Natural Baby Cold Remedies | How to help your child get over a cold

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Recently updated on March 3rd, 2023 at 01:41 pm

Here are my top natural baby cold remedies to use when treating a child at home.

Fighting a cold can be really rough and challenging for everyone, especially when it comes to babies, toddlers, or just children in general.

These remedies are great for older kids too, or even for yourself.

Tip: you can use these remedies when you are pregnant too!

Please note that these baby cold remedies are not categorized by your child’s age! Keep in mind that there are certain things that you can’t “use” on your 3-month-old for example. There’s a cheat sheet I created just for you to help you categorize the remedies!

What to do when your baby is having a cold?

There are some general things to do whenever your baby is feeling poorly or having a cold. It’s so different treating someone else’s cold and maybe there are things that you wouldn’t think of at that time. When your child gets sick it’s a really stressful time! At least for me, it is.

Here it’s a list with the most important things to do when your baby has a cold:

• clean your baby’s nose as often as you can – it’s very important to eliminate as much mucus as possible from your child’s nose. If you do this it will speed up the recovering process. Please don’t let your child eat it! This will only make things worse. Not only it’s gross, but he will feed on more and more viruses. I am kind of obsessed with my son’s nose. We are using an electric nasal aspirator.
• keep your baby hydrated at all times – breastmilk, formula, water, homemade juices, soups it doesn’t really matter what it is as long as you give them plenty of liquids
• wash hands more often – this will prevent spreading the germs and will facilitate a quicker recovery
• help them get plenty of rest & sleep – another essential thing to do in order for her to get better

Natural Baby Cold Remedies to use at home

1. Blocked or stuffy nose

I am aware that all cold symptoms are the worst, but in my opinion, this one is the worst of worsts, especially for children or very young ones, like my son (14 months at this moment).

He can’t eat properly, he can’t breathe, he can’t sleep, he can’t fell asleep. You get the idea!

So here are some things that would help your child to breathe:

• steam – is good to loosen up some of the build-up mucus located in your baby’s nose. It’ll help him breathe properly and you’ll also be able to clean his nose easier. There are 2 ways I like to create steam: let hot water run into the shower and stay there for at least 30 minutes or boiling water with some thyme and salt. Keep the hot water close to your child, but BE CAREFUL to don’t burn himself. Always supervise him/her.

• essential oil diffusers – there are not just for aromatherapy, but a great way to treat cold. These are very similar to the humidifiers, but they don’t release as much water particles into the air. We have an essential oil diffuser that’s very similar to the one from Breathe. I love to use it in combination with the Lemon essential oil from doTerra or Snufflebabe vapour essential oil. Which are great for treating cold symptoms.

• saline drops – it’s great for everyday usage, not just for when your child is cold. Be careful though to don’t exaggerate with it as it tends to dry out. As my son got older, I started using a Nasal Spray that’s similar to NeilMed.
• vapor rub – I mentioned earlier the Snufflebabe vapor essential oil that I use in our diffuser. There is also a cream by the same brand that can be rubbed onto your baby’s chest. It’s called Snufflebabe Vapour Rub. See more chest rubs down below.

• nasal aspirator – I personally prefer the electric one – it’s easy to use, fast and convenient for both of us. I’ve been using it since he was a baby (now he’s nearly 3 years old) and we still have the same exact one (they don’t even fabricate it anymore).

I prefer the electric one because kids can’t blow their nose properly and in order for them to get well ASAP, they must eliminate all the mucus. I hate to see my child eating their mucus… It’s very disgusting and not healthy at all. The body is trying to eliminate the mucus and with them ingesting it again won’t help them get well any time soon. So whenever he has a cold, the aspirator is stuck to my hand. Check out a (very) similar one here if you are interested.

• essential oils – we started recently using essential oils for various things around the house. We are using DOTERRA oils and we absolutely love them. I use Lemon in our vaporizer and Melaleuca (Tea Tree) to rub on my son’s feet. You need only a tiny drop mixed up with coconut oil. If you put too much it can cause irritation.

Related: 6 Safe Essential Oils for Babies & Toddlers

2. Coughs

• Lots and lots of fluids –  such as water, juices, tea. My go-to “tea” is warm water honey and cinnamon, sometimes I add lemon juice as well. Be careful to don’t burn your child! I highly recommend checking its temperature on the back of your wrist. This is pure medicine, so if your child will drink it, I’d suggest as many times as you can. Sadly my son doesn’t want to drink anything besides water and his juice. We have a homemade blueberry syrup that he’s obsessed with.
• Chicken soup – also known as “the soup of the sick”. I remember that as a kid, I used to have it whenever I had a cold or just wasn’t feeling right.
• Honey – please don’t use if your child is under 12 months – it’s not recommended. This is a natural antibiotic that’s good for many things, especially for coughs and sore throats.
• Homemade fir buds syrup – this is one of the best cough remedies that I have for you and it’s been in my family for years. It’s very effective and because it’s natural, it’s not harmful to babies or toddlers. Click here to see the recipe.
• Black Radish with honey – this may sound weird, but let me explain. It’s a great natural cough syrup meant for older kids (1+ yo). Take the black radish, wash it thoroughly, feel free to use a brush. You want to get all the sand and soil. Once clean, use a knife to make a small hole in the middle of the radish, but be careful to don’t go all the way down. Stop about it in the middle of it. Make it big enough to fit a teaspoon inside. Next, fill in with honey and let it sit overnight. Boom! You’ll have a delicious cough syrup that’s natural and healthy for all the family. Next time I do it, I’ll take some pictures or video of it and add it here.

3. Sore throats

• Honey – as I mentioned earlier, it’s not suitable for kids under 12 months.
• Plenty of liquids – teas or warm water with lemon and honey are the best for treating sore throats. 

• Sore throat lollipops – this is more for older kids, so definitely check the packaging before use. These are from Little Remedies and are suitable for 3+ years.

• Water & salt gargles – another one for older kids. I don’t think that you could do gargles with a 14 months old baby 🙂 

4. Fever

I know that there is medication to fight fever and I DO recommend using them. I use them too! Don’t get me wrong, but there are cases when the fever won’t drop as quickly or maybe the medication isn’t enough and you can’t do an overdose. I’ve had many occasions during my childhood with a stubborn fever that just wouldn’t go away. So here are some things my mom used to do to help speed things up a little.

• Remove a layer of clothes – this applies if your child has too many layers of clothes. Sometimes babies are overdressed and we might think that’s he’s got a fever. 
• Damp cloth on baby’s forehead – this will absorb the heat from the body and hopefully drop the fever. Don’t forget to cool it once in a while. 
• Potato slices – cut a thick slice of a large potato and place it on your child’s sole of both feet and then put a sock on them. 

• Thermometer – I know from experience that taking a baby’s temperature it’s always very difficult. My son for instance, wouldn’t stay still or maybe he was uncomfortable, so I’d never manage to measure his accurate temperature. That’s why we started searching for other options that are on the market that can save us all this trouble, but more importantly to don’t irritate our baby. That’s when my husband found this infrared thermometer. This would tell us our baby’s body temperature within seconds and touch-free. 

Conclusions

These are all my natural baby cold remedies that every parent should know! All-natural and very easy to follow and implement. Trust me, they work really well even on adults too. So, if you’re one of those people that don’t like taking medication, you should definitely give them a go. I used them on myself all the time when I have a cold.

Please don’t forget to download the one-page cheat sheet (see below) that will tell you exactly what remedies to use for your child’s age. It’s also great to add to your medicine cabinet or fridge for easy access.