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I asked the on call nurse early on about congestion. It's just milk hanging out up in their palate and totally normal. Is there mucus or boogers you can see in her nose?

Has your diet drastically changed? I wouldn't jump to food allergies just from some congestion.

Have ou elevated her crib to help her sleep?

Not to make you even more stressed out, but I'm with @Pirouette. Just keep an eye out on the things she mentioned including constant spitting up or projectile spit up. I know those could also mean reflux but my oldest spit up A LOT the first few months and he didn't have reflux. He did, however, have the mucus-y poop and blood in the stool but tested negative to everything including dairy and soy (prick and blood tests). It was weird, but he for sure tested positive for blood in his stool even if we couldn't see it. He was officially diagnosed with dairy and soy protein allergies. The biggest indication for him was eczema head to toe from week 8 and on. I eliminated ALL dairy and soy and he cleared up and outgrew it by 15 months which is when I introduced dairy back into his diet and then soy. Also, I was able to get my insurance to cover Allimentum after I stopped nursing around 8 months until he was 15 months.

Hopefully, it's nothing and his stuffy nose will clear soon. You can also try an air purifier in his room or around the house. My oldest now has environmental allergies (trees, grass, dust mites, etc.). I had him re-tested around 3 years old b/c he had a stuffy nose for 6 months straight. After some adjustment around the house he's much better and doesn't have to take medication that much anymore for his allergies. Allergies do run in the family so if one or both of you have allergies, your kids will most likely have them as well. At least that's what my boys' allergist told me.

@LovelyPlum: every baby is different, so it's really tough to say, but clearly my baby has a milder case, because as long as i am diligent about eliminating dairy now, she's been able to tolerate the milk from the freezer stash - i had 2 months of frozen milk and was unwilling to throw it all out! we've been just giving it to her cautiously (mixing it with current milk and making sure she doesn't get TOO much at a time). also, we've never had any skin issues here either.

as for whether to give it up, that's a personal decision. I mean, if you give it up now, you may never know if she has an issue with it, because her symptoms are not that severe and if it gets better, it could be a coincidence. so it's up to you whether you're ok with that. Even after the first instance of blood in the poop, my doc advised me not to give it up right away - just in case it was something else - and just to watch her carefully over the next few weeks. We did, and it kept happening, so it was only a few weeks later i actually gave up dairy. i don't want to tell you to give it up when the congestion could be literally anything, but i also don't want to tell you not to because if i could've seen into the future, i'd have given up dairy earlier. i felt so sad i made her sick all the time

@LovelyPlum: The one thing I would suggest is if you do eliminate dairy, really take the time (a full month) to see how your LO does. My LO had terrible food sensitivity issues, and in my rush to clear her up, I dropped foods in quick succession (dairy, soy, nuts, corn, eggs), thinking I could re-introduce when she got better. Once our pedi found out, she insisted that I stay off all those foods. So I've been on this crazy diet for months, and LO is probably not sensitive to half the things I've eliminated, but I don't want to go against the doc's orders.

@LovelyPlum: I wouldn't jump to the allergy conclusion. Maybe a cold though.

@MrsKoala: I have totally analyzed lo's rash or bump(s) for signs of HFM, lol.

@LovelyPlum: I'm glad you figured it out. Hope your LO stays well and gets over her intolerance soon!

@LovelyPlum: I'm glad you figured it out. It's such a relief, isn't it? Hopefully it's strictly dairy b/c most babies outgrow them around 1 anyway. My oldest outgrew around 15 months and that's when he started on whole milk as well and was fine. Hang in there. You'll get used to removing dairy from your diet. I drank rice milk while I was nursing and it was fine. I just imagined it was really watered down skim milk. Also, most restaurants will adjust your meal to not include dairy if you ask them to. I just told them "I" had a dairy allergy. Large chain restaurants take it pretty seriously. We frequented Cheesecake factory (SO kid friendly b/c it's loud. :P) and they were really good about it. Even Maggianos. They actually sent their sou chef out to talk to me about exactly what i wanted to eat and that's exactly how he made it. You'll also have to read labels. Here is a great PDF file you can print out about how to read food labels:

http://www.foodallergy.org/document.doc?id=133

My son's allergist gave me a copy and it helped a lot.