2 Month Old Too Congested to Eat

Hi K.,
This may sound a little weird, but my youngest daughter had the same issues. She was born stuffy and made almost snorty snoring noises when she sleeped. She did not eat well either. It wasn't until she started spitting up more at 3 months that we got the diagnosis of Gerd. The reason my daughter seemed so stuffy and did not feed well was breast milk was backing up into her throat during feeds and after.(she coughed and sneezed alot for a newborn and also had the hiccups atleast once a day.) We took her to a really good pediatric gastro and they prescribed prevacid for her. She is now 8 months and doing great. I hope that helps
Take care..

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Ester C - vitamin that acts as a natural antihistamine. I crush a half 500 mg tablet up, melt it in a tblspn of warm water and add it to oatmeal, cereal, etc... Don't overdose though because too much can upset the natural yeast balance in a body and cause a yeast infection. The ester form is more easily absorbed by the body and as a rule of thumb- I take 1000 mgs a day during pollen season.
Also at Nature's Outlet there is a bottle of oil they sell called "Olbas" oil and a few drops on your daughter's bib and pillow should decongest her immediately- vitamin takes longer to build in your system. Take care

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Hi K.,

It's J.. Sorry to hear about Kate. Try running the hot water in the shower and holding her in the bathroom. Let the steam decongest her. I had to do that a couple times with Lana and it cleared her right up. You could also try to feed Kate while your in there. Hope it helps!
Best,
J., Sam, and Lana

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Hi K.,

She might be lactose-intolerant. If you are nursing, then you could try to cut out dairy from your diet. If you give her formula, you could start her on Soy formula.

Dairy products can cause chronic congestion. If you are nursing, then you could try soy products ("Silk" brand is the tastiest, I think).

I have two sons who are 21 and 23 and my first had this issue.

Take Care,

S.

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I think I know what you're talking about with the congestion. My third child seemed to always be sick. It seemed like any little thing would turn into an all out major cold...which was a change for us since our first two pretty much never got sick. We finally realized that she has seasonal allergies.

Is it possible your child has allergies of some sort? Maybe that's something worth checking into. Does the pediatrician have any theories for why she's always congested? If you could take care of the congestion, maybe that would solve the eating problem. I definitely remember that when I was still nursing, if they got a cold, it was a nightmare trying to get them to eat. But keep your spirits up. Hopefully you'll turn a corner soon. Good luck!

By the way, about the cystic fibrosis thing, I believe that those are the odds if both parents are carriers for CF (and in theory both parents have to be carriers for you to pass it on to a child). Plus your situation doesn't really sound symptomatic for CF because I think in the CF scenario, your child eats normally but doesn't absorb nutrients properly so you would probably start looking for CF after the child was diagnosed as "failure to thrive" (which I believe is when they are below the 5% index for height and weight). Last week my son actually *was* tested for CF (a sweat test) so I've heard about various symptoms and odds in the past several months. But I'm certainly no expert and in my sons case they didn't actually suspect CF but just wanted to rule it out. But I wouldn't worry about that too much at this point, if I were you.

I had the same problem with my son and I took him to the doctor and he had bronchitis and at 4 months asthma. So you may want to make sure she does not have any of those type of issues.

Hi K.,

Are you sure she is congested? The reason I ask is because when my oldest son was about 2 months I thought he was congested too because he made a funny noise with his nose. So I took him to the doctor. It turned out babies that small don't know how to clear there nasal passages well like we do. We can snort it in to clear it or blow it out. I thought he was sick, but he was fine. I don't know if this might help a little.

D.

Has she been tested for Cystic Fibrosis? I found out this pregnancy that caucasion people have a 1 in 25 chance of giving cystic fibrosis to there children!! I never heard such a thing before but anyways, you may want to get her checked for that because it is pretty serious if so.

My son was the same way - congested from birth it seemed. I used the nasal suction along with saline. And his doctor also prescribed Flonase, although he was a bit older than 2 mo when I started using the Flonase.

Hi K.. We had the same issue. I would use saline, use the sucker and then use the saline again and that seemed to help.

L.

My son was very congested when he was a baby and also spit up a lot. It turns out he had several allergies (nuts, eggs, and pork). Because I was breastfeeding he was being exposed to all of these things regularly. With my second son I avoided all the allergens and had no problems. Depending on your feeding method you could try and either switch to a different formula (soy, lactose free or non-allergenic) or you could try an elimination diet to see if changing your diet changes her symptoms. I would run all of this past your pediatrician as well. That's what they are there for and I'm sure they'd even talk to you about it over the phone._ I've also been told (I cannot verify) that congestion is a symptom of thrush. Good luck to you and congrats on the new baby.

Time to skip the pediatrician and go see an ear/nose/throat specialist. We've had good luck with the group of doctors with ENTAA Care. They have offices in Laurel and Columbia.--T. Content

If she's on formula (soy or milk based)you probably want to check and see if changing her formula to a easy-digestible one (Carnation Good start; Nutramigen). She might be allergic to your current formula or something in your house (pets, etc).

Have you spoken with your pediatrician about this?

My doctor told me to take a hot shower with my baby. That really helped. You can also get a battery operated nasal aspirator. Those make it so much easier to suction out the nose. They sell them at Babies R Us and online.

My suggestion is to stop using the humidifier. From my experance it's more harmful than good. You need your childs nose to dry up not get wet. The humidifier is only incuraging her nose to stay in the condition it's in. When you use it your kind of putting your child in a weather condition change all the time. When she's sleeping it one type of weather but than your daughter goes into real life and there is no excessive humidity and she's getting and keeping a cold from it. They say with children let nature take it's course for the most part. It will resolve it's prob. it's self if you just leave it alone.

Had the ped checked her for reflux?

Are you nursing or bottle feeding her? You're doing the right things for you little one. Don't forget that after putting the saline drops in her nose to wait a few minutes and suction out the mucus that the saline is helping to get rid of.

By the way, what is NILD Educational Therapy?