Coughs and sneezles spread diseasels

At least, according to what I remember of watching Thomas the Tank Engine when my little brother was much littler than he is now (about 3′, as opposed to the 5’11” he informs me he now is) they do.

In any case, with the nights drawing in, squidgy leaves upon the ground and grey skies overhead its time for train tracks of a different kind.

That’s right – the twin tracks of snot running down the Wee Man’s face. (TMI? He doesn’t think so, in fact he quite gleefully runs around the house screaming ‘snotface, snotface’ and refusing to let me wipe them off).

Bubby D however is not so pleased. In fact, her mood is distinctly in the opposite direction. The last couple of days have varied between coughing and whimpering, to sneezing and full on howling as she looks at me, confused and miserable. I’m sure at 12 weeks old and experiencing your first cold, it must come as somewhat of a shock that you are no longer able to breathe in the way you’ve only just become accustomed to. (And that’s accompanied no doubt by that horrible porridgey head feeling too). No wonder she is so unhappy.

One thing that has made a real difference though, is the brilliant gadget that I picked up at the Baby Show last month – the 4Little1 Baby nose-clear.*It may look a bit wierd, but what it actually is, is magic in a box. Never in a million years did I think I would ever physically be sucking the snot out of my babies noses, but in essence that is what this is – a snot sucker. The filter in the bulb at the end means that there is no danger of me ending up with an unpleasant mouthful, yet unlike other nasal aspirators which work using a squeezy bulb, this has the advantage that I can vary the suckiness to be as little or as much as required to give Bubby D a nice clear out. No drugs, no saline solutions, no fuss (well, maybe a little bit of fuss at first, I suppose I too would be a bit apprehensive at having that heading towards my face…)

Initially, she wasn’t too impressed with the idea but once she realised she could breathe again, she was incredibly happy. The nose-clear has since become the number 1 necessary gadget in our household, so much so that the misplacement of it following a bleary eyed night-time snot evacuation session sent us into a mild panic at the thought of going through a subsequent evening without it. Luckily it was located again just prior to bedtime, and a further night of relative contentment was provided.

Despite the Wee Man’s seemingly unfazed-ness in the face of his cold, he hasn’t always been so blasé about such things, and I only wish we had known of this wonder-gadget back when he was a little one. It may be a simple thing, but often the simple things are the best.

So goodbye train tracks, and hello to happy smiles. We’ve got their lovely smelling room vapour (also picked up at the Baby Show) to try out tonight too! Here’s hoping the sneezles are beaten before Christmas 🙂

*I was not asked to write about this product, it is a product that I have bought and genuinely believe to be great, hence my shouting about it to the world.