Baby's First Cold

I should be thankful we made it almost 9 months without baby having even the slightest of illnesses. Don't get me wrong, I am. And now that he's come down with his first cold, they tell me it's a good thing - baby is building his immune system up! Well, I guess I can get on board with that? But you know what? I wish my baby would never get sick, like EVERRRRRRRR! He doesn't deserve to suffer. Who does? And he's breastfed, isn't that supposed to mean he'll live illness free for his entire life? Not even a sniffle, right? Oh yeah, and he'll be a genius and build much more satisfying and secure personal relationships. Hmph I guess breast milk is not ALL it's cracked up to be (it's still pretty damn awesome though!).

Kenzo came down with a wicked case of the sniffles in the middle of the night last night. He was snorting and making all kinds of racket, waking up what seemed like every hour upon the hour. It was super fun, let me tell you! When he wakes up in the night (3+ times a night for the last 4 months, geeeez), I usually just pull him out of his crib, spin around, toss him in the middle of our bed (yes, his crib is in our bedroom since it's the ONLY bedroom in our apartment!), stick my boob in his mouth, and we're all off to lala land in about 5 minutes. But last night, he was so stuffed up and snotty he wouldn't even take my boob. Poor guy!!

So, this morning it was off to my local/online mommy group for advice on helping little one (and me) get through his first cold. Here are some of the things that I was advised to run out and get:

1) Saline - you can spray it up the nose to moisten and help with congestion. Same idea as the neti pot I suppose, but you can't exactly get a baby to cooperate with the neti pot. You can't get me to cooperate with one either!! It was also recommended to use saline with a nebulizer, which I have borrowed from a friend but have yet to try.

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2) The Baby Vac is a nasal aspirator that hooks up to your vacuum to give you some major suction power. Apparently it's sold at our doctor's office. Unfortunately our vacuum is ridiculously loud, and I fear between that and the suctioning, I will traumatize Kenzo for life!!

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3) The Nose Frida is another nasal aspirator, but this one is powered by your own mouth!! Can i get a "EWWWWWWWWWW GROSSSSSS!!!!"?? Yeah, that's how I feel, but apparently those who use it swear by it!! I can only imagine the sensation as you're sucking the boogies out of your munchkin's nose. I know they get trapped in a little container and don't have a chance of actually making it to your mouth, but still, I just can't be convinced about this one!

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4) The electronic nasal aspirator seems to be the perfect combo between the vacuum powered (too loud and also you have to lug out the vacuum and have it just sitting at the changing table taking up valuable real estate) and the mouth-powered Nose Frida. Unfortunately, reviews don't look so good - mostly saying they're weak and can't even suck water out of a glass. Hmmm... I might give this one a try, making sure about the return policy first!

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5) A humidifier. We already have this one, but have yet to use it. I wonder if the reason Kenzo was such a snorting and grunting sleeper as a newborn was because our apartment was so darn dry. But I worry about using a humidifier because if it's not 100% clean - the device and the water - you're all inhaling the mold or bacteria or whatever else is in there. Scary... but I reckon emptying and cleaning it daily with a natural cleaner (maybe vinegar?) should be safe enough. Will have to give this a try.

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I've also increased our feeding sessions since the goodies in my milk can only help him fight this off. I know ear infections are quite common to accompany a cold, but Kenzo has always been an ear puller so I don't know if I'd notice the signs! And about fever... I don't know if I have the mom gene where you can just kiss your child's forehead and know they have a fever. Sometimes he feels cool, sometimes hot, but anytime I've ever taken his temp it's always been the same. I guess you go by how they're acting as well? So far, Kenzo is pretty much his same old self today - playing, whining, crawling and cruising around looking for trouble! ^_^ Hopefully he conquers this cold without much trouble!! It's really weird because when adults are sick, we usually go about our daily lives and regular schedule as usual unless we are feeling especially crappy. But with a baby, you pretty much have to cancel everything for the next week or two because they can't control their coughing, sneezing, drooling, and general ability to infect all those around them, especially other babies. So, this is looking to be a pretty lonely week of quarantine!! But at least I have this adorable dude to hang with!!

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