First cold

[pudding25]

DD (6mths) appears to have her first little cold

Last night, she went to bed as usual just before 7pm then woke up about every 30 mins until 11pm (dreamfeed). I wasn't sure if she was teething or snotty so I gave her some calpol at 8pm and some ambesol. Didn't make much difference.

She had her dreamfeed at 11pm but would not settle so we got her up, gave her some saline drops, played for a while, gave more calpol at 12pm and she eventually fell asleep at 12.45pm (thankfully slept until 8am).

Is there anything I should be doing? She is still snotty this morning but seems fine (but colds are always worse at night).

I have given her some more saline drops.

Is calpol appropriate for colds? Should I get some baby olbas oil?

Or could a snotty nose be a sign of teething?

Any advice for a neurtic mum with a pfb would be much appreciated

Have you tried one of the olbas or karvol vapourisers? Basically like a plug in air-freshner, but has the mentol vapours. Worked really well with mine - but cost a bit - about £6 for the pug, then £4 for 3 refills - each refill lasts about 3 nights.

Sorry - you can find them with the karvol/olbas in the childrens medicine section in Boots or similar

I found ibuprofen works better than paracetamol and it tends to knock them out a bit too.
You can get some baby chest rub that's suitable I think from 3 months and I use Kalvol decongestion(sp) capsules that you squirt on a cloth in the room that aids breathing.
Try tilting the mattress up a bit too. Could be a sign of teething, look out for other signs too.

Thanks. Just went to Tesco pharmacy and they recommended the kalvol capsules and the chest rub. We just put some on her before her nap. I think I will invest in one of the vapourisers (and dig out the Ipuprofen too!).

I woudln't use ibruprofen unless she has a high temperature that you can't bring down with just calpol.

It's good that she's six months old before she has her first cold. My ds is just four weeks and has had a cold all this week.

Belgo, I would have thought Ibuprofen is pretty comparable to paracetamol - no?
some people just respond better to one than the other.
DS for example gets a bit dozey onCalpolbut not Nurofen, but lots of children are the opposite.

From personal experience, ibuprofen has worked better for us.
There's also all of that recently about the effects of usng paracetamol in regards to asthma at age 5. I personally don't have a problem using calpol and do still use it, just noticed that ibuprofen worked quicker and would lull him a bit at bedtime