Natural Remedies for 8 Months with a Cold

Not really :( the only thing is to try to keep him/her upright as much as possible, but the only other thing i STILL have on in my son's room is a warm-mist bacteria-free humidifier.. it's the only thing that allows my infant son to sleep when he has a cold. Hope that helps!

Run a cool mist humidifier at night. And you can prop the top legs of the crib up on phone books to help the congestion.

Hi S.
Sorry your little one is not well.
Please call the MD, and stop trying to treat it. If you have done those things for 24 hours and you don't see improvement-- you should call the MD. Why, you don't know what you are dealing with. Once you have a diagnosis, then ask the MD what you can do, like should you be using nasal spray, or ear drops?
You don't want to wait til it is pneumonia or whatever. Always best to catch it quick.

The moms who recommend the humidifier and saline drops are right in line with the recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics. If you kept the nasal bulb (aspirator) from the hospital, use that to help clear the mucus from the nose. And, sleeping more upright may help with drainage depending on if there is inflammation.

Colds are a virus, so they have to run their course.

If the symptoms last longer than a week, you should call your pediatrician to make sure it is a cold and not an infection that would require an antibiotic.

Using a humidifier is great. Also, having the baby sleep on a wedge or propping up one end of the mattress so your baby sleeps with his head propped up is another great suggestion. In addition to this, I use Young Living essential oils, R.C. and Raven when my girls are congested. I just sprinkle a few drops of each in my hand and rub it all over them, their pajamas, their hair (watch the eyes), the pillow, the sheets, etc. I use the R.C. and Raven several times a day and it helps get the congestions out.

I personally use a vaporizer at night. Apparently the only reason docs suggest the cool mist one is to avoid accidental burns. But if we're talking about a baby who will be in the crib, then the burn factor is highly unlikely. Also, the cool mist can harbor bacteria, and can aggravate some conditions. You can do a search on Google for "vaporizer vs. cool mist humidifier" and find more info.

I also use something called olbas oil--you can get it at a lot of health shops. Just put it on the back of the pajamas, so that it won't get into baby's eyes, or on baby's hands (then transferred to the eyes). It helps. And whenever someone in the family takes a shower, take the baby into the bathroom so that the steam can help to clear the nasal passages. Good luck.

Hi S.,

How about putting a vaporizer (mist humidifier) next to his crib?
You can put Vicks Vaporub in it so it circulates in the air.
And he sounds like he could use baby vitamin c, too. I'm sure you know dairy products increase mucus production, so you might want to limit his dairy intake, if he gets any at this age.
Your local health food store could probably help you with herbal alternatives, like Eucalyptus and others.

Good luck.
"Grams"
from the Pocono Mts. of PA

We used to put a pillow under one side of the mattress while my daughter was sleeping, so that the crib mattress was on a slight incline. It helped her breathe easier during the night.

I find that humidifier in the room helps tremendously.

Try sitting down with your legs stretched out in front of you. Then put your baby, tummy on your legs, with his head facing downward. Then gently pat his back for a little bit. This will help bring up some of that congestion. Try not to take him outside for a few days as the air can add to the problem.

When my daughter was around 6 mos old she started teething and then the congestion came. It almost never went away and the only thing that really worked for her to help her to sleep was vicks on her feet under her socks and sleeping in her carseat (we had one you could easily take out of the car). We were told to raise her crib mattress by stuffing a pillow under it but she's such a thrasher, all I could picture was her trying to sleep at the end of the crib. That's the only other advice I can give that you haven't tried already. Good luck and I hope your baby gets over it soon!

Pedicare makes a natural plug-in (I know you can buy it at Walmart in the pharmacy) that helps. I asked my doctor about it and she said it was fine for infants (it says on it that it is fine for babies over 6 months old). Also, put some blankets under the head of the mattress so that your baby is sleeping with her head above her body to help the drainage. Good luck.

Could you make nice old fashion real chicken soup and feed your baby the broth in a luke warm serving in the bottle.?

cool mist humidifier and a sleep wedge design for baby's crib have been very helpful when my little ones have had colds along with what you are already doing.

if you are breastfeeding you can put a few drops of breast milk in your babies nose. just like saline drops only better. i discovered this by accident while feeding my sick son. he was so stuffy that he stopped nursing to catch his breath and high powered boob milk shot up his nose on one side. i sat him up and cleared his nose with the bulb syringe to discover that it had cleared out his little nose. i looked some things up on the Internet to find that this was commonly used by breastfeeding moms. so i ran my own tests i continued to put a few drops in that side and found that it always stayed clear while the other one getting only cleaned by the bulb syringe was staying stuffy. i did it to both sides and he was all better within a few days.

Hello S.:

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All the best,
N.
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