Baby with a blocked nose – the spray and aspirate solution

Is Little Miss J poorly, mummy? Shall I give her a magic cuddle? – JD, 4

Last week, my poor little lady caught a cold. One of those horrible colds that leaves them gasping, snuffling and generally miserable.

JD had a cold too, but he was quite happy curled up in a duvet, dosed up on Calpol, watching Octonauts and getting through hundreds of tissues while demanding the healing power of ‘mummy’s magic cuddles’. Little Miss J being so tiny (7 weeks), the options were more limited.

The aspirator solution

As I sat there at 4am, dosed up on emergency caffeine, watching her stare back at me red faced and uncomfortable, I remembered the bits of kit I’d stored away at the back of the cupboard: a nasal aspirator and a nasal spray, both designed for babies.

If you’ve never heard of a nasal aspirator, it’s a simple, bulb-shaped contraption you can use to suck the snot out of your baby’s nose, and it really works. Press in the rubber base, position it under your baby’s tiny nostril and let go. Slllllurp, it sucks out the snot – genius! I got mine from Toys R Us for £5.99.

When things get tough (and snot gets stuck)

After a few days of lurgy, the snot in Little Miss J’s tiny nose had become thick and dry and wouldn’t budge even with the aspirator. That’s where the nasal spray came in. Sterimar sent me this rather clever solution a few weeks back – I was hoping I wouldn’t have to use it so soon.

To use Sterimar Baby (£4.07 from Boots), you lie your baby on her side or sit her up with her head tilted to one side, then you put the spray nozzle up to (but not up) her nostril and push the nozzle. It shoots a jet of clean sea water up the nostril and loosens the snot, which dribbles out. Use the aspirator a minute or too later to clear the remains of the softened blockage if necessary and you’ll have a much happier baby.

We did this once or twice a day with Little Miss J and it kept her comfortable and able to feed. We’ll definitely keep the bulb and spray on hand.

Have you got any other tips to help a bub with the sniffles? Let me know.

Disclosure: Sterimar Baby was provided to us free-of-charge for review. No payment was received and this post is 100% honest. Please see my review/disclosure policy for more information.

Thanks for reading. Please comment, share or subscribe to have future posts delivered to your inbox.