Hey moms, 

I was just wondering how you all dealt with how your children interacted with other children! At our first few mommy and me classes, my little man crawled off in the corner and watched all the other kids play. He let kids just take what ever toy he was playing with and seemed very interested but timid... Is there a way to help them learn to interact?

One more thing! Has anyone found a productive way to use the nasal sucker thing to get the snot out of their nose? My son has a sinus infection and i feel like I am torturing him everytime I so it. But I have to or he cant breath through his nose while he eats a bottle. 

Any effective strategies?

Have the little noses saline drops? Put a few drops in his nose wait bout 10sec and try to suck out the snot. The saline drops work pretty good for me and my daughter.

yes! the saline drops are really good at softening up the snot before you use the nasal suction. other things you can do for his congestion would be to turn on the hot water in the shower and close the windows and door. the steam should also help with the congestion too. or if that's too much work, use a humidifier. good luck!

Thank you! I do have a humidifier in his room and we have been using the saline drops. But even doing that makes me feel like I am torturing him. He screams bloody murder wiggles everywhere and swats my hands away... I can keep his hands out of the way, or hold him still long enough to do it unless I lay him on the ground and put my leg over his chest and arms to block them from swatting me. But he still squirms out and I HATE doing that. I did it once and cant get myself to do it again... I am definitely going to try the shower thing!

i heard that the nasal drops only make the problem worse, but that's just what i heard. the nasal asperator didn't work for me either. i blew in my son's mouth (granted, the snot got blown of my face) but that was the method i used that worked for me. i also rubbed his back and chest with children's vics. the humidifier that you plug in comes with vics inserts that worked wonders for him! i also (when he was young enough to still fit in his little baby bathtub) put the vics vapor in the larger bathtub, then his tub in that. that way he could breathe in the vapors. also put the vics vapor stuff in the humidifier.

as far as him being social, he sooo wasn't! it was like other children really scared him! it worried me, but i went along with it. as he got older, and he's 5 now, the situation improved greatly, without me having to force him or do anything but just let him do what was comfortable to him.

as far as the first advice goes, i am no dr. or nurse so take my suggestions like a fart in the wind! you also can't blow the snot out too often! it will aggriate the nose!!!!

best of luck to you both!

Malorie, re. the nasal aspirator...the best thing to do, from my experience, is to use nasal saline spray (like Little Noses) twice in each nostril and wait a minute or two. Then aspirate by closing one nostril with your finger on the side of the nose and suction the other nostril with the aspirator. Then do the other side. I found that this method gets the most mucus out of the kid's nose in one try without having to keep suctioning out in one sitting. You only want to aspirate your child 3 or 4 times THE MOST in a day (per my daughter's pediatrician); any more than that will irritate the nasal passage and actually make the stuffy nose worse because the passage will be swollen. Don't worry if your son can't breathe or not. If he is older than 4 months, which I'm assuming he is if he is crawling, he can breath through his mouth. Use a humidifier in his room every time he sleeps too.

Re. his shyness...Depending how old he is, it is usually a phase and the stage he is in developmentally. I wouldn't worry. I would continue to bring him around other little ones so he can learn to interact and get socialized. But if he is scared and wants to sit in your arms or sit in a corner, snuggle with him or let him be where he feels most comfortable. If you force him to play or do something that frightens him or causes anxiety, you can make it worse. Don't worry - it doesn't mean your child will grow up to be shy. My daughter - at the age she was just getting out of crawling but not yet running around - would have days when she would be afraid in a social scene and just want to watch other kids play and sit in my lap. Once she got used to the environment after going a few times, she was all over the place. She is now 2 and a half and no where near shy.

P.S. It might help your child gain confidence around other kids if he's around other kids that are nice to him. If he's around kids who are constantly bullying him, so much so he can't even get a chance to play, then you might want to stay away from those places. On the other hand, that's not to say you should stay away from all places that has a kid that will take away your kid's toy. You need to give your kid a chance to learn to handle those situations...but use good judgment on when you need to step in or change the environment. Good luck to you! :)