When nose of a newborn (age 0-3 months) blocked, mother usually panics and gets lost in the nerve. Is it true that a newborn isn’t allowed to be given breath relieving balm? Is there any way to help the baby breaths normal again?
Dried mucus. Blocked nose is the premature symptom of influenza. The baby’s nose usually produces much amount of mucus while having influenza. Since the air that comes out is getting inside through the nose, the mucus becomes dry. That is when the baby feels hard to breathe since the nose is blocked. What can you do? Help the baby to secrete mucus from the nose so that he can breathe freely. You’ll know how to treat blocked nose after reading these tips. However, if the blocked nose is followed with fever, continuous cough or if the mucus is greenish yellow, bring your baby to the pediatrician for further care and advice.
Here are some tips to treat blocked nose:
- Sucking the mucus.
- Use a mucus straw (nasal aspirator) specially specified for baby. It looks like a pipette or a soft plastic pipe with sucker rubber at the end. It is sold at the drugstore with some brands specified for babies.
- Clean the part which is inserted into the baby’s nose by doing sterilization (with the tool to sterilize bottles) or cotton smeared with alcohol 70%.
- Calm the baby before doing the sucking. It is done to make sure that you can insert the aspirator correctly.
- Insert the aspirator inside the baby’s nose, but don’t get too deep. When you inserting the sucker, the rubber end which functions to suck must be pressed, then slowly let it loose while it’s inside the nose already. Do it smoothly that it won’t irritate the nose.
- Drip NaCl or pure salt liquid
- You can get liquid drops of NaCl physiologist 0.9% (20 ml) at the drugstore. It functions to moisten the membrane inside the respiratory system of baby, to smooth the blockage in the nose and to dilute the mucus in order to be secreted easily. The instruction is by inserting the end of the pipette part by part then drip the liquid slowly.
- You can make yourself the NaCl liquid by diluting one four teaspoon of salt into a half glass of warm water. Use a pipette to drip the liquid. You can get the pipette in the drugstore. If you buy the disposable one, clean it first with warm water.
- After the mucus is diluted, help baby to secrete it by using mucus sucker. Follow the above steps.
- Press gently the nose and the area around, and then clean it.
- You can help baby’s breathing to feel relieved by massaging gently the nose and area around with soft material while cleaning the mucus. Gentle massage relaxes the baby’s respiratory. This helps the mucus to come out easily.
- Clean up the nose of the dried mucus with wet cotton bud. Clean nose helps baby to breath freely. Be careful while cleaning the nose. Don’t insert the cotton but too deep.
- Breath relieving balm, vapor of cajuput oil in bowl.
- You can smear breath relieving balm specialized for baby in the area of chest, neck and back while giving a gentle massage. Besides giving warmth, the vapor from the balm would as well relieve the blocked nose.
- The other way is by making a kind of simple “nebulizer” by dripping cajuput oil inside a bowl of hot water in a corner of a room, especially in the area where the air is exchanging. Beside aiming to clean the air full of influenza virus, the vapor of cajuput oil also helps baby to breath freely.
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