It is hard to know what to do when your baby does not feel well. Even just a common cold seems overwhelming when you are a new parent. Here are five easy things you can do to help your baby when he/she is under the weather. Just remember, this too shall pass.
Breastfeed often. Mothers milk has all the medicine your baby needs and it will keep your baby nourished and hydrated.
Steam Room. Close the shower curtain and get the shower as hot as possible. When the room gets nice and steamy, hang out with baby in there for a little while. Mild congestion will be alleviated. Repeat as often as needed.
Nasal Aspirator. If you don’t have one, get one. Whatever the steam room does not take care of, this will. You can use a bulb syringe, or better yet, the new Baby Comfy Nose. Here is a video about how it works.
Take time off. Cancel all your plans, and don’t try to get things done. Your baby needs you most of all. Rest with your baby. Hold him or her close. Sleep with your baby. Trust me you will get better rest this way.
Homeopathic remedy. Hylands Cold plus C tablets are great for baby. They dissolve instantly in the mouth, and they really do help with the symptoms of a cold.
Just discovered your blog after receiving your email newsletter. As a mother of a 10 week old who gave birth at home with the help of one of your trusty kits, I am really happy to have these suggestions in my back pocket just in case. Here’s hoping we won’t need them!
Looking forward to reading more!
Marisa
A steamy room (or even better an actual steam room) will not only help babies, but adults of all ages, when trying to relieve mild nasal congestion.
Steam rooms also improve the health of your hair and skin, and can help with at least a little bit of detoxification. Sitting in a steam room also helps with relaxation and stess relief.
Mouth Aspirator for babies???? Are you now going euurrghhh that’s disgusting ? Well wait until you hear the noise it makes when you’re sucking bogies out and start seeing snotty bits going up the tube !!
I LOVE CLEANOZ ASPIRATOR. I bought this product for my daughter who has had horrible time breathing when she gets sick. This product worked perfectly and was able to alleviate my daughters struggling to breathe. All I did was drop a few drops of Cleanoz saline preservative free in her nose to loosen up the snot, and then I used the Cleanoz. It was great. I had to use it a couple more times that day to help her keep breathing well. And the best part was that at the end of the day, I threw away the nozzle. I didn’t have to clean anything! The next day she was still a little congested and so I used a new nozzle piece, and it worked great again. She actually likes it now when I use the Cleanoz. She HATED the bulb syringe and I don’t want to use a disgusting mouth suction device…..
Thank you for the well-written article. I liked it. You have a very good blog.
I love your blog and searched it this morning when my 3 month old was up all night cranky, congested and miserable. I found this post and went to the store to buy the Hyland’s C plus cold tablets. However, they say to use starting from 1 yr. But I guess I was confused because the title of the post says “newborn”. Would it be ok to give to a 3 month old?
Yes, absolutely it is. It is not allowed to be labeled as such because it’s a “cold medicine” but it is absolutely completely safe. I can go into more detail if you are worried about it, but I promise no harm will come to your baby. There is no detectable chemicals or herbs still inside the remedy. The nature of homeopathy is to dilute a substance so much that only it’s “essence” and not any actual trace of the chemical is in it. So, it’s completely safe. Use with confidence. 🙂
Thank you! May I ask what dosing you would use for a 3 month old?
Also, since finding your blog (and becoming pregnant), I’ve become a lot more interested in homeopathic remedies. How would I go about learning a bit more about it so I can use them with confidence? If you can/need you can email me. I appreciate your help! Thank you!
The easiest way to start to get a feel without being overwhelmed is to pick up a Hyland’s Kids kit. Having a baby will give you so much experience understanding it right off the bat. Here’s the link for that: http://www.everythingbirth.com/Hylands-Homeopathic-Kids-Kit-HYL0056-p-Natural-Newborn-Care.html
As for dosing. You usually will only need to dose for a couple of hours max, then maybe another dose or two a day later. I explain it in detail here: http://www.everythingbirthblog.com/2010/10/homeopathy-and-dosage/
But what I would do is give one pellet every twentyish minutes until symptoms improve. Keep in mind they may also get much worse for a duration of about an hour, this is considered it working too. With these cold pills though my experience is that they have the perfect blend to help almost right away. Rarely is more than two doses in twenty minutes needed for a cold.