Uh oh.

One of my recent biggest fears has come to fruition. Delaney has a cold. Although I've practically put her (and the baby and me) in a bubble recently to spare him from any unnecessary illnesses before he's three months old (the recommendation of our pediatrician) his sister is now sick and I'm terrified he'll catch it. I realize that other than trying to keep her away from him (an impossible feat in this shoe box of a house we live in) and even more fervent hand-washing than we've been doing there is nothing I can do to keep him from getting it. Control freaks like me? We HATE feeling this out of control. And I just heard Way sneeze. Again. How do you deal with a sick thee-week-old? You know, just in case he catches it. Because, despite the obvious, I'm even more of an optimist than I am a control freak.

Comments

[karen]

Johnson & Johnson makes a baby vapo-rub lotion and vapo-bath that are good for clearing noses. We also find the scent soothing. You can do the whole vaporizer thing but I never found that to be very effective at much beyond making the walls wet. Keep the baby warm and use the snot sucker a lot and know that we're all thinking of you!

[pcosMama]

Oh this is so familiar! My daughter brought a cold up to my son the first day she came to the hospital.... so he got sick at 3 days old. I spoke with a pediatric nurse advice line and they advised using a humidifier by his bed and using saline drops in his nose before each feeding. They had us putting a couple drops of saline in a nostril, waiting 30 seconds, then suctioning that nostril while holding the other one shut. Repeat on the other side. Wait 1 minute and start again. Do this in cycles of 3 (so each nostril gets it 3 times, 1 minute apart) before each feeding as long as he sounds congested. They said to make sure you do it before feeding because otherwise the baby will throw up.

I found it worked well to suction right after feeding too. It took our little guy about 10 days or so to get over the worst of it.

Good luck!

[Arkie Mama]

I had this same fear when my youngest was born.

Now I can't remember when he got his first cold, only that I fretted through each of his sister's ailments, just like you're describing.

Hope this one passes him by.