Is this normal? he is constantly having a running nose?!

[AAsa]

Hi everyone,

Since my son started nursery school with 17 months. (He goes only to mornings every week) we are experience one cold after the other. I believe his nose has been running more or less now for 2 months!! Otherwise he seems fine and not really bothered about it, just that it makes him snore quite terribly in the night.

On one hand I think it is not too bad that he trains his immune system, but still??

First child so I have no experience....

[Aiyo!]

Does your son have any other symptoms like a cough or sore throat? If not, maybe it could be allergies. My son was having a runny nose for over a year and we realised that it was allergies to dust (we arranged for a skin prick test and a test with the ear nose and throat specialist) Later we cut out on milk and his skin rash also disappeared.

[yup]

could be allergic rhinitis

[SAHM]

Obviously check with your doctor, bu tthe same thing happenend to my child when she started going to child care (one morning a week).  For the first 4 months she would have a runny nose after every session & it would just start to clear up before she was back again - so just like a constant runny nose but healthy otherwise.  Eventually slowed down and stopped - doctor thought it was just exposure to other children.  Who knows!  Just check with your own doctor in case there is anything he needs to be checked for if you are concerned.

[little brown bird]

I have found the same thing with starting pre-school - to the point I have contemplated pulling out of it... hardly seemed worth it for a while there as I was only getting half the time I was paying for, plus forking out for doctors all the time (plus a second visit to get the OK to return to school again!)

It seems to be that age though with things going in mouths and kids always "sharing" food and drinks etc. It's a nightmare.

[AAsa]

well,
since I come from a family with a lot of allergy. This is not allergy... he is not violently sneezing or rubbing his eyes. He is actually fine, just the silly nose. And I always get a feeling that he becomes better, and then it is Tuesday and nursery school and we start it all over again...

[same here]

We are experiencing the same thing since we moved to Singapore. My son just starrted school about one month ago and has been sick everytime he comes back from school. He was fine while we were in HK and he was at school there too.

I find that in Singapore a lot of kids are send to school even when they are sick. My doctor confirm it with me today. I think schools in Singapore are also less clean than HK. Again my doctor confirm that is true. After SARS HK has become a cleaner place.

[july]

This sounds like what my daughter is facing. She too has had a runny nose for almost 2 months now and despite 2 rounds of anitbiotics and antihistamines, there has been no improvement. My Paed referred me to a paediatric ENT and an X-ray showed that she has congested adenoids. If she does not improve by next week, he says he will need to scrape some cells off.

The reason for this is that for some kids, their adenoids (which swell to fight off infection) do not shrink back to thier original size when the infection is over.  This causes the blocked, runny nose which leads to mouth breathing (which attracts more infections!), snoring and if left untreated, the child can suffer from poor learning abilities since the child cannot breathe well or sleep well.

I'm no expert, just repeating what the doctor explained. I would suggest that you see your paed.

My friend told me of a child who snored very loudly and had the symptoms you describe.  After he had his adenoids removed, he improved tremendously... spoke better, breathed better and slept better too.