We've all been there... The sleepless nights and napless days when our baby has a stuffy nose and is cranky because he can't sleep, and won't nurse because he can't eat and breathe at the same time. You've tried the bulb aspirator, but can't get much snot out of his nose, and it only serves to make him cry harder, exacerbating the problem. So what's a mom to do?
Well, not only are those bulb aspirators ineffective and cry-inducers, they are also rather unsanitary since they are so hard to clean, and you can't look inside most of them to see that you've cleaned them sufficiently. One solution I came across was a nifty little invention called Nose Frida, a.k.a. the snot sucker.
It's a bit strange to think about literally sucking the snot out of your baby's nose with your mouth at the end of a tube, but Nose Frida makes it more sanitary than a bulb aspirator by making the whole thing easy to disassemble, clean and reassemble, and also by including filters that block baby's snot from getting to your mouth. You can also get replacement filters when you run out. You can get it at Walmart, or online at their website or on Amazon.
When my son was about six weeks old, he got his first stuffy nose, and the bulb aspirator was little help, besides being a bit too large for his tiny nostrils. A friend of mine who lives in Japan told me that a lot of mothers there use gauze-thin rags, cover their babies' noses with it and then suck the snot out of their little noses like that. I tried it once... Unsuccessfully. I thought it too gross to ever do it again. At that time, I used breastmilk and dropped it in his nose, and it did help. But this last time, he was just too congested for breastmilk alone to do the trick, so I got Nose Frida.
He still doesn't like it when I suck the snot out of his nose, but he minds Nose Frida less and doesn't scream or cry when I use it. I'm able to better clear his nose, he's able to eat better and sleep better, so my husband and I can get better sleep, too.
Now, if you still can't wrap your head around using something like Nose Frida to get your baby's nose unstuffed, there are some other viable options for nasal aspirators, but they do require batteries. There's one made by Safety 1st, Graco, and Nasal Clear. All are slightly more expensive than the Nose Frida, but I'm told they work pretty well, too. As for cleaning them, I can't comment because I've never used them so I've never had to clean them. All you have to do to clean Nose Frida is wash it out with hot soapy water and replace the filter.
I hope this information has been helpful, and I hope that if you've been struggling with a baby who has a stuffy nose, that one of these wonderful inventions will help you and your baby get the rest you so much need and deserve.
