RSV recovery advice

[asha]

DS2 who is now three weeks old has been in the hospital for the past week for RSV. Today he is off oxygen and is doing fine so far. He still has a lot of nasal secretions. In the hospital the nurses were using a vaccuum suction device to remove the secretions from his nose. Once we go home (tomorrow) we will have to rely on a plain old bulb to suction out the secretions.
There is only so much one can do with the bulb and DS hates it anyways. I was wondering if any of the moms here have any suggestions on effective ways to remove the nasal secretions in a 3 week old.

He still has a slight cough that supposedly lingers for a while after RSV.

I am looking for advice about this and general RSV recovery advice.
Thanks in advance for your time.

[elaineandmichaelsmommy]

I feel for you. dd had rsv at 4 months old and last may had pnumonia. I swear i worry every time she coughs. For your ds's nose, use a humidifier or keep a pot of water on the stove in the house. preferably keep a humidifier in his room or your room also. Use the nasal saline spray that they recommend/give you. Don't be afraid to use the bulb. Yes he'll scream bloody murder-but it has to happen. dh has to hold ds down while i suck out his nose,it's not fun. use it frequently, whenever he needs it. the last thing the kid needs is a sinus infection at this point.
The trick is to keep his mucas membranes moist and hydrated. You might feel like you're living in a rain forest but it'll help him.

Recovery- I'd say love,sleep and food, now is not the time to fight about sleep routines. Let him sleep where he wants and work it out later. Don't take him out until your doc says it's ok. It would be bad to catch another cold or the flu right now for any of you. If you're breastfeeding that's great. Either way I'd ask about some vitamins for the little guy. Enfamil makes the poly vi sol ones. We used them w/ ds once, they gave him really bad gas so we never used them again though but you might have a differant experience.

Just let him rest and get his strength back. That's about all you can do. Good luck to you and yours,let me know how your little guy does.

jen

[elephantmeg]

(as a peds nurse this is what I would reccomend but all disclaimers apply)

For good nose suctioning:
pour in the saline drops (little noses makes one with glycerine that is really nice)
close off one nostril and suck out the other, it really increases the vacuum pressure and you get a lot out. After you suction add a couple drops of saline into each nostril to keep it loose
a humidifier will help keep the secretions looser
don't suction too often or it will just irritate. I usually evaluate my patients for suctioning every 4 hours and try not to do it more than every 2 hours. Again the saline will help keep it moist

hth and hope he's better soon! keep an eye on his symptoms-RSV is bad about going into ear infections so if the fever restarts after going away he'll need a recheck

[egoldber]

Ugh, I'm sorry. Amy had RSV and was hospitalized when she was 8 weeks old.

Use the nose drops before you suction and that will help a lot. A humidifier too. Be prepared for the cough to linger a week or two. We had to go to the ped for 2 weeks in a row for follow-ups. Amy also got an ear infection on top of the RSV. So make sure they take a good look in his ears.

But really, it will just take time. Hopefully he will go home soon. they told us a couple times we'd go home "tomorrow" only for it to be delayed. They like them to hold their oxygen levels overnight before they send them home.

If you're nursing, see about using the hospital pump while you're there to keep your supply up if he's not nursing well. (Amy didn't nurse well until about a week after she had the RSV, so I needed to pump quite a bit during that time.)

Hugs mama.