4 month old with cold

[Julss05]

Is there any kind of OTC medicine I can give him? So far we've just been trying to ride it out. We have a cold mist humidifier in his room at night, use the syringe and baby saline spray along with showers which help but wondering if there is anything else we could do. He'll start coughing and wake himself up from a nap so he's not getting a lot of sleep during the day. Thanks!

[MrsBeckyLP]

Nope, there's really not much you can do. Per the recommendation of TracyDP, I have purchased a NoseFrida (http://nosefrida.com/), and it works far better than a bulb syringe. I now give them as gifts at baby showers. Actually, my brother has a 5-week-old baby, and he just called me yesterday to rave about the thing. You may think it looks gross, but the baby's boogers don't get anywhere near your mouth. If he's congested, you could elevate his mattress with a pillow.

[RobynScott]

MrsBecky gave great advice. If he's coughing a lot - does he sound at all wheezy? Your ped may want to take a listen to his chest. My DS wound up on a nebulizer last year (and this year) when he had colds that went into his chest. The neb. isn't a big deal, but it's supposed to help him open up the lungs a bit (when wheezing) and/or help with the cough (we have two different medicines for him) Good luck - hope he's feeling better soon!

[BTB]

No OTC cold meds are safe at this age - and, actually, for the next several years! You might try a warm mist humidifier instead of cool mist - helps unplug congestion (like warm showers) but the residual benefit (above and beyond using a humidifier anyway) is going to be small.

[isign]

My DD has been struggling on and off with a cold since birth (Nov). We did everything you are doing except used the warm mist instead of the cool. It worked so much better than the cool one. When we saw the Dr he said the waiting is the worst part of the cold since they can't do anything.

[Julss05]

Thanks for the advice! He is not weezing. DH works as a paramedic, he listened to DS's lungs with a stephoscope and all is well. I'm pretty sure he is at the end of the cold because he's at the phlegm stage. I just feel bad, wish I could do more for him.:(

[E&O]

The only other thing I can offer (and this may sound like an old wives tale, but it did work for us) is to slather his feet with Vicks Rub. Its supposed to help with coughing. We do it at night time and it does seem to limit the coughing fits.

Has you pediatrician given you a safe doseage for Tylenol? While I do hate giving Tylenol just for "fussiness" I found when the nightime coughing fits are really bad, a doseage of Tylenol does help settle DS down and help him get back to sleep.

[MrsBeckyLP]

The only other thing I can offer (and this may sound like an old wives tale, but it did work for us) is to slather his feet with Vicks Rub. Its supposed to help with coughing. We do it at night time and it does seem to limit the coughing fits.

Oh yeah, I forgot about the Baby Vicks. Good advice. We do that too, and it really helps with coughing at night. Put it between his toes, too!

[boilermaker]

Similar to the vicks rub, you can use one of those vick's vaporizers that plug into the wall. We used the Pedialite version (half the price) and it did help.

[Kanga]

I was going to suggest the vicks baby rub on the feet as well. For the 3 colds between my dd's, 2 times it has worked, and one time it did not. For the times it did work (and it could be purely coincidental) they were MUCH better the next day, and then completely better after 2 days.

We also have a Vicks humidifier that we LOVE. Use it nightly, actually. When they're sick there's a medicine cup where the steam comes out that you can put liquid vicks menthyl/vapor stuff in it. Otherwise, I've heard you can just put 1/2 teaspoon into the water tank.