Gummed up nasal boogies

[rootofnewt]

Parents who have gone before . . . I have a question.

In the early morning--sometimes around 5am, Ronan wakes up somewhat with a really stuffy nose. Except, there's no visible snot. It's obviously further back, where the sinuses drain into the nasal passages/throat. But it's bad enough that he can't breathe from his nose. Needless to say, when he half-rouses for that nursing session, he quickly rouses all the way, because he has to go "suck suck, unlatch, breathe. suck suck, unlatch, breathe." It's not very conducive to baby going back to bed. I've tried putting him to sleep tummy to tummy with me, propping myself up on pillows. He doesn't much like that. I've tried letting him sleep in the crook of my arm, propped up again. Again, not a favorite (and tends to impinge on various nerves of mine). Today, I even propped him on a fairly firm pillow (he's a bad/side sleeper). That gave me an extra hour, but he wasn't sleeping very deeply.

And when he can't breathe, he cries, making the mucus issue worse. After about 10-20 minutes sitting up, he's clear to breathe and nurse just fine, but if I sit him up in the bedroom, he's WIDE awake. So we just get up.

Normally, the guess is irritants in the bedroom (at least, so far as Dr. Sears says). Well, I have a dust mite allergy, among everything else. We shower before bed. All the bedding gets washed weekly on hot water and dried on high heat. Pillows and mattress are in encasings. We use vellux blankets. We have a HEPA standard air filtration unit. We use the ultra (actually, the new higher filtration) Filtrete air filters in the furnace.

And last night, I added a warm water vaporizer/humidifier. I had it on the lowest setting, since it can't go all night on the highest (small unit). Tonight, I'll try running it on high when Ronan first goes down, then refilling it around midnight when we go to bed and let it run on low all night.

Thoughts?

Frankly, I've been skittish about the humidifier. The nice thing about winter is that the lowered humidity levels cause the dust mite population to level off somewhat. But something has to change.

The really weird thing? He doesn't have this problem during his naps. He naps in the same room, same bed. It's only for an hour or two, but he doesn't get stuffed up.

Comments

[melody-rossiter.livejournal.com]

I have the same problem when cats sleep on my pillow (a lot). Do your cats have access to the rooms that Ronan sleeps in? If so, is it possible to seclude them without too much damage to the carpet in front of the door that will be closed? You might try it for a few days and see if it even works.

In addition to dust, he may be sensitive to mold. I don't know if it forms in your home or not, but it might be a good time to check the usual places- in the closet, under the bed, behind furniture. Anywhere that is generally dark.

Generally, people who have allergies are likely to have a child with allergies- not even the same ones. I don't know if he's old enough to have an allergy scratch test done, but you might want to ask your dr about it.

I wonder if there is a decongestant that is safe to give him before he goes to bed. You might ask your doctor about children's benadryl, as well.

[mmymoon.livejournal.com]

Kuromi icon!

[krasota.livejournal.com]

Oh, our house is absolutely cat-free. In fact, if we visit with a cat-person, our clothes go straight into the wash when we come home, and we go into the shower. Nobody goes in the bedroom so long as they're cat-aminated. And when cat-people visit, the (leather) couch gets thoroughly wiped down.

We have a standard poodle. He's much larger than our meager closets. He has two beds piled atop each other on the floor. His bedding is also washed weekly. Theoretically, the poodle is bathed weekly. It's been frigid, so it's been awhile longer. I'll try to give him a bath tomorrow, though, that's not a bad idea.

Our room doesn't harbor mold--in fact, I have to replace my pillow regularly *just in case* the memory foam is harboring mold from my wet hair.

Skin prick tests are generally still inconclusive at his age. I'm sure he'll get a run down in a few years. His father is atopic and I'm severely so (I have IgE levels that make docs run the test *again* because they can't possibly be that high).

[melody-rossiter.livejournal.com]

Poodles are supposedly 'non allergenic' dogs. When I was a kid, I had terrible allergies to animals (which I magically outgrew in my 20s), and the only animals I could handle were poodles and schnauzers. I guess they don't shed the same way, or produce the same kinds of dander (why they need to be groomed so often).

I wasn't sure how young the skin test works- I know that 6 months is when allergies just begin to rear ugly heads, and then 3 years for actual diagnosis and treatments. His head congestion could also just have to do with weather patterns- he was born in the spring, right? I guess he could also just have a cold- one of my friends in grad school had her baby in her 2nd year there, and daughter is now 3... that child is sick more often than anyone I've ever met. She must be building amazing antibodies!

[lupusyondergir1.livejournal.com]

This is a long shot, but I'm allergic to the "allergy-free" dogs like poodles and bichons, but not to normal dogs. Could be something like that. My allergist said it's rare, but does happen on occasion. Could it be that he's spending more time around the dog post-nap than pre nap?

Also, is he sleeping in his day clothes for the nap, and PJs at bedtime? Maybe it's something about the PJs (or even the drawer they're kept in) that is causing a stuffy nose?

(also, long shot, but I was waking up congested as hell for a while, turned out to be that my roommate had taken to turning down the heat at night, not realizing how much colder my room was than his. My nose was running from being chilly all night! He stopped turning it down so much, and I got better.)

[krasota.livejournal.com]

Pajamas and regular clothes are all kept in the same place and pajamas aren't necessarily different fabrics. He's often still in the PJs for the first nap.

Poodles are, of course, still allergenic. They just shed less dander because they're oilier dogs and have a different type of coat that locks in hair a la dreads. Tom reacts to Jericho, but less so than other dogs. If that were a problem, I'd expect more of an issue out on the carpet, where they both play. R's fine out there, but it's certainly something we plan on watching.

I had the heat at 70 and turned it down two nights ago on the off chance that the heat running so often was drying out the air too much. It's not that low now (68F). I like the idea of saving energy, but I hate a cold nose.