Colds - how long should they last?

[MammyShirl]

My dd is 9 months, I noticed she had a cold the day before xmas eve. She still has it now, the snot has changed from clear to yellow to almost back to clear but since yesterday she has started to cough not all the time but she was not doing it before. She is not wheezing although sometimes after feeding I can hear her milk as not gone totally down so I reckon its phelm. She is also teething, although it does not seem to bother her I wanted to know how long this should last, not sure if I should take her to the docs for a check up? I have reduced her milk slightly to reduce phelm and offer her more water. She is a bad eater anyway but has gone off her food and only wants to eat fruit purees so I have been mixing in baby rice to bulk it up.
I was sure i read somewhere taht colds last 7 - 10 days, if so she has had it 12 days and is it common to get a cough at the end (which i think is the phelm). Also any tips on getting more nourishmnet into her when her appetite is down?

I thought colds were supposed to last up to 3 weeks. I always get a 5-6 week cold when first pregnant, though.

According to our GP the cold that is currently doing the rounds lasts about 3 weeks (I'd taken dd2 with exactly the same question...)

My ds seems to have had a runny nose and a cough that keeps coming and going for the last 3 weeks. I was going to take him to the docs as well as although he is bright, appetite good etc I didn't think it was right for him to still be snotty. I am reassured that the others are experiencing the same, I suddenly thought yesterday that maybe it was an allergy or something!

MammyShirl - my doc said to me, when my ds wasn't eating well because he had really bad throat infection, not to worry too much about what he ate as babies are good self medicators and he will make up for it later. I was fairly sceptical but as soon as he was better he ate for Britain for about 3 days.

My ds seems to have had a runny nose and a cough that keeps coming and going for the last 3 weeks. I was going to take him to the docs as well as although he is bright, appetite good etc I didn't think it was right for him to still be snotty. I am reassured that the others are experiencing the same, I suddenly thought yesterday that maybe it was an allergy or something!

MammyShirl - my doc said to me, when my ds wasn't eating well because he had really bad throat infection, not to worry too much about what he ate as babies are good self medicators and he will make up for it later. I was fairly sceptical but as soon as he was better he ate for Britain for about 3 days.

doh

hello, thanks for replying.

wow 3 weeks or more? thats a long time and someone told me children have up to 10 colds a year? is that true? if they last up to 3 weeks im in for a lot of snot!!!... nice!

Im not normally an "over the top" mother but she has had two colds before which lasted under a week so this time i was surprised that it has not started to dry up yet.

motherinferior - did your dd2 have a little cough too?

Also I forgot to mention that I have noticed lately that she has bad breath, this is before she got the cold - not sure if it is related to the cold. i dont think she ahs a sore throat. i ahve tried to brush her only two teeth bit so far its been impossible... actually thats another thread.

anyway any more advice on the breath would help.

hi mammyshirl
Yup, babies can get colds and similar every 4 or 5 weeks - its all part of them building up their immune system, look at it this way, the more she catches now, the better she will be at fighting them off when she goes to school
If she has a lot of phlegm, this could contribute to her bad breath - it often results in a furry film on the tongue and throat which smells
Best thing to do I think is make sure she has plenty of fluids - preferably water and / or watered down orange juice - keep wiping her nose and wait for it to pass.
Take her to the GP if there is any indication of ear infection, or a cough that is very troublesome, or of course, a high temperature. Most coughs, colds, sore throats etc are viral and the only thing you can do is let them run their course and treat the symptoms.
Can't help you with the teeth issue though, perhaps your dentist could advise you on the best way of bribing her

oh, and sometimes one cold can run into another, or another so it can seem that A cold has lasted 4 or 6 weeks, when in fact its 2 or 3 different viral infections
My grandmother used to say if you take something for a cold it will go in a fortnight, if you don't take anything it will go in two weeks!
We can put men on the moon but we have little defence against viruses!

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mammyshirl my ds is still suffering with a cold he started 19/12, still coughing well but iss happy with it. They do seem to take forever some of them

A friend of mine did exactly the same as Motherinferior and was also told 3-4 weeks. I've still got it to the point of disturbed sleep every night and I've been like this for around 4 weeks now. It seems that this current bug is a stayer .

My sleep is also disturbed because I can't breathe either and can't take decongestants because I'm breastfeeding

Yep, a cough too. Doc checked her lungs, to my relief.

It may amuse you to know btw that this doctor is the one who told me a couple of years ago that a baby's - MINOR - virus could last, oh, a month or so, and that said baby was doubtless infectious during that time and that I should probably keep dd1 away from other children during this time (er....like how am I supposed to WORK?) - however, curiously enough the two children said doc has now acquired seem to have made him rather more human/realistic these days!

M'Inferior: Pseudoephedrine (check varieties of Sudafed) is ok to take when br'feeding; it won't hurt the baby in ordinary doses (source=Hales). But may reduce milk supply so would only avoid if you have milk supply problems.