I Just Want Her to Feel Better

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Doctor.

After lasting a solid month?

Doctor, doctor, doctor, doctor.

Rule out all the various treatable infections (sinus, ears, bacterial; bronchitis, strep, walking pnemonia, pneumonia, or conditions like asthma, etc.)... BEFORE looking into environmental/diet causes.

WHY?

Because doing eliminations and allergy testing wastes time if it's a treatable infection or condition... and if it's NOT a treatable infection/condition... then you're looking at several weeks of allergy testing, elimination diets, etc. THOSE CAN WAIT.

Things like walking pneumonia can't. And things like sinus infections can be cured in a week... or go on for MONTHS.

After 10 days, the likliehood of it being a virus is slim to none. At this point it's most probably bacterial or fungal

This sounds a lot like my little guy at that age. He slept in a swing or car seat for more than a month. I finally took him to a naturopath. The things that helped the most, and this will sound funny, put on warm, wet, cotton socks and top that with dry wool socks. I used my own wool socks (they came up to his hip, but it helped to loosen the chest congestion.

Also, give her a powdered probiotic, like Bifidus or Primadophilus (both are good for little systems (we were given Bifidus- 1/4 tsp once daily) for reflux. This helped tremendously with the reflux. My son was started on it at 2 wks old. You can mix it in a bottle, put in on your finger or nipple and let her lick it off. Whatever works best for her. My son licked it off of my finger until he consumed it all. He actually liked it.

It does often take time for their little systems to fight off colds. But, always okay to take her to the doctor. Also, a naturopath might see things an MD might not.

This really sounds like a reflux issue and not infection. Reflux can cause all these symptoms (nasal congestion especially at night). Vomiting and spitting up don't always have to be present with reflux. She is fussy because she cannot breath while eating and becoming frustrated because she is hungry. Babies will always choose breathing over eating (of course). Unless she has a fever it isn't an infection especially since it lasted a month. Keep her upright to sleep for now.

Have you changed formula recently? Maybe you need a different reflux medicine. Does your reflux medicine have diarrhea as a side effect?
Good luck and let us know what happened.

Teething would be my second guess.

Did you ever take her to a chiropractor? That always helps me and my kids get better faster and stay well! Are you nursing her? If not try taking her off a dairy based formula, and if you are then you should stop dairy for a while.

I agree with T.J. Give up all dairy.

Poor little one!

It sounds like you're on the right track. I just wanted to add something to your bag of tricks to deal with the congestion if it is "just a virus." (It's likely that the tummy problems could be caused by drainage. Yuck. Great that you're going to see the doctor to be sure!)

Go in the bathroom and turn the shower on as hot as it will go. Play and look at books in a steamy bathroom for about 15 minutes (or more...won't hurt...I got bored after too long). The steam will help loosen some of the congestion, even if it's draining down the back of her throat. If she's really bad, follow with saline drops and suction. When my babies had colds, I would do this before their last feeding of the night. It almost always helped feeding and sleeping.

Best wishes.

Is she teething already? My kids tended to get diarrhea, pulled on their ears, acted fussy when I was trying to feed them, and woke up constantly when they started to get their teeth in.

Colds at this time of the year can linger for weeks. My 10 month old has had back to back colds since last month.

Hopefully, your pediatrician will be able to tell you if there is more going on. Otherwise, you'll just have to dig in your heels and endure. Sorry to hear your daughter isn't feeling well. When baby isn't happy, no one is.

Glad you're going to the Doctor. I think the diarrhea is the kicker here. Don't think it's a cold. Bless her heart...

It sounds like teething to me, too. My son was always like this when he was teething, it was very frustrating because it would last for weeks. The drooling/spit up and diarrhea were big signs for us.

She may have allergies, four weeks is not common for just cold. Ask her doc, perhaps a simple formula change would make a difference? Hope your baby gets better FAST.

Blessings....

Other than the diarrhea your daughter sounds like my little guy when he was 3 months old. His mom, my daughter, said, "Oh, yeah, he's been sick..." but couldn't tell me how long he'd been sick. This was in July so not cold and flu season, and after a day or two of him not feeling better I took him to the ER. They checked him out, did a chest x-ray, and sent us home with instructions and an Rx, they were treating it as bronchitis. A day and a half later I received a call from the radiologist looking at the x-ray, she said to bring him back and tell the doctors there was a spot on his lung. We were back in the ER within 30 minutes and sure enough, he had pneumonia. His meds were changed and he recovered with no complications.

It's good she's seeing her pediatrician, best to find out for sure what's going on and if you need to treat her symptoms differently...going on a 4th week of a cold is too long for anyone, particularly an infant. I'm not saying it couldn't be reflux, but it could be that on top of something else.

I think there is some extra nasty ick going around this year! With a 4 1/2 month old don't play around, bug the doctor, that's what they're there for!