[captain optimism]

My poor baby caught a cold this weekend. He has been having trouble sleeping, and then we had a lot of people over for the holiday. So he got a bug. He was really sick and miserable, stuffed up, post-nasal drip, couldn't sleep lying down, didn't want to nurse as much as usual.

My MIL, who was visiting, told me the doctor would say to give him half a baby aspirin. (!!!!) (Nope, she didn't say to do that!) She also suggested that we smear his upper lip and nose with A & D ointment. I told her that A & D is cod liver oil. My dh said he always hated that part of getting sick, when she used to smear his lip with A & D.

My mom said I should feed my nearly-8-month old rice cereal "to settle his stomach." He is eating solids, but is still mostly bfing for most of his calories. My mom doesn't like that. I got mad at her. I said, "why would something that he finds difficult to digest when he is well be better for him than breastmilk, which is totally digestible and has antibodies in it to help him fight illness?" Just another part of my mom's ongoing, relentless noodging about everything but especially about food. I'm not sure why but she is kind of obsessed with me introducing more foods. (Of course i work 9-5 and my dh takes care of the baby, so he is the one who actually feeds the solid foods, but my mom conveniently forgets that in every conversation.)

My grandmother--okay, it was really really dumb of me to worry my hard-of-hearing, 93-year-old grandmother with the information that the baby had a cold. I am really a dummy sometimes.

She has nothing to do but worry, and she is a total worry-wart. Somehow keeping all your mental faculties into your 90s is a good way to have more brains to occupy with worries. She even worries about the weather where I live. She wanted me to say that the baby wasn't fussy and was still eating. Nope, I said, he's sick! Of course he's crying and cranky.

Poor little guy. I wish I was home with him. He really seems to prefer me when he's sick.

(I then phoned my dad to tell him that he should try to get my grandmother not to worry about the baby, that I felt bad that I had worried her. My dad wanted to know whether I was getting sick, too. So I worried him by saying, yeah. Though I don't know, I wasn't too well last week either, maybe I gave the baby this cold?

Anyway, did you ever get any goodadvice from your relatives about treating a sick baby? Or have any really good advice for us? I wish I had taken a day off of work today to recover and be with the baby. If he's sick tomorrow again and I continue to feel cruddy I might. But I'm hoping we are both on the mend...

 

[1jooj]

My mom always recommends a vaporizer, and I do think this is soothing. Also, lots of fluids. She did like to try and push me into giving ds water back when he was bfing exclusively, but that was her own lack of info about bf.

Other than that, my mom is a big proponent of not demanding much of sick babies, and keeping them warm and holding them a lot. I have to give her credit for that.

 

[mrzmeg]

In my family, Vicks rub is the all-around cure for colds. My ds had a summer cold that he had a hard time getting rid of...he was sleeping very badly, having trouble bf'ing, etc. I balked at the vicks and tried eucalyptus (sp?) essential oil, but it didn't do a thing. I finally gave in and tried the vicks. The first few nights, I just put it on my chest (since we cosleep) and I noticed immediately that he was breathing better. I put a little on his chest one night and, the next morn, lo and behold, the cold was gone

.

So, that remedy of my grandma's worked, but don't ask me about her idea that castor oil can cure stomach aches

 

[dlb]

My grandma always tells me not to worry so much, that my kids are strong and healthy, and I take really good care of them, and they'll be better soon. Wish someone around you could give such advice. Maybe I will

!

Sorry he is sick, and I hope you fight it off!

DeAnna

 

[AnnaReilly]

DD and I had the luck of getting a cold (her first) while visiting my mom. My mom sent us both to bed so we could sleep and nurse for 2 full days. She brought me food and juice and changed DD as needed. She was awesome!!!!

 

[sohj]

In our family, if you got a cold, you went to bed and drank a lot of liquids and didn't have any (cow's) milk products. Colds come, colds go.

When my little one gets a cold (has had 3, though he's really healthy...we live in NYC and I don't try and keep him from anything so he's bound to get a cold or two), I hold him as long as he wants, let him nurse as much as he wants, let him sleep as much as he wants, and ......

warning, gross-out ahead

...... I keep hankies handy to spit into when I suck the mucus out of his poor little nose.

(......there are some things that you do only for your own child........)

And I am not there all the time. Husband and Nanny do all of the above EXCEPT the nursing and nose-sucking.

However, he hasn't been really, really sick on a workday yet. If he ever is (ie: doesn't start clamoring at lesat once to go outside

), I will call in sick just so he can nurse all day if he wants.

 

[chellemarie]

Way to freak out Gramma, captain. LOL

I can't recall any "advice" regarding colds, but I can tell you this about my grandmother.

When I had my first, I was worried about milk supply and doing everything just right (I was the first person I knew as an adult to breastfeed.) So, my mother calls her mother and then calls me. "Grandma B says to listen to soothing music. That's what they do on farms for the cows so they'll make more milk. She also said to drink a beer. It helps you make milk. Eat some garlic, too. That makes milk sweet so baby will eat more."

Not bad advice, really. Anyway, while visiting when ds2 was a newbie, my grandmother remarked that I "might not want to eat that. It has garlic. Won't that upset the baby?"

Uh, you told me to eat garlic when I nursed DS1.

"No, I didn't. I did? Surely I didn't. Really?"

Yes. And you told me to drink a beer.

"NOoo! I did?! Where did you get that?"

So take advice from my grandmother very lightly. And never accuse her of being helpful, either. LOL

 

[Kundalini-Mama]

hehe, no one in my family or dh's family gives us advice. i guess they got tired of me quoting articles and giving statistics.

which is wonderful and if i ever have any questions i come here anyway.

I, on the otherhand, have some advice. put some breastmilk up his nose. i am not able to squeeze it up there from the tap, so i squirt some in a cup and use an eye dropper to get it in there. just a drop or two. it eliminates the stuffiness and causes quite a runny nose. BUT, your child will be able to breathe and will not wake up so often b/c he cannot breathe

i used it on myself a couple of colds ago. it was not irritating (except for the weird feeling of it going in), and it was AMAZING how much my nose ran. again, lots of snot, but at least i could breathe.

hth
amy

 

[Kundalini-Mama]

oops, double post

 

[ebethmom]

I use the breastmilk up the nose trick, too. It seems to work well.

My herbalist mixed a concoction for me. I can't remember all that was in it. Osha and lomatium are two. He didn't recommend any for baby.

My Mom is a nurse, so her advice is always drug related. I prefer to use a mix of herbal methods and medicine. She gets irritated with me for not doing things her way.

Hope you're both feeling better soon!

 

[kama'aina mama]

No advice from here... though I have plenty!

Just sympathy. It has slowly dawned on me (I'm slow on the uptake sometimes) that my daughter has never seen 90% of her relatives without traveling thousands of miles. It takes a toll. She often picks up a sniff or worse along the way. The net result is that my basically healthy child is viewed by most of my family as rather sickly. It sucks. Buck up little camper!