Rinse the nose of an infant only on the recommendation of the attending pediatrician. If a newborn has a runny nose, it is imperative to call a doctor. It often happens that a runny nose is of a functional nature, so it can go away without intervention. If the newborn has a cold, it is necessary to follow the advice of the pediatrician and apply the prescribed medications exactly.
How to clear a baby’s nose
All drugs for the treatment of a child will work much more efficiently if you rinse the baby’s nose first.
Before rinsing the nose of an infant, the accumulated mucus should be removed from it. For these purposes, a small rubber bulb is perfect, which can be purchased at the pharmacy. It is easiest to suck mucus out of the nose with such a pear. The baby will most likely not like this procedure, as well as the rinsing of the nose itself. But if this is not done, the treatment will not give a positive effect.
Special baby saline solutions for rinsing the nose are available at the pharmacy. The pharmacist can offer several types of them. It is necessary to choose the one that is most suitable for treatment and appropriate for the age of the newborn.
If the desired solution does not appear, you can make it yourself. For babies up to one year old, rinse their nose with saline at the rate of 1 tsp. salt per 1 liter of water. To do this, dissolve a spoonful of salt in hot water.
Before dropping the solution into the spout, it must be cooled to room temperature.
Such a solution will destroy the infection and relieve swelling in the nasopharynx. For babies up to one year old, decoctions of calendula, eucalyptus, chamomile or sage are also suitable.
Before starting the procedure, you need to collect the prepared solution in a rubber syringe in advance.
The child must be placed in an upright position and held over a basin. You should constantly watch that the child’s mouth is open. In this case, the liquid will flow freely over the tongue and nasopharynx, and the baby will not choke.
The syringe should be pressed very carefully, slowly inject the solution into one nostril so that the child can get used to the liquid in the spout, and only then strengthen the stream.
During washing, it is imperative to monitor the correct position of the child. His head should be slightly tilted forward so that the solution can easily drain out of the nostril. A similar procedure should be repeated with the second nostril. The solution should be instilled into one nostril once.
If the baby is still not confidently holding the head, it should be put on its back and the prepared solution should be dripped with a pipette. It is necessary to instill in small portions and make sure that too much fluid does not get into the body. After clearing the nose, you need to suck out the remnants of mucus from the nose and clean it with cotton filaments.
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