What do I do to ease my baby’s runny nose and colds?

There are a few pre-feeding solutions you can try to help alleviate the predicament. Firstly, put 2–3 drops of saline solution into each nostril to help loosen and dry things up. (Saline is obtainable from a chemist, or you can dissolve 1/4 tsp plain salt in a cup of cooled, boiled water.) Secondly, put a few drops of breastmilk into baby’s nostrils; or thirdly gently suction out the mucous with a rubber bulb syringe or Baby-Vac. For a more persistent blocked nose, squirt a buffered hypertonic saline solution into the nostrils to help ‘pull’ the fluid out of the swollen membranes of a congested nose. (Buffered hypertonic saline: 1/2 tsp plain salt and 1/4 tsp baking soda dissolved in a cup of cooled, boiled water.) Babies usually abhor all four remedies, but they do usually help. If that still doesn’t solve the problem, and it’s turning into a bigger problem, you could try an infant decongestant but see your GP (and perhaps a homeopath). When putting babies to bed, remember too the old-fashioned remedy of putting the head-end legs of the bassinet on 1–2 books to give it height, so that their bed is on a little slope. That can help prevent the nose from blocking so badly, so that your babe is more comfortable. Echinacea and vitamin C, consumed by the mother, work through the breastmilk to help the baby’s immune system fight a cold.