Cold remedies for epileptic 9 month old

[simplysurreal]

hi,

My DS2 who is almost 9 months has quite a bad cold which is probably brought on by a combination of teething and a change in the weather for us.

Can anyone recommend any remedies? I have his cot stacked at one end but he ends up upside down! I read somewhere vicks, etc are not good for epileptics because of either the menthol or some other ingredient.

Any suggestions welcome since his nose is running so bad that it causes him to cough and often cough up his medication.

The sleepless nights for all of us are so draining, so if anyone has any suggestions they would be gratefully received.

Thanks.

Hi Simplysurreal. Poor DS and poor you! I'm not sure what to suggest - DS has epilepsy too, but I only discovered a while ago that you shouldn't use things like vicks I also read on another forum that you should avoid tea tree oil too, although there was great discussion about this!

Before DS started on the ketogenic diet we used to just give him calpol or if he was really really snotty, then we were told we could use an occasional dose of medised.

never heard of the problem with vicks and epileptics before and ive used it for 36 years on my garry who is a severe epileptic

but i have also used buttercup syrup for years for him and noticed no side effects.

myra

If his nose is runny get a plastic nasal sucker (its as revolting as it sounds) and suck the mucous out, especially before feeding and meds as its the mucous running into his throat and being swallowed that the tummy doesnt like a promptly returns to you with the meds!! If the snot gets sticky and makes him snuffly and struggle with drinking, use saline drops to loosen it, gentle massage, then suck out. Frequent sucking out helps them settle to sleep.

If he ends up upside down in the cot do feet to the foot of the cot and a pillow under the mattress to tilt him a little upright, Try a humidifier as we are now in central heating weather to keep the air moist. Is it the essential oils in olbas, vicks etc that are not recommended in epilepsy? Imagine this is it.

Thank you for all your responses.

We have the snot sucker thing and I use a saline spray to keep things moving. He hates it, not surprisingly! I will look into a humidifier/vapouriser thing. I will try the pillow under the mattress thing as well.

Last night was awful again, his temperature was up to 39.5 before I was able to get it down to 37.5 after a dose of calpol, never ending feeding (still bf, which makes it easier) and stripped down to his nappy. We live in the heat so we have air con on at the moment which is probably not helping his cold at all either.

Good news is that this morning although still snotty it seems to be clearer and his temperature is lower.

I thought it was supposed to be okay to use Calpol. I found out about Vicks after he had his first seizures at 3.5 months. I thought it might have been the cause at one point when I was wildly googling. It turns out it wasn't and the underlying cause is something much worse.