Coughs and colds in children: medication or home remedies?

Coughs and colds in children: medication or home remedies?

Over-the-counter cough and cold medications can cause serious harm to young children. The risks of taking these medicines are greater than the potential help in relieving cold symptoms.

• Unter 4 Jahren: Freiverkäufliche Husten- und Erkältungsmedikamente werden für Säuglinge und Kleinkinder nicht empfohlen.
• Im Alter von 4 bis 6 Jahren: Hustenmittel sollten nur auf Empfehlung des Arztes Ihres Kindes eingenommen werden.
• Ab 6 Jahren: Hustenmedikamente sind sicher in der Anwendung. Achten Sie nur darauf, die Anweisungen auf der Packung zu befolgen, die die richtige Menge an Medikamenten angeben.

Fortunately, you can easily treat toddler coughs and colds without these cough and cold medications.

Home remedies for cold symptoms

A good home remedy is safe, doesn't cost much, and can help your child feel better. They can also be found in almost every household.

If you have a runny nose:

Suction (e.g. with an onion syringe) to draw the fluid from your child's nose, or ask your child to blow his nose. If your child's nose runs like a faucet, he will get rid of the viruses. Watch the video Reasons Why Your Child Has a Runny Nose.

If you have a stuffy nose:

For children aged 3 months to 1 year:Infants with a cold may be slower to eat or may not feel like eating because they have difficulty breathing. Try suctioning the child's nose before attempting to breastfeed or bottle feed him.

Breastfeeding is still recommended for infants with colds. If your baby finds it difficult to feed at the breast, expressing breast milk into a cup or bottle may be an alternative.
Use salt water (saline solution) as a nasal spray or drops to loosen dried mucus. Then you can ask your child to blow their nose or suck the liquid out of their nose with a syringe. If you don't have a nasal spray or drops on hand, warm water will do.

Apply 2 to 3 drops into each nostril. Do this on one side at a time. Then suck out the liquid or have your child blow their nose.

You can buy saline nasal drops and sprays from the pharmacy without a prescription or make your own saline solution.

Perform nasal irrigation whenever your child cannot breathe through their nose. For bottle-fed or breast-fed infants, use nasal drops before feeding. Teens can simply squirt warm water up their nose. Continue rinsing your nose until the nasal discharge is clear.

How to make your own saline nasal rinse:

Add ½ teaspoon non-iodized salt and ¼ teaspoon baking soda to 1 cup warm water. Stir to dissolve the salt and baking soda. For nasal rinses you should use sterile, distilled or previously boiled water.

For tough, stubborn mucus:

Use a damp cotton swab to remove thick mucus in the nose.

If you cough:

Give to infantsunder 1 yearno honey; it does not help the symptoms and can cause a disease called infant botulism.

For children from 1 year old: Consider using honey, 2 to 5 ml as needed. The honey thins the mucus and loosens the cough. (If you don't have honey, you can try corn syrup.) Research has shown that honey is better at reducing the frequency of coughing and the severity of coughing at night than store-bought cough syrups.

For children aged 2 and over: You can apply a thick layer of a rubbing agent containing menthol to the skin over the chest and neck (above the throat). As with all medicines, you should follow the instructions carefully and keep the product out of your child's reach after use.

More ways to relieve your child's cold symptoms

Offer plenty of fluids

Make sure your child drinks enough fluids. When there is enough water in the body, the mucus the body produces becomes thinner, making coughing and blowing the nose easier. See Signs of Dehydration in Infants and Children.

humidity

If the air in your home is dry, consider using a humidifier. Moist air prevents the mucus in the nose from drying out and makes the airways less dry. A warm shower can also help make the air less dry. Sometimes it can be helpful for your child to sit in the bathroom and breathe in the warm mist from the shower.
Treatment is not always necessary

If cold symptoms don't bother your child, he or she probably doesn't need any medication or home remedies. Many children with a cough or a stuffy nose are happy, play normally, and sleep well.

Only treat the symptoms if your child feels unwell, has trouble sleeping, or the cough is really annoying (e.g. a dry cough).

Because fever helps your child's body fight infection, you should only treat fever if it slows your child down or makes him or her unwell. This usually only happens when your child's temperature reaches 39°C or more. If necessary, acetaminophen or ibuprofen can be safely used to treat fever or pain.

Talk to your pediatrician if you are concerned about your child's cough and cold symptoms.

Before you use the home remedies

Although our articles are always well researched and medically tested, we cannot predict which allergies, medications and side effects may occur when combined with different products. That's why you should always treat all home remedy articles with caution. We have also included appropriate warnings in each article so that you can also keep yourself well informed.

Trust in the home remedy, it actually works, or it doesn't. For example, there are countless studies that show that the drugs administered were more or less effective depending on the patient's attitude towards effectiveness.

Which home remedies really work?

The best way to find out is to use our intelligent search function or browse through the categories. We have always chosen our headings so that you can tell from the outset whether it is an article about the effectiveness or an educational article against the effectiveness of the home remedy. Since we are constantly releasing new and updated articles, we cannot determine the exact number of home remedies, otherwise we would have to revise each article again. That's why we took 10 as a nice sum. Sometimes there are only 4 or 5 tools and sometimes 20.

Grandma's tips as home remedies

Listen to your grandma. In over 80% of the studies, “Grandma’s tips” were actually proven to be effective. Your first point of contact should be either your grandma or your memory of her words when it comes to home remedies.

Home remedies and expensive products

Don't fall for gushing advertising. There is a simple but effective way to find out if a home remedy
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