Difficult choices

[Teeki]

My little guy has also had plenty of trips to hospital with bronchiolitis (thankfully not icu, that's rough Lily Dust). The times he's been sick with breathing difficulties but it hasn't escalated to bronchiolitis, it's been an upper respiratory infection. So his nose, throat, just before his lungs. When this happens we need to clear it out before he gets worse or no one will be sleeping and he'll get sicker.

So, unfortunately for us, this means nasal spray, nose sucker, and if it's quite bad an inhaler with a spacer (he has narrow airways so this helps). Now that he's older he's fine with everything except the inhaler, that's a two person job. He hates it and it's hard to do. But really, our options are to do what it takes to get him better early, or do nothing and wait until it's bad enough for a trip to hospital which is much worse.

I know you're looking for a gentle answer. I prefer gentle methods myself. But when it comes to things like this, you do what you have to do. Get it done, it'll be over quickly, and he'll feel better after when he can breathe clearly and can have a cuddle with mum and dad then have a good sleep.

[Teeki]

Another thing that might help, is talking to him and demonstrating everything you'll do. If you need to use the spray again, do it to yourself first. Tell him everything you're doing and why, and hold him while you're doing it. My husband and I pretended to use our son's inhaler, our daughtr even showed him it was ok. He laughed about the whole thing but after 15 minutes still wouldn't have a bar of it on himself. So we just explained we were going to hold him and he would have 4 puffs then big hugs from everyone. He still hated the inhaler but he knew what was happening.

[kristi14]

Sorry to hear you have just experienced your first cold with your little one. Firsts are always either joyous or hard. One thing that works brilliantly at clearing their noses without having to even go near their face is putting vicks or similar on their feet and then a pair of socks. Sounds incredibly strange but it works, i do it all the time, even with my bigger kids. I then rub whats left on my hands on their chest and you can even try some on a tissue put under their pillowcase or sheet where they lay so they get the smell but no risk of it getting into their eyes either by hand transfer or rolling on it. As has been mentioned, Vapourisers with eucalyptus or similar in it also help but seriously try the feet thing.

[Nikola Novak]

Hi all and thanks for your answers!

But when it comes to things like this, you do what you have to do.

Yeah, that was our rationale as well, but that doesn't mean we like it better now.

Another thing that might help, is talking to him and demonstrating everything you'll do. If you need to use the spray again, do it to yourself first.

That's what we did with the manual sucker when the problem wasn't so huge. He laughed at it, but still didn't like having it near his face, even though he didn't cry (actually, he tried to eat it). This new sucker attaches to a vacuum cleaner and can pull out much more (and I'm surprised by how much stuff can fit in there) and he doesn't like it, but it was the only option now. Manual just didn't cut it, and like I said, all the moisturizers and essential oils were as if they weren't there.

One thing that works brilliantly at clearing their noses without having to even go near their face is putting vicks or similar on their feet and then a pair of socks.

You mean Vicks VapoRub? It's not available in my country, unfortunately. But I suppose any rub/balm with menthol in it would do?