Urgent advice for cough relief needed

[PM]

Does anyone know of a good "folk "remedy" to calm a cough? My 19 mo has a bad cough, and daddy and I have the flu and don't want to go out to the pharmacy (she's already taking a homepath syrup but it's not really working), plus it's getting late.

Hot milk and honey? Hot shower? Any suggestions?

Thanks!

[Erin Pavlina]

I was just reading about this in Mendolsohn's book How To Raise a Healthy Child in Spite of Your Doctor.

He mentioned that for coughs it's just really important to keep the membranes moist not dry. So he highly recommends the humidifier. I think it was a cool mist humidifier. He is opposed to over the count preperations as he feels the lungs are "doing their job" when they cough.

If it were me, I might try one of those sprays like Chloraseptic which may calm the "tickle" you get. I've never had any luck with syrups anyway.

I think he also said to stay away from antihistamines becuase they dry things out.

Good luck!!

[lil' love]

We use a vaporizor in my children's rooms when they have a cough. I put a couple drops of eucalyptus and camphor essential oils in the water also. I've read that they are suposed to help.
As far as herbs go, Mullien root is helpful in releiving coughs. I use an alcohol free tincture with my youngest child and my son will drink Mullien tea.
I hope your baby feels better!

[PM]

The humidifier is definitely on the shopping list for when daddy and are well enough to stand on our feet for more than 30 seconds! I read about that book when Iris was a few months old, and I meant to buy it but never did. I agree with him about the workings of the lungs. The syrup she's taking is meant to help that function along a little. In fact, she did have a chest cough (? here in France they call it "fatty or greasy") and now she seems to have gotten it all up and her cough is now very dry.

I'm still wondering about whether or not hot milk would help or worsen things. Actually, daddy decided he could make downstairs to the pharmacy without throwing up, so he's going to go see about the possibility of making a nice little plant infusion.

I'll tell you all how that works out.

[lil' love]

I've always heard to stay away from milk and milk products when you were sick. Especially while congested because the milk caused more mucus to form.

[PM]

That's what we were both thinking (about the milk), so I decided to ask first.

Daddy got her an herbal tea full of good plants, but she fell asleep before I could give it to her, the poor thing. But lucky us! Now we can go to bed too! Yesterday it was just me who was totally incapacitated by this flu, today it was all 3 of us! But I still made good chicken & rice soup (made it! , even though I was the only one who ate it

[PM]

By the way, THANKS LIL'LOVE !

Hee hee, have you seen that users can post replies only every 60 seconds? I guess they don't want us shooting our mouths off!

[Missgrl]

ParisMaman,
You already have some great adivice that I hope will help. I'm moving your thread over to Alternative and Comp. Medicine in hopes you will get some more advice from the members that only visit there! Good luck!

BTW...I've heard of an old recipe that calls for a mixture of honey and pineapple juice. You never know!

[Julie]

We Always used Hot Lemon and Honey

1. Hot water
2. 2 tablespoons Honey
3. juice of one fresh lemon or 2 tablespoons of the real stuffin a bottle

[sunmountain]

Man--aren't coughs the worst thing to deal with?!?
We had a whole winter full of them last year--and I finally realized why, we were stuck in the house a lot!
So far this year my two youngest ds have been hit by bad coughs and this is what I did...and it worked!...
1. I make sure they play outside everyday, no matter how cold it is, even if it's just for a few minutes a few times a day.
2. I found a Horehound herbal remedy that kept the cough at bay at night, when it tends to be at its worst, my mother used to give us horehound lolipops when we were little, but I can't find them any more--any one know where to get them? Mailorder?
3. I turned the heat down to 60 degrees F at night and loaded up on the covers...it kept the humidity at a more reasonable level.
4. If you can---nurse nurse nurse as much as possible. Fluids are essential.
Hope it helps.

[m&m]

Bonjour Paris Maman,

An old remedy we use is to mix corn starch or flour with dry mustard and a little water to make a paste, put bewteen paper towels and then between cloth towels and rest this on the chest for several minutes (it gets hot and brings stuff out) - do not leave it on for more than 30 min as it gets very uncomfortable -

works when we have bad coughing

Also, warm water with lemon will help the throat - but avoid honey until your child is at leat 2 because of possible spore reactions.

If you cannot get a humidifyer, being in the room with the shower running helps the same.

[NaturalJoy]

Hi, my son had a terrible cough all week. Someone mentioned Boericke & Tafel Children's Cough and Bronchial Syrup to me and it's worked like magic. It's an all-natural homeopathic syrup (I found it at the Health Food Store). The one trick I found was that the first two times I gave it, it didn't work right away. When I reread the directions it said for severe coughs to repeat dosage after 20 minutes. The 2nd dose is what really calmed his down.

I'm starting to love homeopathic remedies. It's hard for me to figure out the right one, but once I do, I'm amazed how they work!

Joy

[sunmountain]

ditto on the homeopathic remedies, we have found great relief with them from teething and colic to coughs and sore throats. I try to stock up when I find them on sale.ditto

[laurajean]

My ds has had a really bad cough. We used the humidifier with eucalyptis oil. We spent time in the bathroom with the steam on etc. His cough turned into a croupy cough and it turned out the best thing for that was cool, night air. So, we opened up the window in the bedroom and his cough got much better... hope this helps...

~Laura

[NaturalJoy]

Cold over hot is the same advice my ped gave when ds had croup at 9 months. I was so shocked, because it goes against what my mom said she did, and lots of things I've read. But he said to bundle him up and take him outside. It certainly did help, much more so than the hot shower!