natural cold/flu remedies for babies

[ivorykitten]

my DS has his first cold in 9 months of life :( so i'm just wondering what i can give him or do to ease his symptoms

he had a temp for the past 2 days but its hardly a temp anymore today (37.2) but the snot is really flowing now and he's miserable mostly around nap times and he's not sleeping well at all :(

he's been having extra BF so he's well hydrated

just hate seeing him upset and miserable!

Elle

[lcorteen]

Hi Elle

Sorry to hear your bub is not well.

We use lavender & eucalyptus in the oil burner when the girls have colds, and I find the vapouriser fantastic when they have coughs (and we put the oil in the spot at the top).

My wonderful Swiss friend also gave me a remedy for a chesty cough which I was pretty skeptical about but did anyway and it worked a treat! It is: boil a few potatoes (maybe 2-3 for your bub) and mash then put into some muslin/cheesecloth as a poultice (??sp.) - so that it is roughly square shaped with folds of material so that the spud won't fall out and the material can be wrapped around the torso. the 'pack' of warm spud should be the right size to fit on bubs chest. You then wrap the material around the childs chest and torso when it is nice and warm but not too hot (be careful as it can burn if too hot obviously). We left it on until the morning and the chesty cough? gone!

Oh! and of course - saline nasal spray was always great for snotty noses. Poor little one.

xxx Louise

[Little bean]

yep we got the saline nasal drops last week as well. the box also had a little suction nose thing in it- haven't used that one but the drops helped a bit. poor little thing was finding it very hard to breathe.

[ivorykitten]

hehe we have the "nose sucker" as well, DH brought it home last night although we both struggle to see how we could actually hold DS still and on his back for long enough to use it!!!!! he hates even a tissue near his nose!!

have been using the baby vics which has lavender and eucalyptus among a couple of other things so guess we will just keep going with that

will keep the potato thing in mind although i'm sure DH will think i've gone completely mad (his family is WAY overmedicated) he already thinks i am mad for not giving DS panadol what can u do

i think the worst of it is over and we are just left with the snot now fun huh

[lcorteen]

Yes... must admit that my MIL pulled a face that said 'oh my god... the girl is now completely feral!' when I told her. But we actually had a good laugh making it and as I said - it actually worked.

There is some great info on Antipyuretics (panandol etc) posted here somewhere - if you search for temperature it should come up - that might help you persuade DH that a temp is helping bub get better. The info is from the royal children's hosp from memory.

glad o hear your little one is better

xxx Louise

[lucky_mummy]

You could also try putting Garlic in his socks! Smelly but works a treat.

Linda.