Searching for a saline solution

The instruction pamphlet makes it looks so easy. Lay child on his or her back. Tilt head. Insert applicator into the upper nostril, parallel to nose. Press applicator. Repeat for other nostril. Gently wipe nose when done.

In reality this is how it goes: grab squirmy child as she back away from you. Try to coax her to lay down. Watch child scream and cry. Try to insert applicator into nostril. Squirt either yourself or child with a strong spray of saline solution in the eye or face. Repeat. Cuddle crying child when done.

So far, this has been our experience with saline nasal spray. Yesterday, I took darling daughter to the doctor's as her cough and runny nose returned. Last time she had these symptoms, she was diagnosed with an ear infection and I was a bit concerned the infection had returned. According to the doctor, her runny nose is due to fluid in the ears. The cough is related to the runny nose. He suggested we administer a saline solution spray to help move out the mucus in her nose. What he failed to say was, good luck with that.

Administering the spray is a two person job. One to do the actual spraying and the other to be kicked at when trying to hold darling daughter steady. She'll actually back away from us when she sees us holding the spray bottle. Both me and dear husband know from experience that nasal irrigation does work. We both regularly use a neti pot. But I can understand where darling daughter is coming from as it took me months and several times viewing a YouTube tutorial before I gathered up the courage to stick a little teapot up my nose to drain away my troubles.

So we will continue in our quest of nasal irrigation. We both have our fingers crossed that darling daughter will see that this is helpful to her and makes her feel better. But we doubt that she'll see reason. So in the meantime, we expected to be kicked and cried at, along with getting an eyeful of saline solution, for the very foreseeable future.