5 week old baby badly congested at night, at wits end

[Becky199327]

Hi all,

My 5 week old DS is severely co guested at night to the point where he wakes himself up after 5 minutes of putting him down. Day time he isn't so bad and can go down.

I'm just at my wits end because I've literally tried everything under the sun. We've taken him to the doctors and he has a mild cold so we've been given saline drops to help with his feeding, although he's still feeding fine and he got weighed today and is plotting perfectly. We've put a muslin under mattress to raise it, swaddled him, used snuffle baby vapour in the room, bought a cool mist humidifier, there's not much else we can try. He can only sleep at night held up and on the odd occasion I've fallen asleep with him in my arms which I feel so guilty about like I'm terrible mum as I know it's not safe. I prop myself up with so many cushions and wrap my arms around him so he can't go anywhere but I still don't want to do it.

I felt like the HV judges me when I told her this but I don't know what else I can possibly try. I've been told this is normal and some babies can just be congested and to just wait it out, but what am I supposed to do until then??

Just want to do right by my son in a safe way for him 😭😭😭😭

I don’t know if you can still get them, but I used to have a little rubbery syringe type thing that you could use to get some of the snot out.

It sounds like reflux to me

Try a nasal aspirator, can get them in Boots.

I just looked at Amazon, they have loads of types of baby nose suckers.

I don't know what the magic answer is, as you sound like you are doing absolutely everything . Maybe let him try to rest in a rocking chair, if you have one? Then he would be propped up safely and if he sleeps you can rest nearby in thr settee.

Hang in there. It's nothing a bit of growing won't cure 🙂

I suppose I could try but he doesn't seem to have snot up there, just sounds co guested but i could try. I guess you can't always see it? Doctor said his chest is clear but sounds so gaspy 😰

You 100% need a snot sucker if you haven’t already tried it.
Use saline spray first and the suck the snot out (very grim) and do it befor a feed and sleep.
I still have to use it with my toddler when very congested and snotty!
Absolute life saver

DC2 was exactly the same at 5 weeks but he's easier to put down now at almost 11 weeks. I'm afraid I just slept with him in my arms/on my chest to get through those early weeks- I started a post on here to make sure there weren't any tricks I was missing on how to get him to settle laying on his back! He now sleeps relatively well co sleeping safely in my bed, and sleeps much better and is less 'congested' on his side. It's likely a reflux thing, so keep him upright for 20 minutes after feeding and make sure he's had a good wind before putting him down.

Could you sleep with him in a baby carrier? Just to mitigate the risk of dropping g him? How's he if you try co-sleeping?

@vanillaskies

Could you sleep with him in a baby carrier? Just to mitigate the risk of dropping g him? How's he if you try co-sleeping?

Don't do that!

Sleeping with him on you is so unsafe, you'd never forgive yourself if he suffocated.

Could you get an Angelcare apnea monitor and try him on his tummy?

at Sleeping with him in a baby carrier suggestion!

I have also slept with DS on me a few times like a PP (planned and positioned not fallen asleep accidentally) because honestly the sleep deprivation would have killed me first if not.

When he was really congested I had eucalyptus oil drops in one of those mist diffusers.

My friend’s baby had a dairy allergy and the only symptom was being congested at night.

My baby slept like that on me for the first 3 months even without a cold………

DD sounded as you describe, and doctor thought it was because of her reflux, and suggested holding upright for 10 mins after feeds, and using books to raise one end of the cot, with towels down the other end of the cot to stop her sliding down. Got better but could just have been her growing that fixed it

DS2 had a snotty cold which bunged his nose up at 6 weeks. We raised the head end of the cot slightly and on the advice of HV slept him on his side- used the sheets to hold him fast in that position - eventually he’d roll onto his back though. One night he struggled to breathe for a few seconds and I woke up to him thrashing about in the cot. I grabbed him and he breathed - never been so frightened in my life. Had his checkup the next day and the G P reassured me that he would not have died!
I would get one of those snot suckers and keep going with the snuffle babe and be reassured that it will pass soon.

@LapinR0se

It sounds like reflux to me

I was going to say the same. Does DC have anything like eczema, hiccups etc?

Use saline drops then a snot sucker thing. You'll be amazed what comes out 😳

He soes have hiccups after about half his feeds. I've tried raising mattress and it doesn't help. I also keep him upright for 20 to 25 mins after every feed and burp him and burps do come out, but I put hik down and 5 minutes later he's congested again.

I can't cosleep we only have 1 bed and my partner uses it as he's a lorry driver doing 12 hour shifts so I don't want him to fall asleep at the wheel with no sleep. I wouldn't trust myself not to roll over, which is ironic considering he's currently sleeping in my arms. Are there other symptoms of reflux? I might discuss this with the doctor, just so tired and scared when I hear him thrashing and choking. :(

Thrashing and choking = reflux

@Becky199327 did you get to the bottom of this? Going through this just now 😭

Actually i did - when he was this old he was on tommee tippee bottles and he became really gassy and started refusing to feed from them. We switched to MAM bottles on a slow/mid teat and it worked wonders, he fed a lot more and in turn seemed to self settle for sleep. We had also tried a number of formulas and he seemed to settle on Cow and Gate. I think the root cause of it was his feeding so if you havent tried that, i would maybe try somethig linked to feeding. Obviously if you're breast feeding then Id be at a loss.