Comment on part one: Our son (one year old at the time) has also had a lot of prolonged coughing and congestion too...not recently, but last year the coughing would go on for a month or more at a time. Normal colds are something you just have to let pass, there's no cure...so we let it go because I've never wanted to be the kind of parent who rushes my son to the hospital every time his nose starts to run, y'know? But then my husband became increasingly worried when one of his colleagues' infants had a prolonged coughing/ congestion problem, and it turned out to be pneumonia. So we took our son to the doctor. They didn't do anything but said, "Come back in two weeks if it still hasn't cleared up." That made us mad since he'd already been sick for over a month, and pneumonia was in the air.

It turned out our son was fine. It did pass. He's healthy.

Long story short, colds happen. Usually they're nothing to worry about. But for infants they can grow to be more than just a cold. it's good to see the doctor. But try not to get too frustrated if the doctor just tells you things you already know. I know that's why I don't spend too much time at the doctor.

As far as sedating your child, that's an unfortunate side effect of Benadryll. Oddly Benadryll has the opposite effect on my son. He bounces off the walls. Consider yourself lucky, eh? If it will ease his congestion and let him sleep better, that's great. Anyway, the doctor told you to give it to him at naptime & bedtime, so it's not like you'd be sedating him...he'd be alseep anyway!

well actually the doctor told me to give it to him all the time but I"ve limited it to bedtime and naptime. I don't give him enough to knock him out infact I"m giving him half of what they told me to give him. When I gave him the full dose he became agitated and miserable. But I"ve found half works out just fine. Who knows... my poor boy

Comment on 1:  Demand a specialist!  NOW!

Charissa,

I am by no means a physician nor a nurse but here is what I know.

Anti-biotics are a in a sense a 'nuclear bomb' in your system. It kills the good guys and the bad. It kills everyone. Some effective natural ways that I have heard of especially for infants is using either oregano oil or grapefruit seed extract (both found at health food stores). Put a tiny bit in water and then dip your finger and rub it on the infants gums. Before doing this I would advise a health specialist as I would hate to hear awful complications (eventhough I don't know of any).

As for you. I used to suffer TERRIBLY from allergies. I could take claritin or benedryl but they would make me sleepy. I started about 4 years ago drinking nettle tea (you can find this in health food store as tea or pill supplement). Nettle is an outstanding source of Vit C and other powerful antioxidents that boost your immune system. But by drinking nettle tea (with local produced honey) I virtually don't have any allergies. No more watery eyes. No more runny nose. No more painful sneezing. Should you decide to use this may think about giving your child make sure to start with VERY SMALL amounts as their systems are fractions the size of adults and exponentially more responsive.

These are some herbal methods.

Colostrum is another place that may be beneficial. If you are still nursing you may just think about taking it yourself and then the baby will receive it via the milk. Hope this helps.

AD

Coughs aren't necessarily a sign of anything being wrong. Until I was about 18 or so I had an absolutely horrible cough. One of those where it sounded like I was hacking up a lung. Very deep, gunky sounding cough that was very loud and usually got me going into a bit of a coughing fit for a few seconds. I had that cough even as a very small baby, and it scared my mom to death. Nothing was ever wrong with me really, it was an issue of environment.

Does anyone in your house smoke? Is your child regularly exposed to anyone who does? I'm fairly sure this was my trouble as my mom smokes and it wasn't until I moved out that the cough went away.

Or maybe it's too much dust in the air, or some other minor irritant (live near a road with heavy truck traffic? Any manufacturing plants etc?)

If his snot is off-colored, it could be some sort of minor sinus infection, or he may be breathing in too much dust or something else. I know when I do a lot of cleaning, or when I helped people move stuff in and out of dusty storage facilities, I'd be blowing out all sorts of dark icky stuff that had been filtered by the snot and such from going into my lungs.

Now, I'm not a doctor and have absolutely no medical training, I'm just speaking from my own experiences as someone who once had a "death cough"

Thank you all.
Zoomba: yes I've heard about coughs caused by environment. I'm working very hard to be clean and dust free to the best of my ability.. NO he's not ever exposed to smoke so that is a good thing. I know that coughing may not always be bad, I think I feel worse because he's uncomfortable and I can't help him

Adventure-Dude:
Thank you, I will look into those things. I have also used Claiton and Benedryl and clariton seems to be the most effective. I will look into Nettle though. I'm not still breast feeding so I'll see what I can find out.

Thank you all for your help
Charissa

Adventure-Dude: Thank you, I will look into those things. I have also used Claiton and Benedryl and clariton seems to be the most effective. I will look into Nettle though. I'm not still breast feeding so I'll see what I can find out.

No problem. I just hope you find it helpful. If not that's okay too. Take care.

AD