Baby with allergies...help

little noses makes a decogestant spray that you can use. Also you can try a vapor bath with one of the soaps made for babys like johnson and johnson, you can try some vapor rub made for babys. you may even try a humitifier. Hope these help its what I always did for my little one.

First of all, poor little baby, I'm sorry he is so congested, that is not fun at all.
Have you tried the steamy bathroom trick? Get the bathroom steamy with the shower and take him in there with you (you may have to strip down & him too) and sit in the steamy bathroom for 15 minutes, that should help his congestion in a big way.

Run a humidifier. If you have a nebulizer you can use plain saline in it and it might help moisten his nasal cavity. Don't use albuterol, just plain saline. (You can buy plain saline on the contact solution isle, works great) Should he begin to have a fever go see a dr. Good luck. At 11 wks, I would be surprised if a dr would give him any meds anyway.

Hi A.,
I have a 5 month old son who suffers from allergies as well. My doctor told me to give him half of .625 ml (first line of a dropper) of Children's Dimetabb. For some reason, the Children's Dimetabb says to ask your doctor before giving it to a child under 1 year (I think 1 year) but the infant's Dimetabb says not to give it to a child under 2 years...LOL That doesnt make sense to me either but what do we know...we are just mommies!! LOL Anywho, the Dimetabb works wonders. It makes my son a little sleepy but after about 1-2 days (depending on how bad his allergies are) his running nose clears up. The Dimetabb is also good for minor colds. If I am not mistaken the dropper is already included in the box with the medicine. I hope this helps you and your little one. Good luck.

I feel your frustration. My daughter went through the same thing at 4 months & was still not old enough to have allergy meds. Go with the suggestion of calling your old pediatricians office or an ask a nurse. There is also sure to be a pediatrician is SA that works on a sliding scale without insurance. Maybe ask your old dr about that as well
Good luck & best wishes to baby & family

your baby is too young to have allergies (unless you are breatfeeding and he is allergic to something you eat usually dairy, wheat). It may seem he has allergies b/c he sneezes or has a congested nose it is that he can not clear his nose by blowing perse. A humidifier would be great for him, also just do a search on google for other ideas.

If you are in fact in Georgetown Texas you can take your baby to the free clinic. They will see him or her for free or on a sliding scale. IN the meantime try a humidifier and you can eleveate the baby bed by putting a phone book under the head of the mattress. Use your judgement and make it a slight incline since the baby is so young it wont take much. Use saline drops available at any grocery store or drug store, and use the bulb to suction anything out. There was a study published about a year ago that said that medicines for allergies were not really effective on very young children. If there is a fever or any difficulty breathing I would take the baby in to the ER.

You could try a humidifier in the room with the baby to relieve the congestion. You can also call the "call a nurse for children" hotline at 22nurse or ###-###-####. This will allow you to speak with a registered nurse and get free advise. If your baby is getting worse you could take him to University hospital in the medical center where no insurance is required for medical treatment.

The infant drops are made for children under the age of two. If you had a doctor before you were inbetween insurances, just call the office and ask to speak to the nurse. The nurse should be able to direct you as to how much of the tylenol or motrin drops you should give. And the nurse won't refuse to speak to you because you don't have insurance right now. Also, you can alternate them, that way you don't have to wait 8 hours between each dosage. Because tylenol and motrin are two different pain medicines and effect different pain receptors, you can alternate the meds every 4 hours.

Oh and I'd recommend buying the equate brand at Walmart...a lot of people are not aware that they are paying 2-3x the price just because the medicine has a brand name (tylenol IS acetaminophen, motrin IS ibuprofen - tylenol and motrin are the brand names given by the manufacturer). Same with the gas drops...

Hi, A., My little one, who is now 4, had a lot of allergies as a baby, and I am also a nursing instructor. That said, first off I would encourage you to take your baby in to get seen, as 11 weeks is still awfully little. Babies immune systems are not fully-developed until about one year old, so their signs of infection may be much more subtle than an older child's. But, if he is eating well, sleeping ok, peeing and pooping ok, no fever, you are probably ok to wait on the MD appt. You are really limited on meds, so I would try some of the environmental things you can do - like, limit exposure to animals, get rid of carpets/things that hold onto dust/pollen, etc. A big culprit for upper respiratory congestion and skin rashes in babies is food sensitivities. Breastfeeding is best to avoid this. If you are not nursing, but giving "regular" (cow's milk based) formula, you might try a switch to all soy, and try to avoid dairy products. When I did this with my little girl, who was always gunky and coughing and having loose stools, all her symptoms cleared up. She is ok with small amounts of dairy - cheese, yogurt, etc - but they get so much of their nutrition from milk, especially when little, that if that is the problem, a change in milk/formula can bring big results. If it is a food issue, you should see a pretty dramatic change, in maybe 2-3 weeks.

I hope this info might be helpful for you. There may be some health services available to you while in between insurance or with limited insurance. Check with your local health dept. We all pay taxes to support those services, so they will be there when we need them.

Good luck, L.

This is an old time remedy I used and still use with my kids. slice an onion as if you were going to put the slices on hamburgers. lay the slices on a plate and put it next to your baby's bed up where his head is and a few minutes of breathing the onion smell will calm the congestion. you can also put vics vapor rub on a wash rag and put it under his t-shirt or pj's where he can't get ahold of it. Good luck.

