ADVICE RATING |
 4.65 (Highly recommend) from 24 votes (2848 Visits) |
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Clearing a stuffy nose helps breathing…. |
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by Jessgore  (September 2006) (rank 4th) |
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When my son was more of a baby I came across his first stuffy nose, I rang a hotline we have here in Quebec that you can call 24/7 for medical advice (just in case it is not an emergency you don’t want to be blocking up
the hospital lines), it was suggested to me that I use a saline solution which can be brought at the pharmacy or made at home….
8 ounces of warm water and 1/4 teaspoon of salt, make sure the salt is dissolved and the water is not hot when you use it.
Fill a syringe with the solution, and then lie your child’s head on a towel sideways. And as horrible as this sounds and a little unpleasant, shoot the top nostril with the solution. It will push the mucus from both nostrils out the bottom nostril. Making for a cleaner nose and a baby that can breathe much better…
As I had never done this before and thought it sounded horrible I went to the doctors’ office anyway and asked if they could show me how to do it properly. So if you feel uncomfortable doing this I suggest you ask to be shown. It is over in a matter of seconds and you can pick your child up for a well deserved I am sorry but it had to be done cuddle… You know the one you give just after an injection.
My son hated this and I hated doing it, but he got over it very quickly, there was a little cough as sometimes the solution may trickle a little down the back of the throat, hence why I went and asked to be shown.
When he really put up a fight I would sit him on my lap and lean him back a little bit and just put a few drops in his nose (you can do this with a cough dropper, I brought one specially for this job). Wait a few seconds then I sat him up and let his nose run and I wiped his nose, or if needed used the little nose pump.
This is really not a fun thing to do, but it worked. My son slept better and was able to breathe more comfortably when he had a little cold. The solution loosens up the mucus allowing it to come out of the nose. Some time you get some stubborn bits that need to be taken out with the nose pump and the solution makes that easier as well. It also worked on me when I had a blocked nose. And believe it or not it actually helped me when I got hey fever and needed a quick solution. My mother swears by salt water and even used a warm water salt solution to help clear up my son’s eyes when they got a bit gunky, and it cleared them up real well. (We called it gunky eye; it was a bit like conjunctivitis).
