Mucus is usually a thin secretion composed of water, antibodies, and proteins. Nasal secretions are your body’s way of trying to clear out the nasal passages. Even when you are healthy, the body produces a quart of mucus every day to help keep the respiratory tract clean and moist. As you inhale air, the glands lining your nasal passages and sinus cavities release mucus. It then helps to humidify the inhaled air flowing over the delicate tissues of the airways and lungs. Mucus also helps trap dust, pollen, viruses or other impurities in the air. As it does its job, mucus is moved down to the back of the throat by tiny fingerlike projections called cilia: once it reaches the back of the throat, it is swallowed unconsciously. The amount increases when you’re exposed to an irritant, causing some to run out your nose. When you catch a cold, your nose may run until your body fights off the infection, for a few days to a few weeks. When you are sick, mucus may become thicker and may change color, often taking on a yellow or greenish shade. If your runny nose persists for more than a few weeks, you likely have an allergy. Sinus infections can be another common culprit. In adults, a runny nose is not something to worry about.  In newborns and infants, it can occasionally be something to worry about.

Infant and newborn nasal congestion is due to the blockage of the nasal passages usually due build-up of mucus or the membranes lining the nose becoming swollen from inflamed blood vessels. It is also known as nasal blockage, nasal obstruction, blocked nose, runny nose, stuffy nose, or stuffed up nose.

Nasal congestion in newborns can range from a mild annoyance to a life-threatening condition. As newborns can only breathe through the nose (newborns are “obligate nose breathers”). Infant congestion can interfere with breastfeeding and cause life-threatening respiratory distress such as RSV. Mucus that remains in the nose for long periods of time can cause sinus infections that can spread to the ears.
Newborn and Infant congestion can interfere with the ears, hearing, and speech development. Significant congestion may interfere with sleep, cause snoring, and can be associated with sleep. Excess mucus can also drip into your throat (postnasal drip), causing coughing and a sore throat. In some cases, the secretions can plug up the sinus cavities or the ear’s eustachian tubes, causing infection and pain.

So by now you are probably saying, OK I get it, we produce lots of mucus, how do we treat a runny nose?  In adults, we recommend the use of neti pots.  Using a dilute solution of sea salt in warm water, the neti pot is used to introduce water into the nose and sinuses.  I use a neti pot whenever I have a cold and I find it very helpful to get things moving.  The amount of liquid and mucus that comes out of your head can be startling.

In children and babies, neti pots are out of the question and would certainly be traumatizing.  We also do not recommend over-the-counter medications for children (or adults for that matter) as these just suppress symptoms and can actually prolong the illness.  Until children learn how to blow their own noses, it is important to suction out mucus.  The most effective aspirators on the market are human suction aspirators, which generate the most suction but can be controlled by the operator, usually the parent.  In hospitals, they have suction coming out of the wall, which is several times stronger than what a human can generate, and this is routinely used to remove nasal mucus in small children and also during delivery.