Congested 4 Month Old

Baby Saline!!!! Its a light blue can in the baby supplies section of the grocery store. Also, Walgreens has a MIRACLE product!!! An automatic .. excuse my term.. but booger sucker outer! It is FANNNTTTAAASSSTTIICCC!!!! My 6 month old has always hated the syringe bulby thing, but loovveess the automatic thing. Its $20 and so worth it!

Saline nasal spray helps a lot. You can use it as often as needed.

Both of my daughters with through this as well. I did find that the congestion was worse at night, so we purchased a Honeywell Hepa Air Purifier and ran it through the night. In addition, I would use Gentle Naturals Vapor Cream (just a tad bit) on their chest and on the soles of their feet - always make sure you cover her feet with white socks and keep her chest covered (a simple t-shirt will suffice) when you use it. I beleive that the air quality in our home was not the best, because anytime I took them to the doctor, they couldn't find anything wrong. I also started making sure that our airfilters were changed frequently, and I'd place small house plants around the home (out of their reach of course) since house plants are natural air purifiers (http://hubpages.com/hub/House-Plants-The-Inexpensive-Air-.... Since we had a dog at that time as well, I would ensure that I vaccumed every other day, and dusted every other day to keep the pet hair down (sadly) after our dog died, I did notice a drastic reduction in their congestion as well. So if you have a pet, that may be contributing to her problem as well. I hope this helps.

Hi J.,
Oh, that stinks! Getting it cleaned out is the best thing. Because she is clearly not big enough to use a neti pot, simulate it. Put 1 cup warm water and 1/2 tsp fine salt in a cup. Lay her on your lap looking at you (feet on your belly), tilt her head slightly to one side. Take a medicine dropper and fill it with the water. Try to get the whole dropper in one nostril before she fights you. It may all come back out, but keep it up two to three times a day alternating nostrils to try to get it clear. There is also a neti pot wash you can buy at Whole foods or Willner Chemists (buckhead) that is a great addition to the neti (or cup, in your case) that really helps cut the congestion.
If you are nursing, cut way down on your milk products. They tend to make congestion worse.
Best of luck, J

If it were my child, I would rub some eucalyptus oil on the feet and chest (use a carrier oil of course). And I would give a Lung and Bronchial formula (extract form) orally. Great stuff!

Saline drops are also good. If you don't know how to apply it, just ask your doc or pharamacist.

Mother of 4

Take her in the shower with you. Saline nose spray. Get a good booger sucker. It'll pass. Her immune system is working it out. Her being congested, but not slowed down is a GREAT sign.

There's not much else you can do at that age except for saline drops. I've found those very helpful with my babies. You can get bottles of saline for infants and children in most baby sections of grocery stores, pharmacies and discount stores.

If she isn't running a fever and seems to feel fine, don't worry too much.

I am so glad I read your post! My 3-month-old was congested...for days, then weeks. I took him to an ENT but there is nothing really wrong with him. First, saline drops 2 or 3 times a day. Get the kind that spray. This actually helps shrink secretions; it's not just a worthless thing to do (like I used to think).

Second, buy a NoseFrida. It is made in Sweden and about $16. I had mine overnighted on Amazon. It is AMAZING. Those bulbs never work, and I worried about hurting his nose. With the Nosefrida, you just place the end of the tube on the nostril (so no risk of hurting inner nose), and suck in other end. Sounds gross, but mom does not get anything in her mouth. It's hard to explain, but it's a miracle. It got gobs out of my son's nose. Always use saline first, THEN use the Nosefrida.

Our little guy just got over a second cold (this time it had a cough with it too), but he's better now. This is our third child and I wish I'd bought this thing earlier. I figured the 126 good reviews on Amazon could not be wrong.

Also, we have a crib wedge by Dex that elevates the head. Baby uses this each night. (I have him sleep in his swing when he's so bad he sounds like a train, so his head is really, really elevated).
Babies and colds is just a bad combination. Hope baby is better soon! I cannot tolerate congested noses in myself at all, so I go all out for baby, but there is not much you can do for a baby compared to an adult.