Runny noses everywhere!

I know that fall is upon us and so is runny nose and cough season! Up until this fall, the only thing we had to deal with was one little cold with one of the girls over the winter.

But then last week Devyn came down with a cold that turned into croup. NOT FUN...She seems to be past the worst of the croup, but continues to have a runny nose. And now Emily has caught her runny nose and does NOT deal with being sick as well as Devyn (this is Emily's first time being sick).

I have been using the bulb nose aspirators like crazy, and even have one of those battery operated ones that plays music to distract them (yeah right!). I am constantly wiping their nose with tissues...this is getting BEYOND gross! I have snot all over my clothes all day long, and since Devyn loves to nuzzle me when I pick her up, it is on my cheeks and in my hair too!

I guess my question to you all is- how do I get rid of these runny noses? There is no way to separate the two, or to keep them from playing with each others' toys, etc. Will they just keep passing it back and forth to each other? I feel like we are up to our necks in snot and about to drown!

Has anyone found that saline drops help? I tried that just yesterday, but they aren't huge fans of it...can't say I blame them.

Thanks for any advice!

 

Sorry your babies are sick I know how you feel though. Our boys got 3 major colds within their first 6 weeks at day care last summer. There really was no way to keep them from getting snot on my shirts though. If they were really snotty we would use our Graco nasal aspirator to try and suck it out. As for saline, I only use that when the snot is dried or there is a big crusty boogie I want to get out of their nose, LOL. I just keep it near the changing pad and if they need it I squirt them before changing their diaper, then after I'm finished changing them the saline has usually worked its magic and I just use a baby wipe to wipe the stuff from their nose.

Good luck and hope they feel better soon!

 

Sorry, the snot needs to run it's course. Saline helps keep the inside of the nose moist, which will help a bit with the snot issues. We bolster one end of the crib mattress up just slightly by rolling a towel and putting it underneath. This helps keep their heads elevated. We use a warm mist humidifier, which helps with congestion so they can sleep at night and vick's baby plug-ins which releases a small amount of eucalyptus to help with breathing. The saline and nose sucker thing do work, but you have to keep at them. I know it's a PIA, but it does work. We don't do this, but I know people that do - run the shower really hot in the bathroom with the bathroom door closed and that produces steam which will help loosen all that nasty stuff up. Hope this helps! I hope your LO's feel better soon!

 

We had to do this with our boys when their cold turned into croup! I would hear them "barking like a seal" and having such a hard time breathing, so we ended up doing that at crazy hours like 12am and 4am, because I was so worried they weren't getting enough air. And the hot steam really did help! We didn't do it for general snottiness, but when it was affecting their breathing we did.

 

If you use the snot suckers too much, they can irritate the nose and actually increase snot production. I tried to use them only once or twice a day. Other than that, I mostly just carried lots of kleenexes around at all times, and resigned myself to always having snot on my clothes. My kids had snotty, runny, crusty noses for months on end around that age.

For the croup, running the shower on hot (plug the drain too, so the hot water builds up in the tub) and sitting in the bathroom really does help. But if it's chilly where you are, going outside in the cool air helps almost as much, and doesn't waste water! Plus, Amy (our croup-prone one) seemed to prefer that to sitting in the boring bathroom. I don't think the steam does much for general snottiness, though (or at least, it isn't worth it!).

I didn't use the saline drops when they were that age because they wouldn't really tolerate it. However, I use them now when the kids are so stuffed up that they have trouble breathing through their noses at night, and it does seem to help.

Hang in there -- it's just gonna be gross for awhile.

 

I also try to avoid the snot suckers cause it just resulted in more snot. I use an alcohol free baby wipe to just gently wipe their noses and only suck before they go to sleep. I think the first few times they get sick the subsequent snottiness lasts forever.