Natural Remedies for Colds, Coughs, and feeling crummy – for kids and adults
Our natural medicine chest
My kids had the cough, sore-throat, feeling-lousy, sneezles this weekend.
As much as I work on keeping my family’s immune systems strong with a healthy diet and lifestyle, we still get knocked off our feet by a virus or two. It seems to happen to us as the cold weather comes and the windows shut for the season.
This is what we do in our house to ease the symptoms and speed the healing:
First we lay down and rest. Feeling crummy is a great excuse to spend extra time snuggled up reading. (We’ve recently been loving The Chronicles of Narnia and today, just finished the sweetest book: Poppy by Avi, for a mom & kids book group.)
In addition to the TLC (tender loving care), I pull out my faithful natural remedies for cold and coughs.
Drink:
- Water – of course, and lots of it.
- Emergen-C drink - We use this a lot, it’s been the first line of defense for many years. but I’ve just started looking into some higher quality Vitamin C drinks recently. I’ll let you know what I like come up with for options, once I do more research.
2011 update: The Synergy Company’s Pure Radiance C: This is my current favorite vitamin C drink. The Synergy Company’s Pure Radiance C is a high quality, whole-food, Vitamin C product. We use the powder and mix a teaspoon with water. As soon as one of my kids is feeling the slightest bit low, we start with the Pure Radiance and it usually stops it in it’s tracks.
- Honey Gardens Elderberry Syrup – We use this at the first sign of any cold. We often add it into the Emergen-C.
- Elderflower and Elderberry Tincture – Elderflower is used for healing colds and flu. I love my Elder tincture from Clefs Des Champs in Quebec. (I toured their herb gardens and left enriched by the beauty and power of plants). You can also find Elderberries in Sambucol a product I have used in the past and liked.
- Honey Gardens Wild Cherry Bark Syrup - This one we use for any chest and breathing related illness. Both the Cherry Bark Syrup and Elderberry Syrup are made my Honey Gardens in Vermont. I like their products because they are local, they are natural and they use their own healing honey in everything they make.
- Apple Cider Vinegar is my husband’s favorite Emergen-C add-on. A tablespoon taken a few times a day works for him (I haven’t tried this out with the kids yet). Apple Cider alkalizes the system, which reduces internal inflammation.
Eat:
These foods all support healing and strengthen the immune system.
- Garlic - I put it in soups, stir fry, and if my kids are up for it – raw – its most potent form
- Onions – I use tons in a simple, healing vegetable soup which is perfect when you are feeling low.
- Ginger – Yum! I put this in soups, I grate it on fruit and I make a lot of homemade ginger tea! Making ginger tea is easy and so much more effective than store-bought ginger tea.
- Honey - I offer honey to my kids on a spoon for any kind of sore throat or cough. It’s more deeply healing than any cough drop or suppressant. It’s important to use RAW honey. That means it hasn’t been heated or pasteurized and it retains it’s powerful immune-building properties. If you want super-duper healing honey look into getting some Manuka honey. It’s said to have extremely high anti-bacterial properties. It’s potency is even rated on a scale of 0-30, 30 being the most powerful.
Steam:
This is great before bed. It lets everyone breathe and sleep easier (and is the next level up in respiratory care from a steaming shower).
I do this the old fashioned way:
- Bring a pot of water to a boil.
- Add Lavendar and Eucalyptus Essential Oil. Cover with a lid.
- Put the kids under a big towel with this steaming, lovely-smelling water. Careful when you lift the lid off the pot. Make sure there are no faces near the initial hot-blast of steam.
Ingredients for the steam:
- Water
- 3 drops of Lavendar essential oil
- 3 drops of Eucalyptus essential oil
Chest and Foot Rub:
Mix this together and put it on feet and chest to ease colds, and chest congestion.
- 1 tablespoon Coconut oil
- 3 drops Eucalyptus essential Oil
- 2 drops Oregano Essential Oil
Gargle:
My dad used to make gargles for me when I had a sore throat or tonsilitis. It eases the pain and reduces inflammation in the mouth and throat. I didn’t much like to gargle when I was little, nor do my kids, but it works.
- 1/2 cup warm water
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/4 teaspoon raw honey (the honey was not part of my dad’s original gargle, but I find it makes it more palatable and soothing)
Bath:
Mix this into the bath to take the body aches away, to ease congestion and to just plain relax!
- 1 cup Epsom Salts
- 1 cup Baking Soda (if you don’t have any on hand, just use the Epsom Salts)
- 2 drops Tea Trea Essential Oil
- 2 drops Eucalyptus Essential Oil
- 2 drops Lavendar Essential Oil
Misc. products:
Here are some other handy natural healing products that I have on hand that I like to use.
- Zinc – kids chewable tablets
- Licorice Root - Get it at the health food store. We chew on it to soothe coughs.
- Cold and Flu Spray. We use this spray which is made of essential oils to clear out the “sick-feel” that a room gets after it’s been sneezed in, coughed in, and convalesced in. It’s made of essential oils that have anti-bacterial and healing properties. We spray it on each other too.
- Eucalyptus Chest Cream. My sister in law – who knows I have a passion for natural remedies, brought some back from Germany for me – but I have used Cedar Spring Herb Farm’s Soother’s Chest Rub for many years and loved it too.
- Soothing Chest Rub – from Cedar Spring Farm a magical herb farm in Cape Cod (it’s the empty jar in the picture above).
- Marjoram Butter. This heals red/raw noses. It’s also from Germany, but we use Waleda Diaper Rash Cream for noses as well.
- Waleda Diaper Rash Cream - we call it bunny cream, because after the kids put it on, they have a bunny nose (it’s white).
Massage:
When my kids are under the weather, I massage their feet and backs a lot.
- Relexology - foot massage is so relaxing and effective. It’s easy to work on kids feet when they are just lounging around. For colds, sore throats and chest congestion, focus on the toes and upper part of the foot close to the toes. These areas correspond the head, neck and chest.
And then again, back to the basics:
- Lots of fluids, NO sugar (or even natural sweeteners, excluding raw honey), lots of rest, lots of tender loving care.
I hope you and your family have a healthy winter.
But, just in case…I wanted you to have my list. I would love to hear what remedies work for you!
~~~~~~~
Nina Manolson, MA, CHC, LMT is the Smokin’ Hot Mom Mentor and Family Wellness Expert. She’s the founder of SmokinHotMom.com and HealthyYummyKids.com. She helps busy moms look and feel their best, and helps them feed their kids well in a world that doesn’t. To get your F.R.E.E. Audio CD by mail and receive her healthy recipes and wellness tips click here.
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Thanks. I passed this on to my sisters so they could share with their families.
Hi Annie,
Thanks for passing this along. I hope they don’t have to refer to it too much.
I finally got my computer fixed and was able to read your helpful advice re treatment of colds. Nina, I wish I lived closer to you, your tender caring sounds so healing. Just reading about it makes me feel better. Hope the kids feel better soon.
Love
I always wish you lived closer too! Everyone is feeling better. Thanks so much for all your love and support!
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[...] Well, I use honey for baking, for raw deserts and for medicinal purposes. [...]
[...] But, if you’re making ginger tea because you’re feeling under the weather, you might like to check out my post on natural remedies for colds, sore throats and feeling crummy. [...]
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[...] Even though it’s getting a tad warmer here in Boston, I’m still hearing a lot of folks coughing and sneezing, including my family last week. In addition to Licorice Root, here are the natural remedies we use to get through cold season. [...]
Thanks for sharing this advise even though I have summer time flu symptoms. This information makes good sense and is applicable regardless of what time of year you catch a bug.