6 day old breathing

[Irishgirl55]

Hi. New mum hear and obviously panicked about every little thing.

Baby seems to have a stuffy nose and his breathing sounds quite heavy.

He will also startle himself and then pant until he calms down a bit.

Are these normal?! Or should I take a trip to hospital (trying to avoid because of the virus but not at the detriment to his health)

Thanks!

congratulations. can you count his breathing for 60 seconds? normal for new babies to be sightly stuffy and very erratic breathers, breaths per minute should be between 40-60 ish

As the PP says, it could be totally normal. Have you taken his temperature and is that normal?

The startling is his mora reflex and normal don't worry, I pooped my self the first time mine did it 😂. Babies have odd snuffly breathing too.

Don't worry you're doing great and congrats on your baby.

Congratulations!

My 6 week old baby is the same re the stuffy nose. He has had it from just a few weeks old and still has it now. My HV said that it's because babies nasal passages are so narrow, anything such as scents, the slightest bit of dust in the air etc can make their noses stuffy and sounds worse than it actually is! I use saline nasal drops in my babies nose every now and then. Recently just ordered some more from amazon. It works really well in terms of softening any snot or bogies up there! My little one usually sneezes soon after I put the drops in and he sounds clearer almost instantly.

Again with the breathing, my HV said the erratic breather is normal. So much so they actually pause when taking a breath at times which worried me a lot at the beginning!

It's normal to worry about a lot as a new mum. I'm 6 weeks in and still google every little thing!

His temp is normal, I’ll try and count his breaths.

He’s not a massive eater either. Taking between 40/65 every 3/4 hours but doesn’t generally wake to be fed. I have to convince him!

He will be quite quiet and then be a little erratic and calm himself and just sounds very congested!

Thanks for your replies. Just panic about every little thing.

If he's not waking to be fed, I'd try him every 2 hours in the day, definitely not more than 3 and every 4 hours at night.

This article on feeding sleepy babies is aimed at BFers but should have some useful tips

Our DS was also panty after a feed I asked the midwife and she said perfectly normal as they tire themselves out feeding. If he's snuffly maybe try sitting with him in the bathroom with a hot shower running to get the room steamy it might help clear his airways