Neti Pot instructions

This is my .netipot phrase for sinus rinses. -Wellesley

Rinsing your sinuses with warm salt water can be very helpful for people with congestion due to allergies or chronic sinusitis. There are many techniques, but I recommend using a neti pot.

A neti pot, which looks like a tea pot, is filled with warm, slightly salted water and the spout of the pot is inserted into one nostril. Water flows through the sinuses and out of the other nostril.
The technique is not as uncomfortable or difficult as you may think at first. It only takes about 3 minutes to do, once you learn it.

Here's how it works:

1. Prepare the saline solution (1/2 tsp table salt1/2 tsp baking soda in 1 cup tap water). with lukewarm water and fill the neti pot. Hot water is irritating and dangerous. Cool water is not soothing.

2. Tilt your head to the side.

3. Insert spout of neti pot gently into the raised nostril creating a seal between the neti pot and the nostril. If it drains out of your mouth, lower your forehead in relation to your chin. Relax. If you are calm, the water flows right through. But if you aren't, it just won't flow. If you keep breathing through your mouth, relaxed, the water should gently flow through the nose on its own. There's no forcing it.

4. Raise the neti pot slowly to develop a steady flow of saline solution through the upper nostril and out the lower nostril.

5. During the process breathe through your mouth.

6. When you're done, exhale firmly several times to clear the nasal passages.

7. Reverse the tilt of your head and repeat the process on the other side.