A reverent attitude to the health of the child is the primary duty of conscious parents. Modern pediatricians are not surprised by the instant reaction of adults to the slightest sneeze. However, is such a response to changes in the child's body always justified? For example, is it worth worrying if a child grunts, but there are no snot? Komarovsky E.O. educates concerned parents in this matter. Let's find out what the doctor thinks about this.
Infant grunts
Literally immediately after discharge from the maternity ward, a young mother may discover that her baby is sniffing out loud and makes specific sounds. The newborn does not cough, mucus does not stand out from the child’s nose, there is no purulent discharge, the body temperature is not elevated. Simply put, the child grunts, but there are no snot.
Komarovsky does not consider such a phenomenon as an occasion for parental hysteria and excessive excitement. According to the expert, the grunting breath of the crumbs disappears by the 2-3rd month of life. For up to a year, your child will nose, after which his breathing will normalize. What is the cause of the unpleasant phenomenon?
Physiology is to blame
Why is the baby grunting? Dr. Komarovsky attributes this manifestation to the attempts of the child's body to adapt to new conditions for him.
Snot can disturb a newborn baby during teething. Abundant regurgitation after feeding is another physiological factor that provokes grunting breathing. Babies, having eaten mother's milk (mixture), return to their usual position - horizontal. Part of the food is in the back of the nasal passages. When air passes through the baby’s nasopharynx, a specific sound arises that resembles grunting.
Your baby grunts his nose, but no snot. "Is it a runny nose?" - you ask. This is a physiological rhinitis. The mucous membrane of the newborn is irritated in response to dry indoor air, dust, animal hair, pollen of plants. This is a kind of allergic reaction caused by factors in the new habitat.
If only after a night's sleep your child grunts, but there is no snot, Komarovsky associates this with a cluster of snot in the posterior nasal region. The reason for this is the narrow nasal passages of the child, swelling in response to a change in environmental conditions. This can happen after turning on the heating in the winter.
Is this a pathology?
A newborn baby grunts, but no snot. The reasons for this may be pathological in nature.
Among the most common:
- Congenital malformation of the nasal septum. Pathology arises in the process of fetal development. Correction is made after prior consultation with a specialist.
- Mucosal edema, which was preceded by trauma to the nasal cavity. Parents who inaccurately clean the baby nose with cotton buds and thereby damage the mucous membrane of the nasal cavity may encounter this. The result is swelling and grunting breathing.
- Mechanical damage provoked by a bruise, shock, or foreign body entering the nose.
Unclear diagnosis - stridor
Stridor is a disease that the ENT can diagnose when examining a newborn baby. Literally, the diagnosis sounds like "breathing noise." Some babies have softened laryngeal cartilage or narrow nasal passages from birth. In such situations, the child sniffs and makes specific sounds in the process of breathing, resembling grunts. As the baby grows, breathing normalizes.
If a stridor is diagnosed, there is a need for additional examinations that will help to eliminate serious ailments associated with heart disease, problems with the thymus, bronchi. This fact explains the need for an additional examination of the child by a doctor aged 2-3 years.
How to help the baby?
The baby grunts, but there are no snot. What to do? In the case of physiological reasons, to solve the problem, parents need to eliminate allergens and provide comfortable living conditions for the child, namely the air temperature within 20 degrees and humidity 50-70%.
Remove all dust accumulators from the nursery: furniture, carpets, books, etc. Try to keep pets as far away from the child as possible. The same applies to feed for aquarium fish, flowers and other potential allergens.
In order to alleviate the condition of the crumbs, Komarovsky advises using saline to moisten the nasal passages. You need to drip the agent every 60 minutes for 3-4 drops. Rinsing with the help of water with sea salt will also help.
Do not forget about regular walks in the fresh air, which help the nasal mucosa remain hydrated, and the nasal passages are clean. Contraindications to long walks can only be an exacerbated form of the disease, provoking a high body temperature.
Drink plenty of crumbs. This will help establish water-salt metabolism and make up for the imbalance of fluid in the child's body. Children older than six months can be drunk with fruit drinks containing vitamin C (cranberry, raspberry, etc.).
Is your baby literally choked with snot? You can get rid of white transparent mucus with a special suction, syringe, or a regular syringe. During the procedure, you should use the composition to cleanse the nasal passages. They can be found in the pharmacy.
Prolonged secretion of mucus, its abundant accumulation in the nasopharynx, a change in the color of the snot to yellow or green are unequivocal reasons for seeking medical help. The opinion of a specialist is also necessary for any of the pathological causes of the phenomenon.
We wash the baby’s nose correctly
Why the child grunts, but there are no snot, we found out. They also learned about ways to alleviate the condition of the crumbs, among which regular washing of the nasal passages is of paramount importance. What about event technique?
To begin with, we lay the child on its side and irrigate the upper nostril with a solution. In the case of newborns, it is better to use isotonic drops, and not funds in the form of sprays. Flushing the nasal passages with saline is also not worth it. The concentration of salt in it exceeds the salt percentage in the blood of the child by hundredths. This is enough to overdry the mucous membrane of the baby's nose.
Then we carry out the same actions from the second nostril. At the end of the procedure, the aspirator (syringe) must be cleaned. Komarovsky advises resorting to washing the nasal passages each time with a stuffy nose.
Preventive measures
Your child grunts, but there are no snot? Komarovsky reassures parents, focusing on the physiology of the child. However, this does not mean that preventive measures should be neglected.
More details about them below.
- We maintain the humidity indicator in the room 50-70%. We regularly carry out wet cleaning, use a humidifier (cover batteries with wet towels) during the heating season.
- We maintain air temperature at the level of 18-20 degrees. We regularly ventilate.
- We get rid of dust accumulators.
- Often we walk with the child in the fresh air.
- We help the baby turn over on his tummy, hold his head - this helps to normalize breathing.
- We provide regular care for the nose of the newborn.
- We regularly bathe the baby.
- Regularly drip saline into the child’s nostrils: 2 drops 2-3 times a day.
How to care for the baby’s nose?
In the first month of life, the crumbs of his nose should be cleaned twice a day - in the morning and evening. The procedure is carried out using cotton buds. Before the instrument touches the mucous membrane, it must be dipped in oil or greased with petroleum jelly to avoid damage. White mucus must be regularly removed with a syringe (syringe). If crusts form in the baby’s nose, soak them in oil.
Nose blocked, snot absent - what to do?
What to do in a situation where there are no snot, but the child does not breathe? A Ukrainian pediatrician comes to the aid of concerned parents here.
Often the cause of this phenomenon is an enlarged pharyngeal tonsil - an adenoid. It stands in the way of the nasopharynx, thereby obstructing the passage of air. The child gets used to breathing through his mouth, he talks in the nose.
You can encounter a similar one with polyps - benign formations located on the mucous membrane of the nasal cavity and interfering with normal breathing. The clinical picture is complemented by headache, high fatigue. Polyps are removed surgically.
Curvature of the nasal septum is also one of the possible causes of nasal congestion. Trauma accompanied by edema and hematoma can provoke this.
In each of the above cases, the need to address the problem to the otolaryngologist is obvious.
Observance of preventive measures and the vigilant attitude of parents to the health of the child guarantee the avoidance of the described problems with the nose of the crumbs. Your child grunts in his nose for a long time, but snot? Komarovsky advises immediately contact an observing doctor. This is especially true of cases of fever, lethargy, cough.