To take my newborn to a&e?

[SleepForTheWeek]

Posting for traffic.

DD is almost 5 weeks old and has been very congested and mucousy since birth. I know this can be quite normal and Inwas told it would probably be the case and I was told she would probably be like that due to how quickly she was delivered.

The mucous that she manages to get out is usually quite green and can be blood tinged.

I've been issuing saline spray/drops and a nasal aspirator (which has been quite effective at getting visible bogies out). HV doesn't seem too concerned and is confident it will pass.

However, it's getting worse. Night times are horrendous as she can't lie flat for too long as she starts choking and spluttering.

We traveled to family today and it was quite a long journey, DD started struggling near the end breathing, she was coughing and really raspy, couldn't breath through her nose etc.

Since we've arrived she hasn't got much better and her breathing is so raspy, she sounds really uncomfortable.

She doesn't have a temp and although can get quite distressed when she can't breathe through her nose she seems to be content enough.

Is there anything I should do? Should I take her up to a&e for them to check her over or am I being a bit precious?

X

We've been seen and of course DD has been absolutely fine since arriving! Has pretty much slept grouch everything. Her oxygen levels are good and chest sounds clear. Throat and ears are fine.

Just waiting to get the all clear from the paediatric team

Slept *through Everything

Glad you've been seen, I'm glad she's ok xx

If she's struggling to sleep on back, you could put her on side or back for daytime naps when you will be around and staying close to her Or get her to sleep on side (prop with a rolled towel behind her back) then gently roll on to back once she's asleep.

Doh - that was obviously meant to say 'side or front'...

They think she's possibly got a virus, just to keep doing what we are doing. Hopefully it clears soon.

No. No to suggesting side sleeping or cot raising for a NEWBORN with breathing difficulties. OP has said it since birth, so there's a reason for this that needs investigating.

No to suggesting side sleeping in general too, unless they're basically sleeping on you.

Raising the head end of the cot is generally good advice, but with a tiny one you need to make a sure they're at the foot of the cot, and a hammock under the sheet to make sure they don't slip sideways. Roll up a sheet into a very long tube. Make it into a U shape around where baby sleeps, and put a sheet over. Babies bum sits at the bottom of the U, and it holds them in a good position if theyre in a upright cot.

Disclaimer - this is standard on my ward, but obviously they're monitored beds. It's not something you should do without medical advice

DD's was diary intolerance, she still snores though lol

Sleep - I'm guessing you've mostly been holding her upright most of the time?

Keep a close eye tonight. You'll wake if anything is wrong (trust me), but for now I'd go with the dairy theory and stay off that, hopefully things will improve.

I took my newborn DD for this last month. It's bloody scary and tiring too as they constantly seem unable to breathe don't they

We are settled back at my DMs house, DH and I will take shifts holding her upright if it comes to that but for now she's sleeping soundly.

Thanks for all advice and well wishes for my DD

Just to let you know that bowel movements in breastfeeding babies change at about 6 weeks anyway. It's always typical that they are grand when you go to get a prof opinion! My DS has been muscousy since birth (he's now 1) he was a section baby so it seemed normal at first but was accompanied by a rasping sound which was worrisome for me.
I spoke to quite a few medical professionals whose opinions varied from he has a cold to I can't hear anything to he might have pneumonia! Anyway in the end he was diagnosed with Laryngomalcia. Which is totally harmless and he'll grow out of it. Just an idea if the noisy breathing continues.

My DD was like this. It turned out to be severe reflux. Get her checked. We didn't piece it all together until she was around 13months and endured hell until that point.

Bunty what were the other signs of the reflux? How was she diagnosed?

Hoochy has something great advice there particularly no. 4.
Watching for stomach and trachea.
So glad you got her checked op. At least you can rest easy for you few hours
Just remember though things can change quickly. Good luck. My dd had stomach thing, breathing issues, I was totally unaware of it, she was rushed through a waiting room full of sick dc, straight onto nebuliser and oxygen.

DS had reflux and made horrible spluttering, choking sounds when lying on his back. Eventually one night I did what I shouldn't have done, and put him to sleep in a bouncer. I couldn't bear the noise, he sounded like he was drowning Needless to say I got no sleep while this was happening.

He was put on ranitidine and it was better within hours. We stopped using it at five months.

The mucus was the first sign. Literally, she has all this snot from the day she was born. She was also a really posset-y baby, constantly being sick if she wasn't upright. She couldn't sleep laid flat, she had to be at an angle. She had green poop. She got much worse when we moved her from her hammock to her cot, as the hammock kept her at a great angle for sleeping - she was a fantastic sleeper in it, and then, overnight, literally stopped sleeping.

We didn't think about reflux or connect the dots (as she had slept so well for 6 months), until a friend watched her crawling one day when she was about 8 months, and she was just constantly being sick, and I mentioned that I was always washing.

That started us on the path to diagnosis. We got ranitidine, and eventually on the highest dose, she started sleeping again, at 14 months old. 8 months of hell where she'd only cat nap. The runny nose is STILL here, she's been left with a lot of issues despite the reflux being away. She has some hearing issues for which she has grommets, and she had her adenoids removed in Feb to try and sort the mucus, but it's still pretty awful.

Dd2 was a very gunky baby. She was cmpi

Some aptamil pepti and voila all the funny breathing the mucous the mottled skin and the discomfort of being on her back disappeared.

But

They will tell you it's reflux.

111 will send you to a&e. Ds at 21 days old got blue lighted to a&e for what turned out to be bronchilitis. As soon as you say tiny baby and breathing issues to 111 they will want the baby to be seen asap.

Hope she's ok and you're ok. The worry is awful xx

Well, it may be reflux. I went completely dairy and soy free (she was breastfed), and nothing helped my DD except ranitidine in high doses.

There are a lot of avenues to investigate.

Mollyfolk, mine has laryngomalacia and trachaeomalacia. They're not harmless, it depends on how severe. For many babies it's a case of loud breathing and rattling. In our DS case it was towards the severe end and he had to be nursed through every cold because he went into respiratory distress and could have died, approximately every 3 weeks.

No nursery or nanny would take him, we had to keep him away from other children, people smoking in the street etc. He is improved now, but at 4 still has problems with breathing, as does a 7 year old at DD's school, also with laryngomalacia.

Note reflux can be on its own, but it can also go along with largyngo/trachaeolmalacia (floppy tissues in all cases).

Babies with larynx/trachaeomalacia typically are fine by the time you get to the hospital, and can go up and down quickly. GPs won't recognise it, even our city hospital paediatricians didn't know it. It required referral to the respiratory specialist centre in another city.

We knew DS had reflux because it was like something from a horror film, spouts of vomit arcing over metres. Some babies have silent reflux where you don't see the vomit but they're utterly miserable because of the acid. Gxviscon did a little, ranitidine is the more effective drug.