My sweet 8 week old son has been very congested since he was born. The docs told us that he ingested a lot of fluid and that was the main cause. But, he is still very congested at this point. It disrupts his ability to sleep and eat. I have asked my son's two doctors for help with this, but since they have not "heard" his congestion (much worse at night and in the early morning) they have not offered me much help. I have been using saline drops in his nose as well as the little sucker thing... Do you have any suggestions? Also, he has trouble with acid reflux and spits up a lot. Any recommendations on how to help him keep his food down better? He spits up so much of what he eats at each feeding and for an hour or so after he eats... Please help!
First, if you are breastfeeding, try putting a couple drops of breastmilk in each nostril after each feeding. It really does help with the congestion. Definitely elevate the head of the bed - that will help the the spitting up. And be cautious about using the nose sucker. The more often you use it, the more the nose will adjust amd congest and you'll get into a vicious cycle.
Hi T.!! Boy have I been in your shoes. the drops and sucker thing are the best. Also try elevating one end of his crib, that will help with the congestion and reflux. Also a humidifier. When you are feeding make sure he is not flat, you want him at a 45 degree angle, burp him often, and keep him upright after feedings for 20 min or so to let it all settle. if he is in a lot of discomfort and your Dr won't listen, then find one who will. My daughter had reflux, but the Dr thought I was crazy, trust your instict, you know your baby better than they do.
I feel your pain. My 10 week old daughter is going through the same 2 things right now. The thing I have noticed with my daughter for the congestion is to keep her bed or wherever she is sleeping away from the vents and that running the humidifier helps. As for the spit up, the things I have found that have helped the most for us (2 of our 3 were big spitters) is to make sure you are not feeding them too much (smaller more frequent feedings), keep them upright after they eat, and my pedi suggested a little formula because it was thicker and might stay down better. Keep in mind that while the spit up is annoying for our babies and us that my pedi said all babies have reflux (all to varying degrees though) and that as long as they are gaining weight and not in too much discomfort it was nothing to worry about. Congrats on your 1st baby, just when you think it cant get any better being a parent it does.
Well first off with the way the weathers been lately it's a wonder he's only congested. The acid reflux is probably the real culprit. I have it myself (and take medicine daily) and so did my oldest grandson. He took Zantac everyday for 3 months. My suggestion is to keep him elevated. Everytime he lays down all that starts to sit in his throat and that's why it comes back up, and it's miserable. There's a light at the end of the tunnel, once he starts crawling it'll probably just go away!Hope this helps, C.
I suggest going to an ENT that specializes in children. I highly recommend Dr. Tim Trone at Medical City, or his partner Dr. Hung. Both doctors treat children and babies with reflux and congestion problems regularly. With my own babies, I had to put one on Nutramagen, a formula that is easier on the digestion. With all of them, I kept them upright for 20 to 30 minutes after eating; fed them in a bouncy chair so that they would be upright. Lots of burping frequently. Good luck; this is a tough time.
My little one, at the time 4 mos., had a cold w/congestion and was also experiencing reflux. Her pediatrician had me give her Maalox for the reflux and also to control the congestion/nasal drainage. She said that many times what happens is that the nasal drainage causes the reflux and in turn the reflux causes more mucuous to be secreted and therefore a vicious cycle ensues. I have no idea what the dosage of Maalox would be for an infant as young as yours or if it's even safe at 3 wks. Ask your pediatricians what they think about this solution.
If you want a third opinion, here's our ped's info.:
Dr. Debra Burns
Clinical Pediatric Associates
8355 Walnut Hill Lane
Suites 105 and 205
Dallas, Texas 75231
###-###-####
It could just be really bad allergies. I have a nephew that was like that. I am not really sure what they did to make it better if anything, but you might mention allergies to the doctor and see what he has to say. Just a suggestion, it may not be allergies but it's worth looking into. Hope it helps.
Definitly elevate the head of the bed your baby is sleeping in. This can be done with pillows under the mattress or even better with removing wheels at the bottom or some sort of prop under the legs of the bed. To keep the baby from slipping down to the bottom of the bed take a blanket and roll it up, put it under the sheet. It makes a little pocket for the baby so he won't slip down.
My son was an acid reflux baby and I had to elevate his crib for the first 7 months of life. He had a lot of pain from the acid reflux and so he is on Prevacid and Zantac. He made horrible noises in his sleep and my Ped didn't get it so I bought a little recorder and recorded him at night and played it for her and that really helped. You might try recording him at night and making the doctors listen to it.
As far as keeping food down, its really hard with acid reflux babies. Try to keep pressure off his tummy( tight waist bands, etc.) Keep him upright for at least 20 minutes after a feeing. Elevating his crib really helps. And just get used to doing a lot of laundry and changing his clothes several times a day. They usually grow out of it at around 9 months.
Oh some Moms say that putting cereal in their bottles or starting their baby on solid food early helped their babies keep the food down but that never helped with mine. When I started him on solid food he just starting spitting up in color. :)
When my baby gets congested I give him a decongestant that his Ped prescribed. You might ask your Ped to prescribe something. There is no reason for the little guy/gals to suffer needlessly.
I have a 5 month old son who had these problems starting at 3 weeks. The pediatrician diagnosed him with "silent reflux" basically he was spitting up but it wasn't coming all the way out therefore it was going up and down his throat. It can cause them to sound stuffy and congested. The dodtor switched us to Enfamil AR which is milk based formula with added rice starch so it thickens in their stomach and it much harder to come back up. If you are breastfeeding there are other things you can do such as add some rice to your breast milk (check with your doctor first). We also tried zantac which helped just for a little and then had to do prevacid. However, after a couple more months nothing seemed to help much plus he was fussy, cranky and cried all the time. A couple weeks ago he got hives and I was insistent that it was the formula...thinking he had a milk allergy; doctor disagreed and said it could be antyhign but told us to try Nutramigen. Life is soooo different now. After about 3-4 days on Nutramigen the congestion went away, the crying went away, the reflux has stopped, we are off the prevacid...its amazing. I'm not saying that Nutramigen or Enafamil AR will fix everything but I'd really talk to your docotr about what else could be causing it. Sometimes they only look one direction.
ps...my daughter now 20 months (she is my oldest) swallowed lots of fluid and meconium and they had the NICU in when she was delivered. They suctioned her several times right there and in the middle of the night and she never had congestion problems.
