Tis The Season

"Tis the season to be jolly sick...

sneeze sneeze sneeze sneeze, cough cough cough cough, sneeze."

Travis and I had a not so fun-filled day yesterday at Insta-Care. He has been coughing and congested and his breathing sounded wheezy and he woke up with a fever to boot. I was scared that the doctor was going to tell me that he had the dreaded RSV and send us to the over-crowded hospital. Thankfully Travis wasn't sick enough to go to the hospital, but he does have a pretty bad cold that could progress into RSV plus an ear infection. The poor guy is miserable! 

I did learn some tips to keep his congestion to a minimum and hopefully prevent it from progressing into a serious case of RSV. All you moms out there probably already know these...and I should have too by my fourth kid...but I didn't. If your child is congested and wheezy, it could be RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) which causes respiratory infections in children under age two. It can also develop into bronchiolitis or pneumonia. Here are some tips to help your child's congestion/runny nose:

• Loosen things up; then suck it out. Gross I know, and they HATE it! This is a two-man job. One person needs to hold the baby's arms and head while the other person does the suctioning. Put saline solution nose drops in each nostril. You will know that you have put in enough when your hear your child make a gurgling sound (that means that the drops have reached the baby's throat). Now for the gross part. Have lots of tissues handy to catch all of the boogers. Using a suction bulb (the blue thing that comes home with your baby after he is born that is now sitting in the changing table...unused), push all the air out before putting it in the nostril. Then put it in, plug the other nostril and let the air back in the bulb - bringing lots of snot with it. Empty out the snot into the tissues and repeat until the boogers are gone.
• Use a cool-mist humidifier if you live in a dry climate to make the air around your baby more humid while he is sleeping. (Hot water vaporizers can increase swelling in the airways...whoops, we have been using these for years.)
• Elevate your baby's mattress to help him breathe better. I just put some pillows under the mattress to prop him up. For one, the pillows stay put; and more importantly, the baby won't suffocate under pillows and blankets.

Does anyone have more helpful tips? I need all the help I can get because I have been oblivious when it comes to colds for the last 9 years of motherhood.