Important baby question

[mstang67chic]

My sister called me today. Seems my niece (who turned 5 months old today by the way!) gave everyone quite the scare yesterday. Sis was in the shower and had niece in her seat in the bathroom when sis heard niece make some funny noises. When sis checked, niece appeared to be choking. She eventually quit breathing and started turning blue. 911 was called and by the time the EMT's got there niece was breathing again. But the EMT's said they though niece had a "strange breathing pattern", suctioned what appeared to be mucus out of her and put her on oxygen before taking her to the hospital. At the hospital, niece vomited what sis described as white (or yellow...not sure which) foamy stuff that could have been more mucus. A chest xray was done after the vomiting but nothing showed up and they sent her home. Sis called her regular pediatrician today but they said it was a simple choking incident and didn't need to see the baby.

Granted, while I've been around babies, I haven't had one of my own but this still sounds really strange to me. I asked sis if niece had been sounding congested or anything and she's been fine. She had nothing within reach or in the seat with her that she could have physically choked on...sis is very anal about that. Has anyone had a similar experience or have any thoughts?

 

[JJJ]

I found a lot of parent support areas but this one looks written by a doctor:

http://katcdoctor.cordillera.tv/?p=36

The steam from her shower may have loosened up the mucus in the baby - good for then getting suctioned out, bad for choking on.

 

[ML]

allergies. Is there a family history?

 

[mstang67chic]

Could that happen even if niece does NOT have a cold or any kind of congestion?

 

[mstang67chic]

ML....no allergies enough to take medications for that I'm aware of. Doesn't mean no one has them, just that I don't THINK so.

 

[ML]

I just don't know but it does worry me. She's so darn young. Please let us know how she is doing. Poor little angel. Hugs, ML

 

[susiestar]

It is SCARY when your baby does this. Miss Jessamess was the QUEEN of the gag-n-choke nap. I often had her with me in the shower (both to bath her with me and to have her sit while I showered. She loved the water.) and having her choke and gag a little was pretty common.

Jess had allergies but instead of a runny nose the snot all went down the back of her throat. She vomited often even when not sick with a virus. It was always foamy whitish or yellowish snot that came out.
One of the things that really helped us was to have Jessie sleep in her car seat. She was almost never in her crib. She could not lie flat in any position. She just couldn't breathe if she was flat. Raising the foot of the crib was recommended but not helpful.

If we raised the end of the bed she would wiggle around in her sleep and be flat at the bottom of the bed sleeping sideways instead of the regular up and down.

When she was old enough that the doctor recommended medications she got robitussin. The medication in regular robitussin is the same as in mucinex. Decongestants like sudafed make the snot thinner and runnier. Benadryl dries it up so less is produced. Robitussin/mucinex is guaifenisin (sp?) and it makes the snot less sticky. That is why it helped. Not to stop the cough but to make more come up when she did need to cough.

I am sorry she was so scared. It is terrifying to have something wrong with your baby.

I hope she has no more scares like this.

 

[DammitJanet]

Goodness. This is why they should send home all babies and new mommies to live with older sisters or the grandmoms for at least the first year. I say two years or until mommy gets ready to drop baby number 2...lol. They could learn so much from veteran moms.

 

[mstang67chic]

Susiestar....that's the thing. Niece has NEVER had any issues until now. Hopefully it's not the start of any.

Janet....even though sis and niece don't live with me (durn it! LOL) they DO live with the folks. Grandma and Grandpa are both there and between the two of them have had 4 babies. And niece has them both securely wrapped around her finger! LOL

 

[Lothlorien]

I think I'd be on pins and needles for the next several years with her. Gosh that is scary!