Natural remedies to help with my 13 month old son's cold?

Question

My son is very congested... cough/stuffy nose. Any one have any suggestions on what to do to help? I'm already using a warm mist humidifier in his room and am using an aromatic chest rub. I prefer the more natural remedies if possible. Any other suggestions? Thanks.

Answer 1

Onion and garlic juice are great natural cold remedies.

Onion is said to possess expectorant properties. It liquefies phlegm and prevents its further formation. It has been used as a food remedy for centuries in cold, cough, bronchitis and influenza. Equal amounts of onion juice and honey should be mixed and three to four teaspoon of this mixture should be taken daily in these conditions. It is one of the safest preventive medicine against common cold during winter.

Garlic Soup or Tea
Garlic soup is an old remedy to reduce the severity of a cold, and should be taken once daily. The soup can be prepared by boiling three or four cloves of chopped garlic in a cup of water. Garlic contains antiseptic and antispasmodic properties, besides several other medicinal virtues. The oil contained in this vegetable helps to open up the respiratory passages. In soup form, it flushes out all toxins from the system and thus helps bring down fever. Five drops of garlic oil combined with a teaspoon of onion juice, and diluted in a cup of water, should be drunk two to three times a day. This has also been found to be very effective in the treatment of common cold.

Hope this helped a little and that your baby is feeling better soon.

Answer 2

I've been through the same thing and can empathize. First off, if your child has any breathing issues, any menthol type creams either rubbed on the body or inhaled in the air can increase coughing and encourage asthma attacks. Beware of any suggestion to use these. The best things to do is to continue with the humidifier, go into the bathroom with the shower running on hot and let your baby breath in the steam from the shower for 10-15 minutes, give the baby saline nose drops (just salt and water) and then suction out the nose, and try to keep his head elevated. I put phone books under the poles of the crib to elevate my son's head. Keep an eye on his temperature and if there is any cough. If the cough starts to sound like a bark, go to your doctor immediately as this might be croup. If the cough is not severe you can give him 1/2 tsp to 1 tsp of corn syrup to help soothe his throat.

Good luck, I know how exhausting and hard these times can be. Your baby is lucky to have a mom like you who cares enough to try to get as much help as possible for him. I hope you guys can get some sleep tonight.

Answer 3

For nasal congestion use the saline solution. It helps moisturize the nasal passage (sometimes that is the reason for the mucus) as well as break up the mucus. You can use it as often as you'd like. My pediatrician said to never use a hot humidifier only cold. he also said to give him an antihistamine (not a decongestant) and that will lessen the mucus without rebound of symptoms when you stop using it.
oh, and it's not a good idea to give your child honey at that age. An alternative to a soothing drink is warm apple juice.

Answer 4

Do you verify if it is really a cold ? Verify for mushroom at the bottom of the window. If you can see black spot, clean it immediately ! Asthma is possible too...

But if it's a real cold, garlic is great. I put a piece of garlic in a cheese clothe and I put it in each ear for 20 minutes. Wait 20 minutes without garlic and put it again in the ear for an other 20 minutes. Too much time will hurt him. Not enough time and the garlic will not work. The garlic need the body heat to let his "gaz" go out and clean the sinus.The cheese clothe is important to keep off the garlic. Without it you will be unable to take off the garlic because of it own oil.
The garlic destroy the germ in the sinus and it work very well for all kind of congestion.

Take care when you use an humidifier. Verify to completely sterilize it before to use it and use distilled water. Too much humidity isn't good.

If someone smoke in the house, it will be much harder to stop the infection. Change the air in the house very often.

Hoping it will help you.
Sylvie
http://www.vivyrelax.com

Answer 5

Make a cup of decaffeinated spice tea. Add lemon and honey, and wait until it cools slightly. The tea is soothing and hot, which will combat stuffiness and open up the nasal passages. The honey in the tea can help soothe a sore throat as well. The lemon soothes and coats the throat with vitamin C.

Make old-fashioned chicken soup or use low-sodium canned soup. Not only will it make your child feel better, but making the soup keeps you too busy to worry.

Offer fun fluids. The more fluids a sick child can drink, the better it is. The fluids help clean out the child's system.

Make colorful Jell-O water by doubling the amount of water in the Jell-O recipe, offer enticing flavored ices or watered-down Gatorade.

Answer 6

This works for stuffy noses, but your son I don't think would like it but you could try: Mix 1 teaspoon of freshly grated horseradish and 1/4 cup of lemon juice and drink. It works but does not taste the best.

Answer 7

Tons of water. Also try to get him to exercise his body as long as he isn't coughing. That helps the mucus circulate and eventually leave his body. Hope he feels better soon.