Is It Time to Take Baby to the Doctor?

Please do NOT give him a decongestant! (Doesn't anyone read the news anymore?!) Run cool mist humidifier at night. Probably the tail end of the cold plus the teething...

After 3 weeks I would probably take him in just to be sure, especially with the holidays looming. It is most likely teething but with the cough he could have some of that drainage hitting his lungs and just making it hard for him to kick.

my kids were always boogery when they were teething. If you every saw an xray of their little head with all those teeth up there and not yet come in you'd understand whey their sinuses are producing so much boogers! The cough is form the post nasal drip - you just can't avoid it. If he's in good spirits and isn't runninga fever there's not much teh MD can do... But give them a call anyway... it will make you feel better. ;o)

give her a decongestant if you have one for her age otherwise a vaporizor and vicks probably the teething.

As long as he doesn't have a high fever or have difficulty breathing, I'd say wait and see. You could also always call a doctor and get his opinion about whether you should bring the little guy in.

UNless he is coughing a lot I'd stay away from any medication. With no fever I'm sure there is nothing to worry about. a cool mist vaporizer can help any night time coughing, that is only caused by the boogers running backwards instead of out his nose. If it's yellow to clear he is fine, just has the sniffles. If it's dark yellow to greenish it may be an infection but usually that will be accompanied by a low grade fever. So as long as there are no other symptoms I wouldn't worry.

You can always call your peds office and speak with the nurse and see what they say, but since all kids have runny noses now with the constant changing weather I'm sure there is nothing to worry about. Definitely nothing to take him to the ped for.

All cold should show an improvement in 7-10 days if I see no improvement in symptoms after 10 days we go in. If symptoms worsen and keep getting worse I do not wait more than 7 day we go in.

Clear = Allergies/teething
Green = BAD/Infection
Orange = ??? Not great/Poss infection
Yellow/White= worth looking at, but not worried

Give your pediatrician a call and see what they say. If there is no fever or a persistent cough associated with the runny nose, our pediatricians office advises us to NOT come in.
Good luck!

I just went thru this with my 2.5 year old. We both had colds/sinus infections but she acted fine, etc. But after 3 weeks of it just hanging on I took her in. Within one day of being on routine antibiotics her nose was clear . I was glad I took her in to get checked. Both of her ears were starting to get affected.

The doctor said it's a good idea to wait and see if their body can kick it but after 2 weeks the body wasn't going to be able to do it on its own.

My experience with teething has always produces boogery snotty little ones. I would say as long as his coughing isn't excessive, or he isn't coughing so much he is waking himself, he is experiencing common teething symptoms. :) However, if it's not common for your little one, call. That's what they are there for! Good luck!

I may be an overprotective mom, but I always call the doctor's office if I start to be concerned for any reason. Usually they have me talk to the nurse at the office and I describe the symptoms and if she thinks I should go in, we schedule an appointment. At least then if I call then I won't worry about it.

If his runny nose is clear, there would be nothing to be concerned about. However, if it's yellow or green in color it could be the sign of an infection. I would give the doctor a call.

Hi. I have an 11 month old as well and I feel like your story is exactly like mine. Ever since he's been in daycare it's been a constant runny nose or cough or both. He's finally getting better after having a nasty cold that he got right before thanksgiving. After a couple of weeks of being sick, we did take him in to get him checked out. He checked out fine - ears, nose, throat all clear.....the doc just called it the daycare cold...and just wanted to make sure he had no fevers and was still eating fine, which he was after the congestion started to clear up....to ease your mind, I would take him in...you will at least have a piece of mind....and then just keep an eye on him, his eating and sleeping....I hope that the holiday break will give them all a little break from all of the germs at daycare....

Just talked to a nurse this morning about both my kids (daughter has clear snot but lots of coughing/sneezing in her sleep!) but son has greenish tint to his snot and has drainage out of his ears (had tubes put in Aug).

They said to give them antihistamine to dry them out and if the cough persists, give them Delsum. I was also told to wait it out 7-10 days but if in that time, his eating/drinking/behavior changes or he develops a fever or anything else unusual to bring him in.

I am also running a humdifier.

We've had our share of booger noses and the doctor always waits until 2 weeks (unless we are having breathing problems/high fevers) before we do anything. She tells us to come in if it hasn't gone away on its on after 2 weeks. I've done it a couple times to realize that we had real problems (ear infections/sinus infections) that weren't seeming to effect the kids much so I was glad to get them in. You can also use lots of saline spray to help get the boogers out. The longer they hang out in their the more likely they are to turn to infection.