Blocked Nose in Babies and Toddlers: Saline Drops, Bulb, No Vicks (Video)

Transcript

A Stuffy Nose Can Be Tough

A stuffy nose can turn feeding time into a struggle for a baby, but a simple, old-fashioned routine can help calm things down and make meals smoother.

Blocked Nose Basics

Babies can’t breathe through their mouth when they’re feeding, so a blocked nose becomes a feeding problem before anything else. The fix is cheap and old: salt water and a bulb. Things that go wrong are Vicks on the chest, steam that scalds, and the cold that wasn’t a cold. This guide covers babies and toddlers by age.

At a Glance

What works is saline drops followed by suction with a bulb or nasal aspirator, done ten to fifteen minutes before feeds and before sleep. What’s out includes Vicks, Tiger Balm, menthol, eucalyptus, camphor, mustard oil rubs, oil in the nostrils, and decongestant drops. Steam should be a steamy bathroom with the baby held in your arms, never a bowl of hot water near a child. Feeding should be shorter, more frequent, upright, and with the nose cleared first.

Why It Sounds So Bad

A newborn’s nostrils are the width of a drinking straw and the nose is the only route for air during a feed. A little mucus, milk that has gone up the back of the nose, or dry air from a heater can make a baby snuffle, snort and sound as if they are drowning. The test is how the baby is doing, not how they sound: look at feeding, sleeping, wet nappies, colour, and breathing rate when calm.

Saline and a Bulb, Done Properly

Salt water loosens mucus and suction removes it, in that order. For babies use drops, not a full rinse. Buy pharmacy saline drops or spray labelled for infants, 0.9 percent sodium chloride and nothing else. Lay the baby on their back with the head slightly tilted back. Put two to three drops in one nostril, wait thirty to sixty seconds, the baby will splutter, that’s fine. Squeeze the bulb before it goes near the nose, then place the tip just inside the nostril, no deeper than the tip itself.

Steam and How It Goes Wrong

Steam is a leading cause of scald burns in small children at home. A bowl of boiling water on a bed, a towel over a toddler’s head, or a kettle steaming in a small room next to a crawling baby can end in an emergency department every winter. The safe version needs no bowl. Run the hot shower in a closed bathroom for five minutes until the room is steamy, turn the water off, and sit there with the baby held upright in your arms for ten to fifteen minutes.

Feeding When the Nose Is Blocked

Under six months, clear the nose with saline and the bulb ten to fifteen minutes before each feed. Feed upright in shorter sessions more often, and expect the baby to come off the breast or bottle to breathe. Keep the baby upright on your shoulder for twenty minutes afterwards. Count wet nappies, six or more in twenty-four hours means enough milk is going in; fewer, or two refused feeds in a row, means see a doctor today. Nothing else goes in the mouth: no water, no honey, no ghutti, no kahwa.

The Old Ways, Sorted

Warm sarson oil on the chest and soles, a few drops of oil in each nostril, the steaming lota of ajwain water, and Vicks on the pillow are the four things every grandmother reaches for. The chest rub is fine as a plain warm-oil massage on intact skin, and useless for the nose. Oil in the nostrils is out, because a baby can breathe it into the lungs, where it can cause a stubborn pneumonia. The bowl is out for the scald risk, and anything with camphor, menthol or eucalyptus is also out.

What Is Not a Cold

A one-sided, smelly discharge in a toddler, sometimes blood-stained, with no cold, something is up in that nostril. A clear runny nose with sneezing and itchy eyes for weeks, worse in dust or spring, is usually an allergy, not an infection, and saline helps. A cold that improves, then a fever and a worse blocked nose after day ten, may be a sinus or ear infection on top, see a doctor.

Breathing Red Flags

A blocked nose is noisy, but a struggling chest is different. Look at the bare chest for a full minute when the baby is calm and not feeding. Fast breathing, more than about sixty breaths a minute in a baby under two months, more than fifty from two to twelve months, is a warning sign. Watch for the skin sucking in between or under the ribs, or at the base of the throat, with each breath. Grunting at the end of each breath, nostril flaring, or blue, grey or very pale lips, tongue or face are also red flags. If you see any of these, go to the hospital or see a doctor today.

Take Care If

No Vicks, menthol, camphor, eucalyptus or mustard-oil-with-camphor on or near a baby or child under two, and never on any child’s face or in the nostrils. No oil, ghee or breast milk dropped into the nose. No decongestant drops, sprays or cough-and-cold syrups under six months; no antihistamine sedatives to make a child sleep. No bowl-and-towel steam for any child. Under six months, nothing but breast milk or formula goes in the mouth; no honey under one year. Paracetamol for fever that comes with a cold is dosed by a pediatrician.

Keeping the Next One Milder

Handwashing before touching the baby, especially for school-age siblings, helps keep germs away. Keep the home smoke-free, even on the balcony. Keep vaccines up to date, and store a bottle of saline and a clean bulb in the drawer, because the cold often arrives at midnight. For the fever that often comes with it, see a child's fever by age; for the ear that blocks up after a cold, see a child's earache. Everything else in the series is filed under Bachon Ki Sehat.

Thanks for Watching

For more details, read the full post at thecareonline.com. Remember, this is general advice and not a substitute for a doctor’s care.