Saturday 19 September 2015
Colds and congestion
If baby has a cold and is congested, it can make breastfeeding difficult. However, it is almost always easier for a sick baby to nurse than to take a bottle. If your baby has a stuffy nose and is having a hard time breathing and nursing at the same time, try the following:
Keep baby as upright as possible while nursing. At night, try propping up on lots of pillows and nursing/sleeping semi-upright. Also try the Australian position (mom is “down under”) – in this position, mom is lying on her back and baby is on top (facing down), tummy to tummy with mom.
The best thing you can do to help baby’s illness end quickly is to nurse often – that way she gets lots of the antibodies that your body is making to help her fight off the illness. Frequent nursing also helps to ensure that baby is getting plenty of milk (congested babies often nurse for shorter times since it’s hard to breathe and nurse at the same time).
Use saline drops (or breastmilk) & a rubber suction bulb to clear baby’s nose before nursing (if baby won’t tolerate the bulb syringe, then the saline drops/breastmilk alone should still help).
Put baby on your knees, face up and tilt your knees a little downhill (so baby’s head is angled away from you, toward the floor).
Put 2-3 drops of saline in each nostril and let it sit for a minute or so.
To suction the mucus out, squeeze the bulb part of the syringe first, gently stick the rubber tip into one nostril, then slowly release the bulb.
If baby is really congested, you may have to do this several times a day. Do it BEFORE baby nurses; if you do it afterwards your baby may spit up everything she’s eaten because syringing can stimulate the gag reflex.
To prepare saline drops at home, dissolve one teaspoon of salt in two cups of warm water.
Run a vaporizer or humidifier, preferably in a small closed room.
Boil a pot of water (some moms use small crock pots/potpourri pots), remove from the stove and add a few drops of essential oil (for example, eucalyptus, sage or balsam), and let the scent permeate the air. This may help relieve some head congestion.
Do NOT apply products containing peppermint oil, camphor or menthol on the face (especially in the nose) or chest of a baby or young child. There have been cases where the direct application of menthol or camphor products (for example, Vicks VapoRub™) to baby’s skin resulted in severe breathing difficulties or liver problems (see Camphor Hepatoxicity, Camphor Monograph and Menthol Toxicology).
Nurse in a steamy bathroom. To pump up the steam, run a really hot shower and set a chair outside the shower for nursing.
The US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and the American Academy of Pediatrics strongly recommend that children under the age of six not be given over-the-counter cough or cold medicines due to the risk of serious and life-threatening side effects. There is also no evidence that over-the-counter cold meds actually benefit children younger than six years old. There are several well controlled studies where there has been no difference shown between children given medication and those who have not.
Sometimes moms are advised to limit or discontinue breastfeeding because milk increases mucus production. This is not good advice for two reasons:
You are not a cow and your milk is not a dairy product. So even if dairy is a problem, your milk would not be.
In addition, there is no scientific evidence that cow’s milk results in the production of more mucus unless you are allergic to dairy products.
If baby has a cold and is congested, it can make breastfeeding difficult. However, it is almost always easier for a sick baby to nurse than to take a bottle. If your baby has a stuffy nose and is having a hard time breathing and nursing at the same time, try the following:
Keep baby as upright as possible while nursing. At night, try propping up on lots of pillows and nursing/sleeping semi-upright. Also try the Australian position (mom is “down under”) – in this position, mom is lying on her back and baby is on top (facing down), tummy to tummy with mom.
The best thing you can do to help baby’s illness end quickly is to nurse often – that way she gets lots of the antibodies that your body is making to help her fight off the illness. Frequent nursing also helps to ensure that baby is getting plenty of milk (congested babies often nurse for shorter times since it’s hard to breathe and nurse at the same time).
Use saline drops (or breastmilk) & a rubber suction bulb to clear baby’s nose before nursing (if baby won’t tolerate the bulb syringe, then the saline drops/breastmilk alone should still help).
Put baby on your knees, face up and tilt your knees a little downhill (so baby’s head is angled away from you, toward the floor).
Put 2-3 drops of saline in each nostril and let it sit for a minute or so.
To suction the mucus out, squeeze the bulb part of the syringe first, gently stick the rubber tip into one nostril, then slowly release the bulb.
If baby is really congested, you may have to do this several times a day. Do it BEFORE baby nurses; if you do it afterwards your baby may spit up everything she’s eaten because syringing can stimulate the gag reflex.
To prepare saline drops at home, dissolve one teaspoon of salt in two cups of warm water.
Run a vaporizer or humidifier, preferably in a small closed room.
Boil a pot of water (some moms use small crock pots/potpourri pots), remove from the stove and add a few drops of essential oil (for example, eucalyptus, sage or balsam), and let the scent permeate the air. This may help relieve some head congestion.
Do NOT apply products containing peppermint oil, camphor or menthol on the face (especially in the nose) or chest of a baby or young child. There have been cases where the direct application of menthol or camphor products (for example, Vicks VapoRub™) to baby’s skin resulted in severe breathing difficulties or liver problems (see Camphor Hepatoxicity, Camphor Monograph and Menthol Toxicology).
Nurse in a steamy bathroom. To pump up the steam, run a really hot shower and set a chair outside the shower for nursing.
The US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and the American Academy of Pediatrics strongly recommend that children under the age of six not be given over-the-counter cough or cold medicines due to the risk of serious and life-threatening side effects. There is also no evidence that over-the-counter cold meds actually benefit children younger than six years old. There are several well controlled studies where there has been no difference shown between children given medication and those who have not.
Sometimes moms are advised to limit or discontinue breastfeeding because milk increases mucus production. This is not good advice for two reasons:
You are not a cow and your milk is not a dairy product. So even if dairy is a problem, your milk would not be.
In addition, there is no scientific evidence that cow’s milk results in the production of more mucus unless you are allergic to dairy products.