Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Kael's First Few Weeks/ Common Cold 101


The first few weeks of Kael's life was hectic. My family had gone to North Carolina because my younger brother had just finished boot camp for the Marines. They were going to bring him home after he got his award. While they were gone I fell into postpardom depression. I never thought that would happen to me after my first child. I thought every thing was going to be just great and joyous. I usually am the type of person that is always happy and I can get myself out of a funk pretty easily, but I had no control over the baby blues. With the drop in hormones and the idea of my family being gone I could not help but cry over the smallest thing. I was nervous because I thought I was not doing things right with Kael. Walter did not know how to help me but tried to just stay out of the way and tend to my needs as much as possible. Walter also went back to work three days after Kael was born and that also made me emotional because now I am here alone with the baby, recovering from surgery, and no family to lean on.

Once my family got back they all came over and my brother, Ryan, got to meet Kael for the first time. I was very emotional to have him and my mother there. I kept asking my mom if she thought I was doing a good job with the baby. I really needed that reassurance that I was doing good taking care of the baby and that every thing would be okay.

Taking Care of a Cold for Infants
At 8 weeks Kael got his first cold. I noticed that he had a little bit of a runny nose. I called the doctor and they said that it is not a good idea to give him any medicine unless he was running a fever. He said to monitor him and just wait it out. What I failed to do was clean his nose out with the suction to make sure that bacteria was not growing in the extra mucous in his sinuses.
When mucous starts multiplying due to the common cold it harbors bacteria and the bacteria starts to grow, as well. Once this happens the bacteria in the mucous leads to the infants ears and causes an ear infection. An ear infection is almost 100% of the time a secondary symptom to a cold. The infant doesn't just start out with an ear infection. They start out as a cold and then when the mucous is not drained or suctioned out it turns into an ear infection.

I failed to clean out as much mucous as possible because he hated when I suctioned his nose and I didn't learn how to correctly get a good strong suction. I did learn that you have to do what ever it takes to get that mucous out. It takes suctioning the nose 8-10 times a day until the cold is gone or the mucous is gone.

Suctioning the nose out is a skill. I actually hold one side of the babies nose to close it off and put the suction in the other nostril. This seems to be the best way to get a strong suction for deep mucous caught in the sinuses. The infants nose may not always drip or run so this is the only way to get the thick mucous out.

Using a humidifier and some Vick's vapor rub is also a good tool to loosen up thick mucous in the infants nose.

Okay, there was your common cold 101. The worst thing is having a newborn or infant with a cold. They are unable to communicate to you verbally what is wrong and they can not blow their own nose to get mucous out, so the only way is doing it for them. I have noticed that the more I was my hands the less we are all sick in our house.

Once a baby has an ear infection there is fear that comes along with it We all hear that a lot of babies have ear problems because the tubes in their ears are not mature and are lying horizontally instead of lying on a tilt so they will drain Multiple ear infections usually result in putting tubes in the babies ears to help them drain properly. The doctors told me not to get worried about that now because this is only the common cold and not the result of the ears not draining properly.

The doctor did tell me to make sure water did not get in his ears while we took him a bath. I made sure of that every time we took him a bath and he has been ear infection free ever since.

So, next time your child gets the common cold follow those few tips and that will keep them out of the doctor's office and off antibiotics. The goal is to have the child's body fight it off and takes its course.

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