Beating a cold before it hits?

[_meliska]

I need some info on how to beat a cold in its earliest stages (as in, I'm sick, it's pretty likely that he will be too by the time I get home in the morning).

I work at the hospital, so my son has been exposed to a lot of fun bugs, but really doesn't get sick often. Unfortunately, my nurse manager (who is a major germophobe and gets sick more often than me or my unvaccinated son) came in this morning sick as a dog. When I woke up for work tonight, I had a bad sore throat, a cough, swollen lymph nodes, and my ear and sinuses were killing me. If I have it, it's just a matter of time until my son gets it.

I've read the other threads, but they seem to mostly apply to older children. My son is going to be 10 months old on Monday. He won't take pills, and gives me one heck of a time when it comes to liquid vitamins, but will take vitamin c and gripe water, etc with no problems. Any ideas? I think I might make him a smoothie tomorrow morning with some strawberries and yogurt and possibly some type of supplement (echinachea?), but what type of suppliments should I get, and what else works on little monkeys like mine in this situation?

[tanyalynn]

VitC worked well to minimize the symptoms of my son's colds at that age, I used a medicine squirter to squirt SA in water into his mouth. But I had to be on the ball with staying at bowel tolerance dosing 3 or 4x per day. That's been the most effective thing I've found for colds that have started or are just beginning.

[Panserbjorne]

I wouldn't personally use echinacea. However if you are breastfeeding I would make certain your zinc stores were adequate. You can give zinc to a 10 month old in very small doses but it is key for immune boosting. In all the clinical trials I have read it has outperformed both echinacea and vitamin C....though I wouldn't skimp on the C.

You can also take a look at elderberry extract.

Yin Chiao is fantastic for the beginning of illness. I like Dr Shen's brand. The tablets are soft and can easily be crushed. I would give them to my kids in applesauce at the first sign of illness. It works remarkably well. Feel free to google, I think this formula has been around since the mid 1700's. It's pretty well researched and respected.

The only thing is that the source matters. Go with a reputable brand.