Managing Children’s Coughs & Colds
What are your favorite cough remedies? Especially something that works in the middle of the night?
What a great question since most pediatric cough & cold medicine has been recalled by the FDA for safety reasons. Honestly, I don’t think the cough and cold medicines work that well (at least in my personal experience.) Chinese herbs & European biological medicines are safe alternatives that work great. While Chinese herbal remedies are for very specific types of coughs (wet, dry, barking, etc), there are a few general remedies that work well with just about any child.
Windbreaker herbal remedy and/or SyImmune Homeopathic tablets are great remedies for head cold symptoms, fever and/or viral rash. The herbs in windbreaker will help reduce irritability and it works great for runny nose associated with teething.
If the child has any type of cough I recommend combining Windbreaker with Chest Relief herbal remedy and/or Apo-Pulm Homeopathic remedy to help soothe the cough & thin the mucus membranes. If the child is really congested and really stopped up, I use a stronger formula called Purge Phlegm instead. If the cough is waking the child in the middle of the night, Purge Phlegm is the BEST remedy! The last three remedies I mentioned work by thinning the mucus membranes enough to allow the child to either cough out or swallow the phlegm. The remedies usually last 3-4 hours before you notice the cough returning.
At night, I recommend giving the child a hot steamy bath with Essential oil of Eucalyptus right before bed. Essential oils are much more powerful at opening up the sinuses than diluted liquid soaps that use chemical fragrances. Baths are very effective at opening up the sinuses enough to allow the child to fall asleep before their sinuses start draining again. I also like to use Warming Vaporous Rub by Gaia Herbs which has organic highly concentrated herbs in a coconut oil base. It works better than Vicks Vapor rub which is petroleum based. Definitely try to keep the child elevated at night.
For kids that have a history of asthma, bronchitis or sinusitus I have more specific remedies that I prescribe that work well to prevent colds from turning into a more serious infection. Prevention and early intervention with herbs is essential for these kids.
Herbs must be given in a high enough dosage (1/4 - 1/2 tsp) and frequently (usually 3 - 5x/day) to work. Chinese herbs don’t taste great, but they can be hidden in things like frozen grape juice concentrate, juice, nut butter, etc. Once kids get used to them, they’ll usually take them without fuss. Sometimes a little sugar helps the medicine go down. In kids that are averse to taking Chinese herbs, I have used homeopathic remedies mentioned above with good results. I have found the a combination of herbal and homeopathic remedies works best. Herbs typically shorten the duration of a cough/cold by 3 - 4 days and prevent coughs from becoming more serious as in bronchitis or pneumonia.
Author: Robin Green, L.Ac.
www.morganhillwellness.com
(408) 852-9659 Ext 701
