4 month old with cough and cold - advice needed please

[Ditsy79]

Hi, my DD has been suffering from a cold and cough for the past few days. She is okay in herself, and I have been giving her Calpol and saline nasal drops before feeds. I have also been using kid's olbas oil on a tissue to try and unblock her nose.
The cough is quite chesty, and her breathing sounds a bit wheezy.
She is feeding normally, and doesn't have a fever,so I think it is probably a virus.
Anyway, I was wondering if anyone had any ideas of how I can help her get the phlegm up off her chest.
Thanks.

Raise one end of the cot book under mattress or legs if stable.
Steamy environment helps - you can buy a steamer for about £20 or less. Tricky to use with an older child around though.
If you can take it easy and have her nap on you so she is more upright. She'll probably be clingy and feeding badly/all the time anyway so book in some takeaways, some boxsets and plan a quiet weekend.
I sprinkle some Olbas oil on the sheets
Mumsnet swears by rubbing Vicks onto the soles of their feet before bed for a cough. Weird and haven't tried it myself.
If her breathing is laboured or she seems in any difficulty see your GP today before the weekend and get her checked out. There's a virus called RV which is not generally good news.
Dont give her a decongestant medicine. They are useless for the under 5's.
If my two had a chest cold I generally put them to sleep on their sides rather than on their backs. It's against SIDS advice though so you will need to think about that. They usually roll back onto their backs but it helps with the settling down.

Please take her to the doctors. She's 4m old! She's wheezy and has a chesty cough. Yes it's prob viral. May be RSV. Point is it's v easy to miss how sick a baby is until they're really poorly.

I'd be the last one to advocate going for a little sniffle, but a wheezy 4m old? Off to the doctors IMO. She may need an inhaler for the viral induced wheeze, may not.

Rsv can be pretty nasty for example even though it's a virus.

Your doing all the rigth things but you need to take her to docter to cheak her chest it could be infection when my dd was 4 months wiht same symptoms took her to docter and he called us an ambulance spent 7 days on childrens ward I ternd out to b rsv (brochitus) she needed extra oxygen dont want to scare you but please call docter its probably just virus but its better to be safe

Thanks for the advice. I have just booked an appointment with the GP for later on this afternoon.

That's great. Hope she's better soon.

DS had RSV at 8m and needed an inhaler and steroids but didn't need hospital, though came a bit close for comfort and I still remember staying awake one night to make sure his breathing was ok.

Really glad hope its just a cold xx

Just thought I'd post a quick update. Took DD to the GP this afternoon - he put her straight on a nebuliser. It was so scary at the time, but her breathing is much better now. If she starts wheezing again, the GP advised us to take her to hospital as she might need to go on the nebuliser again. Fingers crossed it doesn't come to that though.
Thanks again to those of you who gave me advice.

Glad she's OK for now but agree with the earlier posters. Always better to be safe than sorry with such a young baby. The doctors would much rather see them & it be just a sniffle!

A bowl of hot water & a wet towel on the radiator in her bedroom can help, keeping her head & shoulders raised, frequent feeds, nasal spray & one of those snot suckers you can get from the chemist. But the second that wheeze returns, get her seen.

Hope she is better soon.

Thanks for the update OP.

Hope she sleeps well and continues to improve.

If she does wake overnight and is poorly and your not sure if she needs help, please don't wait, don't bother with nhs direct, just go straight to a&e. If in doubt, just go. Babies go from a bit sick to very sick very fast and at 4am it can be easy to doubt your gut feeling and not want to bother anyone.

Fingers crossed she's over the worst.

Everything barberry said hope you both sleep well