Care Advice
What You Should Know About Wheezing:
- Wheezing is a high-pitched purring or whistling sound.
- Wheezing means the lower airway is tight.
- This is often part of a cold, but it can become worse.
- Here is some care advice that should help until you talk with your doctor.
Coughing Fits or Spells:
- Any age: breathe warm mist (such as with warm shower running in a closed bathroom).
- Age 1 year and older: give warm clear fluids to drink such as apple juice and herbal tea.
- Reason: both relax the airway and loosen up any phlegm.
Home Cough Medicine:
- Do not give any over-the-counter cough medicine to children with wheezing. Instead, treat the cough using these tips:
- Age less than 1 year: offer your baby breast milk or formula more often. May need to feed smaller amounts at a time. Reason: to stay hydrated. Avoid honey in this age group.
- Age 1 year and older: use honey ½ to 1 teaspoon (2 to 5 mL) as needed. It works as a homemade cough medicine. It can thin the secretions and loosen the cough.
Nasal Saline to Open a Blocked Nose:
- Use saline (salt water) nose drops or spray to loosen up the dried mucus. If you don't have saline, you can use a few drops of water. Use distilled water, bottled water or boiled tap water.
- Step 1: put 3 drops in each nostril. If under 1 year old, use 1 drop.
- Step 2: blow (or suction) each nostril out while closing off the other nostril. Then, do the other side.
- Step 3: repeat nose drops and blowing (or suctioning) until the discharge is clear.
- How Often: do nasal saline when your child can't breathe through the nose.
- Limit: if under 1 year old, no more than 4 times per day or before every feeding.
- Saline nose drops or spray can be bought in any drugstore. No prescription is needed.
- Reason for nose drops: suction or blowing alone can't remove dried or sticky mucus. Also, babies can't nurse or drink from a bottle unless the nose is open.
- Other option: use a warm shower to loosen mucus. Breathe in the moist air, then blow each nostril.
- For young children, can also use a wet cotton swab to remove sticky mucus.
Humidifier:
- If the air in your home is dry, use a humidifier. Reason: dry air makes coughs worse.
Smaller Feedings:
- Use small, frequent feedings whenever your child has the energy to drink.
- Reason: children with wheezing don't have enough energy for long feedings.
Avoid Tobacco Smoke:
- Tobacco smoke makes coughs and wheezing much worse.
Return to School:
- Your child can return to childcare after the wheezing and fever are gone.
Call Your Doctor If:
- Trouble breathing gets worse
- Wheezing gets worse
- You think your child needs to be seen
- Your child becomes worse
Remember! Contact your doctor if you or your child develop any "Contact Your Doctor" symptoms.