Help!! My Daughter Has a Terrible Cold

Stay away from cold drinks and refined sugars. Ginger is one of the very best things for a cold. You can buy fresh ginger or powdered ginger in her milk is good too.

try some benadryl before bed because it really dries up mucus and allows them to sleep

I use mela-oil in my kids humidifier! It works great. It is hard when they are sick. It is tough on one income, I alctually work from home to help with bills, I love it because i work around my kids. Many people do it in addition to there regular 9-5 job. Get in tough with me if you want more info on either.
Good Luck!
M.
www.WorkingGreenMoms.com
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I just wanted to throw out there that it might not be a cold - it could be seasonal allergies. I'm usually fine (since I had to do the shot therapy) but yesterday for some reason, it was absolutely awful. I sounded just like your daughter. If you haven't already, try keeping her inside with the windows closed and in AC. It will probably take a couple of hours for her body to stop the reaction (you may notice the sneezing subsides fairly quickly but it will may take an hour or two for the nose to stop running). If you don't have AC in your place, go for a ride in the car or hang out at the store and see if she stops sneezing. If so, then it might be allergies instead of a cold. If it is allergies, then call her doctor and she'll probably say that it's okay for her to take Claritin.
Either way, I hope your daugther feels better and is able to get some rest soon!

Hi, A.. The snot is clear not because is not an infection, but because the first stage of infection a lot of mucous is produced, the second stage is when is becomes green, when body kills the viruses(the green are the dead cells). You should use a saline spray. The best are the ones in an aerosol bottles fitted with a special tip to prevent mucous injury. After spraying the best is to use a wet soft fabric to wipe as much as you can from each nostril(several times). You can use spray as many times as you can, though your daughter most probably wouldn't like it. After cleaning the nose you could use some softening neutral cream, otherwise the skin would be very irritated. Vaporizer should be on all the time to ease the congestion. And one thing which helped my daughter a LOT is eucalyptus oil in aroma lamp(easily found in Wholefoods or Harvest coop on Central square). When my daughter had a similar very congested nose, the only place she could fall asleep is in the carriage with a half reclined back. Nevertheless, she was waking up every two to three hours. I would clean her nose then, maybe breastfeed and she would sleep for two more hours. Good luck!!!!!

When my son had the sniffles I would take one drop of tea tree oil or lavender oil, and add it to a bowl of boiling water, (just one drop b/c it is strong) put the bowl in his room and shut the door.I did this just before bed so that by the time I was tucking him in I could take the bowl out. It would help with his congestion and help him to sleep. I hope this helps.

When my son was congested I would put a pillow under his matress to elevate it a little. I also would give some pain reliever if he was cranky. I personally do not think the other cold stuff works but did hear that musinex does but I am not sure at what age to give at.

Definitely try the the elevation trick - it helps drainage. Use saline solution and the bulb but be very careful about giving a child drugs at this age. They are putting warnings all over those meds and it's unclear if they really work anyway. There's an old saying that a cold takes 7 days to clear up if you treat it, and a week to clear if you don't! So it's pretty much a waiting game. It could also be allergies - we've had so much rain and the molds are really high now. That could bring on a sudden onset of symptoms. You can help her also with a great nutritional supplement called Now for Kids which really helps support the immune system - I know zillions of people whose kids no longer have colds, strep, ear infections, ear tubes, nebulizers and so on. It was developed by one of the top scientists in infant liquid nutrition, is available through distributors, is totally safe (no warning labels required) and is delicious - liquid and highly absorbable. Don't be surprised if you haven't heard of it -- the company puts all its money into research and not into advertising! I can give you more info if you are interested.

Saline drops in the nose to help clear things. Suction it out with the lovely snot sucker you were given in the hospital unless you think you can get her to blow her nose and keep her head propped up while she sleeps.

I've had really good luck with vicks baby rub. It smells really nice, and just has lavender and eucalyptus oil in it -- it's not nasty like the adult stuff. I've even used it on myself when I'm congested and it works nicely.

The elevation works-- I used a towel, but also saline drops or spray help to drain out the congestion. Time to try out the bulb sucker thingy--what fun--my son hates it but likes the results so it is a wrestling match. Good Luck--Nat