I feel horrible

My son is 3.5, semi verbal, and has some viral illness (flu, covid, etc). Last night his nose was really stuffy and his fever was 101.9 and so to help him sleep, I gave him a saline rinse. He cried and kept saying "I sorry" during it. HE THOUGHT HE WAS BEING PUNISHED. 😭😭😭

I'm still upset about it 😅 I know it was good for him since he can't blow his nose yet and I don't want this turning into a sinus infection but good lord that was awful. He ran from me afterwards and hid by his dad. We're good today but I'm still reeling from it because he thought I was doing that to him to hurt him 😓

I feel like I should mention that the only "punishment" this kid ever gets is the TV gets muted for a minute if he gets too amped and starts scream-singing along to the show.