The magic shower

We have been lucky in that Baby S hasn’t had too many rounds of being sick. But babies do get sick and unfortunately, the coughing, congestion and runny noses linger around for weeks!

When Baby S was 3 months old he caught his first real cold and boy was it hard to hear all the congestion in him. Babies are so helpless, they can’t blow their nose, they can’t cough it up, and the worse part is they can’t have any medication. It was so hard to watch him struggle and I felt so helpless since there was so little I could do to relieve him.

The usual recommendations for dealing with a cold and congestion for babies  –

• Sit in a steamy bathroom for 15-20 minutes (and then feel guilty for wasting gallons and gallons of water)
• Have baby sleep at an incline to keep the nasal drip down and ease breathing
• Saline drops to help loosen the mucus
• Use the good old blue bulb to remove the loosened mucus OR get yourself the NoseFrida to suck it out.
• BabyRub (on feet), Eucalyptus oil (on their clothes), Ajmo/Ajwain potli’s (near them, I used to tuck it between his two his onesie layers)

We had tried all of the above and nothing seemed to be making a significant difference. So of course we called the advice nurse again. The nice thing about calling in is you get a different advice nurse each time which means you sometimes get different recommendations too. I will never forget the advice nurse who gave us the recommendation for what I call “the magic shower”.  It works!

• “Magic Shower” – Take baby into the shower with you! Yes, this is the REAL steam aka magic that helps loosen all that congestion. It’s easier to do this with two people so you can hand off the baby before/after the shower. The nurse had also said to use a hand towel between you and the baby for traction. This is key! Babies this little are so slippery in water, the hand towel makes it safer for them to rest on you without slipping off. But you still have to hold on tight! At this age you can either sit or stand in the shower. Once you’re out of the shower you can use the blue bulb or wait for the runny nose.

The Magic Shower is on our home remedy protocol when Baby S is down with a cough, cold or congestion!