The dreaded first Illness
Okay, so we made it 5 months before a “major” illness hit the Kilduff household. I put major in quotation marks because it really wasn’t anything crazy. Elliot has had a stuffy nose since he started daycare. Literally since day one and every day since. That is very much to be expected from what I hear from literally everyone. And it never bothered me or him very much. We just did sterile saline nasal mist morning and night and used our nasal aspirator in the morning and nighttime to keep the airways clear. And it has been going fine! Really no issues and he’s pretty much used to the routine by now and hardly puts up a fight.
Easter Sunday (at 12 am) Elliot started coughing in his crib at night. It was weird to Johnny and myself because he had never done that before. He remained asleep for the most part but was having little clusters of coughing every 2 hours or so overnight. No crying, no fussing, just coughing. Sounded a little junky but nothing too crazy. We didn’t sleep much that night because we kept checking the monitor to make sure he was ok.
Easter morning, he has a runny nose and continued with the cough. No fever. Acting completely normal but still was coughing every few hours a bunch of times in a row. We could tell at this point that he had some phlegm in his throat. The cough was wet and he couldn’t really clear his secretions with every cough. Seemed to be bothering him at times but them he would play and smile and laugh as normal.
So we kept on chugging along, business per usual. For bedtime routine that night, we used the saline mist nebulizer in the bathtub, along with using the shower spray to steam the room to help with the congestion and some chest rub to allow for easier breathing. Routine went great. He took his bottle fine, then had a spit up situation. OOF. Lots of mucus and a little milk. This was exacerbated by a coughing fit. Man that wasn’t fun but you could tell how relieved he felt once he got that mucus up!
Luckily I was home from work Monday. He coughed overnight similarly to Sunday night but definitely a little less. We stayed the course. Kept up a normal routine with some nebulizer action, extra nose-suctioning and some chest rub. He was clingy most of the day and didn’t nap well but otherwise was acting fairly ok. No fever still.
It sucks seeing your baby not feeling well. Luckily for us we still got some giggles and smiles in between the coughs.
This routine continued for another day. Tuesday he was better but still coughing. We did send him to daycare and they said he did well actually and didn’t cough too much. They said they tried to keep him upright a lot of the day which I’m sure helped with draining the mucus.
Over the news two days there was less and less mucus and the coughing subsided. Phew. We made it people! First illness in the books. I feel good about it. He’s a resilient little bugger.
In summary, things we did to combat the illness that I think helped:
Saline spray twice daily
Saline nebulizer/shower steam at night especially to break everything up before bed
Chest rub
Making sure to stick to a routine so he got adequate sleep
Keeping him upright during the day to help draining
Nasal suctioning
Would have given Tylenol if he had a fever and was uncomfortable
So onto the next one which I’m sure will be completely different! Being a parent really keeps you on your toes.
