A Quick Heads Up about Babies and Breathing

I think one of the reasons that so many people love babies is that they are not mouth-breathers.  Have you ever been around somebody who has a cold or allergies?  Of course you have.  That was a leading question.  When it is quiet, you can hear their gaping mouth swallowing waves of air, and if you close your eyes you can imagine any multitude of strange creatures are in the room with you.  Zombies, even though they don't breathe in most urban legend, make that wheezy moaning sound.  You could imaging the Boogieman, the monster under your bed, or even ghosts uttering the guttural and rattling mouth breath.  Babies are obligate nasal breathers, meaning they prefer breathing through their nose (though they can mouth breathe if sick or crying most of the time). Babies are not mouth breathers, but therein lies a problem from time to time.

Sam has always had a little difficulty eating due to his tongue condition.  Once that was diagnosed and cleared, he had to learn to use the new functionality to its full potential.  Just as he was getting the hang of that, he started to make new noises when feeding that did not aid his progress.  At first, it was just a heavier breathing sound that we did not think much of.  That was followed up by a wheezing.  Wheezing can make any new parent nervous, as minds can race through multiple possible causes.  Was it a food allergy?  Is he having a reaction to these gas drops? Did he breathe in milk? Does he have a cold, or worse?  I know, nervous Nelly...whatever. Out came the Google.  Search terms such as "Why is my baby wheezing?" yielded little fruit and brought up more terrible possibilities.

After this point, Sam began making sound like a little piggy when he was eating or breathing heavily.  Babies don't usually go "oink" in the picture books. I went to some medical websites and finally found some suitable answers and a relatively easy fix.  Big ups to Dr. Nina Shapiro for this entry in her medical blog: http://www.drninashapiro.com/safety/breathing-issues-in-your-newborn The cause was a stuffy nose, but noses are stuffy in one of two ways - mucus or inflammation.  The only mucus I had seen in Sam's nose was a little flake, no great green globs, so I ruled mucus out. Good thing too, because the solution for mucus is the nasal bulb to suck out the globs.  If that is not the problem, the bulb can actually exacerbate the true issue - inflammation due to dry air.  This made perfect sense. Our place is heated with forced hot air, and it is February in New England.  Both of these things lead to dry air, and hence, dry and inflamed baby sinuses.  This revelation was made at 3 am, and I was right out the door to the 24 hour CVS to pick up the antidote - plain saline nasal spray and a humidifier.  After the first couple sprays, Sam's breathing became much less labored, and he returned to being a happy baby.  We kept the air humidifier running until we felt it was no longer needed, and now when we hear the first signs of inflammation, another saline spray or two and he is just fine. Crisis averted.