At breaking point with 6 month old congestion

[Moonshine160]

6 month old has struggled with congestion since birth. He was born quickly and the midwives said how mucusy he was on his chest and nose. He’s caught many colds from DS1 which probably hasn’t helped but the congestion never ever clears. For the last 3 weeks it’s been that bad that from 4am onwards me and DH have to take it in turns to sit in bed holding him upright because if he lies flat he can’t breathe at all from his nose, so once of us is always up from 4am and he wakes frequently overnight too. The congestion seems to build overnight after he’s been lying flat and in the early hours it’s terrible. I am broken from lack of sleep.
I’ve been to the doctors about it twice and all I’ve been told is that it should improve in summer or “some babies are just snuffly”.

Things I’ve consistently tried: calpol vapour plug, snuffle babe on chest/back/feet, olbas oil, saline spray, saline drops, breastmilk in nose, snot sucker, bulb syringe, having his crib on an incline, bought a humidifier for the bedroom, I take him in the bathroom with me when I have a shower to see if the steam helps. Nothing works. I don’t know what else to do.

It affects his feeding too and he’s only on the second centile but has been on this track since birth.

Any advice please?

Has it been considered whether he has CMPA, or is sensitive to another allergen? Allergies often cause congestion.

Have they ruled out other medical issues
I think i would push for some more intervention

Dairy allergy. Nasal congestion was my middles biggest sign of Non IgE cmpa ( formerly known as an 'intolerence' )

I see you're breastfeeding. Cut out dairy for 6 weeks, keep dairy free when weaning. If no improvement after 6 week, consider removing soya too. Join ' breastfeeding with CMPA and Other Food allergies' on Facebook 🙂

I did consider CMPA when he was younger but was told by GP that it was unlikely. He did have other symptoms but a lactation consultant found a posterior tongue tie which helped a lot with his reflux type symptoms. He has always had eczema too though which is interesting. He does catch a lot of colds so it’s hard to know if it’s just those that have caused congestion, but even between the colds it never clears up.

It’s like he isn’t even snotty, when I used the snot suckers nothing actually comes out, the congestion is really high up or caused by inflammation. Both myself and my dad had deviated septums which required surgery so I’m even wondering if it’s something like that. I am going to pester the GP again. It’s really affecting my mental health having to hold him to sleep because I’m so exhausted. DH is working away at the moment so it’s all on me.

I am a 2 x allergy mum ( 1 is dairy and soya, the other is dairy, soya and egg ) so I am free of all of those allergens myself and have been for 3.5 years now.

GPs and Hvs are largely useless when it comes to allergies, they don't know their arse f rom their elbow.

Honestly, cut the Dairy. The worst that will happen is nothing but it may potentially solve all of your issues. You don't need permission from anyone to cut the dairy out and when/if you've been dairy free and see a change, then go back to the GP with your proof and get a dietician referral.

He has the occasional bottle of formula (around 3 per week when I have an early night) and since we’ve started weaning he’s had cows milk mixed in with porridge and weetabix and I’ve not noticed a worsening to his congestion or eczema. Could it still be CMPA?

Eczema is rooted in a gut condition, it is not it's own dermatological condition as is viewed by conventional medicine.

Yes it could still be CMPA irrespective of how much or little dairy is being consumed.

It could be if he's having formula as he's already got cows milk in his system. You'd need to remove all dairy so the formula and cows milk too ( oatly barista is a great alternative for food and for you ). You'd need to get a DF formula from the GP or pump/stop the for the 6 week period

If you get no further with th GP. Could you afford a private consultation with a specialist.

I don’t know if this will help but I have used it on myself and my daughter when she was younger (10).

Very gentle massage around the nose and sinus spaces. I don’t know how it works to be honest, but it usually works on me.

I do it most when I have a cold and wake in the morning totally blocked and often with a banging headache. I might need to massage for about 10 minutes and I’d say it works 80% of the time. I will find I can now breathe through my nostrils.

It sounds like you have tried everything and there’s lots of good ideas on this thread.

My mother had a theory that doctors don’t take you seriously until your third visit with the same complaint.

This must be so hard for you. You have my every sympathy.

Hi @Moonshine160,
Did you ever get to the bottom of this or have things got any better for you?
my little one is coming up for 6 months now and I could have written this post myself!
just looking for some possible light at the end of the tunnel!!

Hi - just wondering if things got any better for you? We are in a very similar situation and getting no sleep for months now! We have similar nose issues running in family and allergies but feel lost with what direction to go in!

@Sunshine92 and same to you - has anything changed? Would love to hear if you’ve figured it out or had any success with anything! We are at breaking point.

@Sunshine92 are you experiencing the same problem? Would be interested to hear what’s going on for you and what you’ve tried… we are really really struggling, the lack of sleep is killing us all

@Deedee1988 hi,
Our little girl just turned 1 and thankfully has seemed to grow out of it. She was about 8/9 months when it improved.

we were totally at our wits end though and tried ABSOLUTELY everything.

hopefully your little one will also grow out of it! - I’m sorry I’ve not really given you a ‘fix it’ answer and I know how hard it is when you are in the thick of it with no sleep.

our little ones sleep has improved massively and she only wakes once in the night now - which is a huge improvement.

sending some energy your way!

Sorry to those I hadn’t replied to.
My little boy also seemed to improve around the 8 month mark which was around late spring time when he was getting fewer colds. I think constant cold viruses combined with never recovering from the 4 month sleep regression were big factors where sleep was concerned. It felt awful when we were going through it. Nothing we bought over the counter seemed to help. However we also discovered at 7 months that he has congenital heart disease which was causing a lot of respiratory issues for him so in our case that was definitely a factor too.

@Sunshine92 @Moonshine160 thank you for your replies and the hope! Here’s hoping we find ourselves in a similar situation with improvement! I managed to eat some cream over Christmas by mistake (had been trying dairy free for a while) and he had a very prominent bad reaction with mega congestion flare up too - so I think we’ve finally pinpointed it’s all connected to CMPA/allergies! Good to have some understanding at least!