congested 7mth old and a mum who wants a little more sleep!

[nellieloula]

Hello ? I?m hoping someone can help! My 7.5 mth DD has become really congested over the last few months (mostly from picking up her big brothers pre-school germs) and it is playing havoc with night sleep. She is fine during the day, a bit snuffly but nothing that stops her from giggling away! She settles great at night and can go from 7 -11ish and at that point wakes up cause she can?t breathe. She then wants to b/f to clear her nose. Then she wakes up every 2 or 3 hrs to do the same. The last few nights it has also taken a lot longer to settle her back down. I?ve tried elevating the bed, olbas oil, steam etc gave her medised last night - she slept til 1 but was still up at 3.30, 4.30 and 5.30.

I know she can be a great sleeper ? when she?s fine she can go 7-3 no problem; and I keep thinking that it will just ease itself, but I think it is now becoming a habit. Does anyone have any thoughts???

I suggest co-sleeping, then at least you don't have to wake so fully each time.

thanks - yes, am doing that too! let's see what tonight brings!

Probably really obvious, but we found that Karvol capsules helped with this. Put one on a cloth tied around the cot - out of reach of little fingers. And also a drop or two of Nasosal before bed to clear congestion and/or baby vapour rub. I know you can't keep medicating her over the course of months, but perhaps a few nights of it will get you over the worst.

I found one of the plug-in's worked wonders - we used to put a couple of the drops on a tissue before bed but the smell wore-out over night. We now use a Karvol (I think) plug-in and the smell is much longer lasting and seems to keep DS (11 months) un-congested and asleep for longer. They are expensive but I find a good night's sleep is worth every penny!

Got a humidifier to help with my horrific congestion/asthma/breathing difficulties... Noticed an immediate effect. Now we find it helps our DSes and have it in their bedroom. Humidifiers can be very expensive and quite fiddley. I found this one is pretty straightforward and effective and a reasonable price.

...and you can put karvol or olbas oil in the middle bit to be wafted round the room.

Raise one end of cot on great big books (head end0 and put very wet towel on hot radiator (with dry towel on floor to catch drips) drizzle olbus oil on wet towel and enjoy a good nights kip.

thank you all so much for coming back to me. Yes, I had thought about humidifiers and the plug in-s; well definitely look at them now. Fingers crossed for tonight!