Another thing you can try are those Triaminic vapors that blow soothing smells through the air. Of course check the age on those too, but they simply get put in the baby's room or in a nearby place and the vapors sooth well. Also, as someone else mentioned Vicks Vapor Rub works wonders. Maybe a humidifier too? Good luck!

i would call a doctors office and explain the situation to a nurse. see if they will help you. 11 weeks is really young for meds. so i would hold off on giving something until you get professional advice. try letting him sleep sitting up in his car seat or with phone books under his mattress. also, ask the nurse if they have any suggestions of a clinic where you could take him to be seen for a nominal fee.

As far as I know there is not a whole lot you could give such a young baby, as long he doesn't have a fever. The Dr would most likely just tell you that, too, pretty much the best thing to do for him, is to get a humidifier, and run it in his room as much as possible. I would really recomend Crane's Humidifier's they get incredibly high marks online and they come in cute kids shaps (like a dog, cow or a frog). The humid air helps clear the baby up and helps with the bulb syringe be more succesful. If you can't get to a store, or the humidifier (about $30) doesn't fit in your budget then you can get a similar effect by sitting with baby in the bathroom with the water running in the bath, boiling hot (of course stay away from the water directly). The steam from the bath should help. Hope this helps you and hopefully your insurance is back soon!

Hi,
My daughter was without insurance for a while when she was young too. You can try calling Methodist Hospital's Call-A-Nurse for children. The number is ###-###-#### if you are in San Antonio and the toll-free # is 1-877-647-7440 if you are out of the area. They can give you suggestions of what can ease your babies congestion. I have also used them on weekends when the doctor was out of the office. I have found them to be very helpful. Hope this helps.

I had this same problem and my ped told me to just keep using the infant nasel spray and aspirator which I did. Little Noses make a nasel spray that can be used at this age. It is just saline so will not harm your baby - it helps to keep the nasel passeges moist so you are able to use the aspirator to get out all the junk. Good luck...

if you turn your shower on as hot as possible, put a towel underneath the bathroom door, and hold your baby while sitting in the room out of the direct path of the hot water and let him breath in the steam, it will loosen the crud up and he should be able to cough it up, be ready with the suction bulb. hopefully this will help. if not, you should have a free or cheap clinic in your area, almost everywhere in texas does, and it would be worth it to take him in. i hope this helps, i know how unnerving a sick baby can be.

Hey I have been there with a bady congested. Now she is 2 and we finally had an allergy dr see her.. But in your case I understand that you can notafford that. So Try Johnson and johnson soothing vapor bath. You can find it in the baby alli. That seemed to open my daughters nose right up. also start keeping track of what your baby is around or has eaten. My daughter was allergic to some milk she was getting.. I did not breast feed... Try the baby and I think they may have loction also.. Hope this helps

Hi there.
I was in the same boat with my son.... he was very congested. I was told by both my ped and my husband (a doctor) not to give any over the counter drugs to a baby that young. He is congested because that is his body's defense mechanism to keep him from getting worse. I used a humidifier every night (you can get one at the drug store for under $20) and just kept giving the saline & using the bulb. Does your baby have reflux? If so, this could cause bad congestion, as well. If so, use a wedge in the crib to slightly elevate his head when he is laying down (I got mine at Baby's R Us. I think I saw them at Target, too). A combination of all of the above is what I used for the first 5 months. I hope this helps.

Take him to the Dr! Don't be shy about calling your Dr and asking if they will work with you on a payment. Your Dr's office will likely have you complete a form that allows them to get paid by the state for patients that are between insurance, have high deductibles, etc.
Their priority is healthy children. If the Dr and office staff don't work with you, it's not a good practice.
http://covertheuninsured.org/stateguides/english/TX.pdf

You might try a vaporizer or maybe some vicks for babies.Maybe you can call your doctor and they can reccomend something to you.I know they have vapor plug ins and other things loke that but i dont know at what age use can use them.

hi A., he is really too young for meds, when my son was congested about a month old or so, the doc said the saline solution is about the only thing he can take, and it took about a weeek or so to go away.. hope you get Insurance soon..

Good Luck
D.

Try a vaporizer in the room he is in (they even have some that don't need water...they plug into the wall and you put little pads with the Vicks on it) and they also have a vapor rub for babies...just use small amounts. Otherwise, I would be hesitant to try any other meds on the baby. Do you qualify for medicaid of CHIPS. Your baby needs something because his shots and everything will be due. Call your local health department, maybe they can give you ideas as to any free clinics in your neighborhood. Good luck. Also you might try a warm towel on his chest and after it has cooled down, turn him over and gently pat his back and maybe it will help break up the mucous...and he can poop or spit it out. I bought a motorized aspirator from ebay. It runs on batteries ($30) It works much better than the bulbs at removing the mucous from his nose. Much faster too.

It would be very rare for your child to have allergies already (most children do not present sympotms prior to 4 months) so odds are, he is actually having some other issue. I would google Children's clinic + your city, or call the department of health and human services in your county and they can give you a referal to a low cost alternative since you do not insurance for him at this time.