Revealing how to safely use saline for babies

Physiological saline for babies is considered "miracle" to help prevent a number of diseases related to eyes, nose, throat. However, when using for children, you need to follow certain rules.

The use of saline for babies can help protect your baby from some common eye, nose, and mouth diseases. While it is safe to use this type of solution, there are a few caveats you should keep. In order to help parents better understand the form of use as well as how to make normal saline for babies, please refer to the following shares of aFamilyToday Health.

What is physiological saline for babies?

Normal saline is a solution prepared from water and salt in an appropriate ratio. This solution is quite safe for babies and is often used to make eye, nose and ear drops.

Nose Care: Put a few drops into the nose to clean the baby's nose. If the baby has a cold, stuffy nose, this method also works to remove mucus, helping to clear the baby's airway so that the baby feels more comfortable.

Eye care: In the first few days after birth, it is very easy for babies to shed tears and get flabby. Without careful hygiene, your baby will be susceptible to conjunctivitis . Using normal saline to clean the eyes can wash away germs, push the stab out, and moisten and soothe the surface of your baby's eyeballs.

Ear care: You can use physiological saline to place a few drops on the ear of the baby and then use a cotton swab to gently wipe the corners of the ear.

Pros and cons of physiological saline for babies

Using normal saline for infants to clean the ears, nose, eyes and treat stuffy nose is a fairly effective and safe method because:

Saline does not contain any chemicals that can affect your baby's health.

The use of saline for babies is quite simple and does not require too much skill.

You can easily buy normal saline for babies in pharmacies without a prescription or you can also make at home, the preparation is very simple.

However, despite the many advantages and simplicity, if not used properly, physiological saline also has some disadvantages:

When using normal saline to clean the baby's eyes, nose, ears, if you do not wash your hands carefully, bacteria from your hands can infect your baby, making the baby more susceptible to infection.

If you are not careful to let your child share a small saline bottle with others, he or she is very susceptible to many other diseases.

If the physiological saline is used too much or the salt water is mixed with the incorrect ratio, the baby may experience dry nose, more runny nose, difficulty breathing, fussy crying, nausea, sweating ... These symptoms, you should take your baby to the doctor right away.

How to clean the baby's eyes, nose, ears with saline

Clean the infant's nose with salt water

To clean the baby's nose with normal saline, you can do the following:

Wash your hands with soap before cleaning your baby's nose.

Prepare a saline dropper and a clean towel. You should choose a tube with a small round tip to avoid damaging the nasal mucosa of the child.

Let the child lie on his side, head low, and buttocks high so that when small, the salt water does not flow down his throat. If not, you can also hold the baby in a ball-hugging and dripping-nose way.

Put each drop of salt water into the nostrils, let the baby lie still for 1-2 minutes, then hold the baby up, lift his head and take the towel to absorb the drainage.

Note: In case the nose is thick with rust, you should put 2-3 drops on each side to soften the rusty nose and then use a cotton swab to stimulate your baby to sneeze to remove all the dirt out.

Clean eyes for babies with saline solution

To clean the eyes of a newborn with normal saline, follow these steps:

Wash hands before cleaning eyes for children

Prepare normal saline, 2 sterile gauze pads to clean each eye.

Wet a sterile gauze gauze with normal saline and then wipe gently from the corner of the eye.

Every day, you can clean your baby's eyes 3 times in the morning when he wakes up, after bathing and in the evening before going to bed.

How to make normal saline for babies at home

Physiological saline is a fairly popular product, you can easily buy it in reputable pharmacies. Alternatively, if you don't like it, you can also make your own at home with a few simple steps. You need to prepare:

1 liter of distilled water or clean tap water

9g of non-iodized salt (Avoid using mineral salts with unknown ingredients as these salts can irritate your baby).

Making:

Before making your baby's saline solution, remember to wash your hands well. In addition, the tools that you use to store and make salt water (jars, caps, measuring jars, spoons ...) also need to be washed, sterilized with boiling water and drained.

Pour 1 liter of water into the pot and boil for about 10 minutes to kill all the bacteria in the water. Then, dissolve 9g of salt to get a 0.9% physiological saline solution. You need to pay attention to the ratio of water and salt because otherwise the baby will be easily irritated.

Once done, let it cool and clean the baby's nose while the water is still warm. The rest of you should put in small sterile vials and cover. Each vial should only be used for 2 days after opening.

When making normal saline for babies, you need to be careful with the ratio of water and salt because otherwise, this solution may irritate your baby. To ensure safety, with saline solutions at home, you should not use eye drops for your baby because the baby's eyes are very sensitive, if the mixing ratio is not correct, it will be very dangerous. You should only use home-made physiological saline to clean your baby's nose.

Note when using

When choosing to buy and use saline for your baby, you need to remember a few things:

Physiological saline (NaCl 0.9%) is available in 3 types: eye drops, nose (bottle 10ml); type for mouthwash, wound wash (500ml bottle) and type for infusion. Depending on the purpose of use, you should choose the right one.

You should only use physiological saline drops into the eyes when there are signs of infection, yellow sting, pain ... If your baby's eyes are normal, you should avoid using them because abuse can cause dry eyes, keratitis, Affects eye function as an adult. When administering the drops to your baby, you should pay attention to hygiene, avoid contaminating the tip of the bottle and avoid using salt water that has been opened for more than half a month.

When washing your baby's nose, you should not buy the 500ml bottle of physiological saline (the type used to rinse the mouth) and then use the syringe to pump directly into the baby's nose for cleaning. Because although the method is effective, if used incorrectly, it can damage the nasal mucosa.

You should not drip salt water more than 4 times / day as this will make the baby's condition worse.

Using saline is the easiest way to help your baby feel more comfortable with a stuffy nose without the use of medication. With the above sharing, hopefully you have some more useful information to consider using normal saline for your baby.