get him tested.

[mightymama1976]

As a nutritional consultant I can tell you that #1 food responsible for the symptoms you are describing is dairy, ANY dairy. Eggs are also considered mucous forming, but they are not anywhere near to be as bad as dairy. So if it were my child, I would take the little one off of dairy completely, try to cook most foods from scratch because you'd be surprised how much dairy is present in processed food that you would never ever expect to find dairy (meat products being among them). If you still nurse your little one, then of course you too have to get it out of your diet.

Furthermore, if you are not gluten free already, I would highly suggest that. As an alternative health practitioner I can tell you that I could count of fingers of one hand  the number of people who appear to be truly OK with gluten. The rest who are still not gluten free are whether know they are not OK with gluten, but do not have the strength to get off of it because they are too addicted to it (we are usually pretty addicted to our food allergens, this is usually the food we eat daily because when we eat an allergen our body reacts to that by releasing stress hormones, which gives us a "kick") or in a complete denial about their allergy and are not open to information.

[mightymama1976]

Originally Posted by Athora80 

Oh and also, he has constant reddish/purple circles under his eyes and lately, frequent diaper rash. He is refusing to take his cherry animal parade vitamins because he is saying they burn his mouth. My nipples are getting sore again so I really hope the Thrush isn't also rearing it's ugly head. I suspect food allergies but I have to wait til June to get him tested.

Dark circles around eyes and skin rush are both the most obvious signs of a food allergy. Tests for food allergies are, unfortunately, notoriously unreliable (wouldn't it be nice if it was that easy?!), they are very high false negative. Even more advanced ones (like white blood cell allergy test, for which you'd have to pay out of pocket) are still very unreliable, very high false negative.

The only way to really pin point a problematic food is by doing elimination - re-challenge method. The way you do it is by eliminating a suspected food for 6-8 weeks COMPLETELY (if it managed to creep its way in somehow you start the 6-8 weeks over), then re-introducing it back and see what happens. Depending on the expression of the allergy in a particular individual it can take 5-30 days to re-gain the initial symptoms. For example, if dairy causes tantrums and meltdowns in a child, they will likely come back by day 3-5. If it is sinus congestion, skin rash/eczema or lupus it usually takes longer, around a month or sometimes even two. Keep in mind that allergy expressions can and do change sometimes. So look for everything unusual when you re-introduce a potential allergen: from all kinds of physical symptoms to all sorts of emotional ones (tantrums, aggression, meanness, meltdowns, anxiety, panic attack, etc). So watch for anything at all out of ordinary during the re-challenge stage and be sure to introduce only one potential allergen per month.

[Athora80]

Well, he stopped clearing his throat and the green boogies went away but the nighttime snoring/not being able to breathe on his back is still there. It almost seems like post nasal drip, he can sometimes sleep fine on his back maybe the first hour or 2 he is asleep but in the middle of the night, back comes the snoring and congested breathing.

I had actually started eliminating dairy last month but someone gave him cookies with dairy and then it was all downhill, he had some cheese, yogurt, etc the next week and that's when all his symptoms got worse. He was alot better without dairy, even after only a week and a half. I, myself and allergic and it has only gotten worse since I gave birth. I find when I cut it out, my acne completely disappears, I am not irritable, I sleep better, etc, etc, etc. Although, my GERD which I developed after I had my son didn't get better after a week and a half but I am sure I have lots of healing to do. You almost described all my emotional symptoms too! lol....if I consume dairy, I cannot handle stress, I have so much anxiety, memory loss, lack of focus, depression, chronic fatigue. I really want to cut it out for good but we are on vacation soon, think I will have to wait til we get back but try to avoid most of it. (it is so hard and I do feel addicted, ugh). I have been allergic since I was a child and my allergy has evolved and not for the better. I suspect my son inherited my allergies but hopefully just to dairy...