Home Remedies for Colds in Toddlers - Colds

With the FDA ruling that cold medicine is no longer safe for toddlers, parents must resort to some home remedies to help their sick children. These home remedies can help alleviate your toddler's cold symptoms and help the cold go away much faster. These home remedies are also much cheaper since you are likely to already have everything you need.

Chicken Soup
Toddlers are old enough to eat a bowl of chicken soup, and infants over the age of six months can drink some of its broth. Chicken soup can relieve the congestion your child is experiencing with the cold. Chicken soup also helps with some other cold symptoms. It can help relieve the feeling of fatigue, lessen the achy feeling that colds can bring and even aid in reducing a fever. Serve your child some warm chicken soup each day until she is over her cold.

Saline Drops and Humidifiers
Toddlers can use saline drops in the daytime to clear up their stuffy noses. Have your toddler tilt his head back and insert a few drops of saline in each nostril. As the mucus breaks free, it may slide down the back of your child's throat. This is normal and will not hurt anything. Saline is just salt and water. It may also run out of his nose, so you should have a tissue handy. To relieve your child's stuffy nose at night so that he can sleep, use a humidifier.

Honey
Honey is often an ingredient in cough drops. This is because honey works well to soothe a throat and stop a cough. Toddlers over the age of 1 year can take honey to control their coughing. All toddlers between the age of 1 and 5 can take half a teaspoon of honey. The best way to take the honey is to heat up two ounces of water so that it is warm, but not hot. Add the half teaspoon of honey and the juice from one lemon wedge. Mix the ingredients together and have your child drink it down.

Warning: Honey can cause infant botulism in children under 1 year old. It should never be given until after the child has reached his or her first birthday.