Advice on poorly baby - alternative treatments?

[shellbear]

My 8m old has been sick for about a week, vomiting and the runs but has now developed a really chesty cough that makes her sound like a smoker - have been to the docs a couple of times and they say its viral and will pass but its horrible seeing her suffer. Is this going round? When does it stop?! Any tips on alternative treatments for nasty coughs? Any advice appreciated.

[Emski]

NHS Direct (being helpful for once) suggested taking our 6-month-old into a steamy shower room to help loosen mucous. Cough mixture not advised by them, or by my GP bro-in-law. I'm not sure there's a huge amount you can do, unfortunately. Baby Emski's lasted a couple of weeks - doesn't sound like the same thing though.

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

Rub Vicks on soles of feet - weird, but it helps with a cough for young ones.

[lorraineliyanage]

Vicks on the feet is great as mentioned above. Healthmatters do a bryonia cough syrup, I think it's suitable for babies of 8 months old I'm sure, but check with them. It doesn't contain any alcohol as all the usual over-the-counter ones contain.

[antijen]

Hi Shellbear, I know echinacea can be given to children, but I'm not sure if your baby is to young, it may also depend on the weight of your baby, this herb helps the immune system, Burning eucalyptus oil will help. I used to give my children mullein, a weak infusion, there are many different herbs that help, theres nothing worse than watching your baby suffer, I hope she/he is back to good health soon

[helena handbasket]

If you can find a hot steam vapourizer to run in her room at night they work really well. They are incredibly hard to find here for some reason, most are cold steam which I don't like to use because it really puts a chill in the air and if baby is already sick enough..... steamy bath works great but you can't stay in it all night, so this is a great way to keep it going.

Anyway I believe Vick's makes one, it can be found on the Boots website maybe, or Amazon. It also has a reservoir to put Vick's in. Because of risk of steam burns it must always be well out of reach of baby.

They really loosen things up, in Canada nobody suffers through a bad cold without a hot steam vapourizer next to the bed!

[melbourne groover]

I second the hot steam vapouriser - they are miracle workers. We got one for my daughter when she was a baby with broncialitis and have been using it regularly ever since. Google Vicks hot steam vapouriser and stockists come up.

[shellbear]

thanks all for this - been trying the steam and seems to calm her down a bit. am also dosing her up with echinacea drops in her water and vitamin c. doc also said keep off the formula for a week as the milk can make the bacteria in an icky belly worse...

[Belle]

Hi - my little boy had the same thing, exactly - doctor said similar things though not about the formula, wish I'd known that - but what do you give them instead?? My baby was off his food quite a bit (but still managing to have loads of dirty nappies, great!). Nothing much to add to what others have said - we find the saline spray helps a bit (easier than drops) and the Karvol plug in vapour things are good. I also raise his mattress if I think he's a bit wheezy, though this has pros and cons (makes him slide down to bottom of cot which wakes him up!). Anyway he's way better now so just wanted to say it does pass!

[shellbear]

sounds exactly the same - she hasnt been eating much at all either and bit worried about keeping her off the formula but doc said water and juice fine for a few days and she will put the weight on when she is better so giving it a go, am still breastfeeding first thing and at night so that tops her up..

[lorraineliyanage]

what about trying some probiotics in their bottle to sort their belly out? Udo's do some infant's choice probiotics - also available from healthmatters on lordship lane! monica or any of the staff there are pretty good at recommending alternative treatments, might be worth popping in to speak to them?