13 week old unable to breathe at night

[Imnotbeverley]

Does anyone have any experience of a baby so snuffly they can't lie down for extended periods of time? Background- I am an (adult) HDU nurse and this is my second son, so I'm not prone to panicking.

Since birth my son has been snuffly, in hospital they attributed it to his very quick delivery however it soon became apparent that it was more than that (as it has stayed and worsened). We have his crib mattress raised at the head end, and now that he is over 12 weeks I have started having a vaporiser on at night. Have ask tried olbas oil on his blankets and snufflebum on his chest. Literally nothing makes a difference, you can hear the congestion building up behind his nose (it's definitely not his chest) and until recently he would last until about 4am when I would have to sit upright holding him upright so that he could sleep. It's now got so bad that I am upright with him from about midnight and any attempts to lie him back in his crib result in maybe a 20 minute sleep before he starts to choke on secretions/mucous and panicks. It's really quite horrible and distressing.

I raised this with GP at his 8 week check and was told that it was normal and some babies are just like this due to soft cartilidge within the nose. But I just feel that this is beyond the realms of normal now and that perhaps I should ask for an ENT referral? Anyone got any experience of this? Maybe i do just need to let him grow out of it but it is really awful listening to him struggle to draw a breath despite every attempt to help him.

Have you tried saline nasal spray?

My DS was the same, sounded like he had a cold from the day he was born. We eventually got an ENT referral when it became obvious he was suffering with sleep apnoea too, turned out his adenoids were huge, despite very normal tonsils. He had them out when he was 19months and the difference is amazing!
I'd definitely push for a referral if you can, to rule it out if nothing else, I wish I'd pushed harder for DS earlier, we'd have all gotten a lot more sleep!

Oh wow! Thanks, that's a possibility I hadn't thought of.

Yep, tried nasal spray but would rather try to prevent it from actually happening if poss!

Can you try getting some video/audio footage of him at night to take in and show the doctor? So they can see/hear how bad it is?

I had this problem as a child - although I was older, about 4/5 at the time - and it was repeated tonsilitis and massive adenoids. My parents said that whenever I slept it sounded as though I was gasping for breath. Get ENT referral.

Thanks everyone.

I spoke to the GP and agreed it sounds extreme. She asked if he gets sweaty when he sleeps which I didn't realise was an indicator of sleep apnoea but apparently is, and he definitely does! She has done an urgent ENT referral based on our phone conversation and we are going into see her on Friday for a once over. Will defo try to get some audio footage of it, it's pretty awful sounding.

Am now feeling terribly guilty for not pushing sooner!