Baby Cold Relief

All babies and young children suffer from sniffles and snuffles at some stage and especially in the winter months.

More often than not, such symptoms are from the common cold or flu and in most cases, you can help your baby to fight off these symptoms with home care treatment:

Make sure you give your baby plenty of fluids in order to replace any lost from his body.
His immune system needs to fight off the virus so plenty of rest is needed.
Any exposure to cigarette smoke is completely out but then this would be so at any time when babies and children are concerned.
Use a suitable pain reliever such as paracetamol to help with the aches and pains and also to reduce fever.
Use a suitable (and baby friendly) decongestant to help dry a runny nose or relieve blocked sinuses.

Many parents who seek help from their doctor request antibiotics to treat colds and flu in their children. The medical profession is trying to educate parents that the inappropriate use of antibiotics (which are ineffective against viruses such as colds and flu anyway) can:

give side effects which can make your child sicker and
lead to the emergence of resistant bacteria that do not respond to treatment – recent medical studies have show that the over use of antibiotics has caused patients to become 7 times more likely to be infected by antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

It is important to help prevent your young child from either catching a cold or the flu in the first place or at least to reduce their severity by:

giving your child a healthy diet with plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables.
teaching your child to be aware that when others around him have cold or flu symptoms, he should be careful not to use the same cups or cutlery.
teaching him to always wash his hands regularly with soap and water.
Teaching him to keep his hands away from his eyes, nose and mouth otherwise such actions can cause a virus to enter the system.

If your baby or young child does not respond to your care when he has the sniffles and the snuffles or you are at all concerned, then it is wise to seek further help from your doctor.