Natural Cough Remedies For Babies

Natural Cough Remedies For BabiesBy Carrie Lauth
When your baby comes down with a cough, you want to do whateveryou can to make her more comfortable. Yet at the same time, youdon’t want to grab over the counter medication, since there areusually side effects and chemicals that you’d rather not exposebabies to if it can be avoided. What's more, recent studies haveshown that cough syrups are worthless and the sugar they containmay even prolong illness.
Thankfully there are quite a few natural remedies that you canuse to calm your baby’s cough.
If your baby seems congested, take her in the bathroom and runa hot shower. The steam from the shower will help loosen thatcongestion in her lungs.
Putting your baby in a warm (not hot) bath can have the sameeffect. Make the bath even more effective by adding a few dropsof eucalyptus, sage or thyme oil into the bath water. The vaporsfrom these essential oils will help open baby’s airways,allowing her to breath easier. The vapors from these oils willalso sooth a sore throat.
If your baby's cough is caused by croup, sometimes the bestcourse of action is to wrap her up warmly and take her out inthe night air. The cold air sometimes calms the inflammation inthe upper airways.
You can also use sage and thyme to make tea out of them. Thewarm herbal tea will help clear mucus out of your baby’s lungs.Please check with your pediatrician to find out at what age youcan start giving your baby these herbal teas.
Licorice tea is another great natural cough treatment. Licoricehas antibacterial properties that will help you baby fight thebacteria that are causing the cough. It also soothes the throatand calms the respiratory tract; helping her get some muchneeded sleep. Make a cup of licorice tea and give it to yourbaby as warm as possible, of course without burning her.
Another very effective and gentle natural cough remedy forbabies is an herbal rub. Start with 3 to 4 tablespoons of oliveoil and add 2 drops of essential oils to the olive oil. Goodoils to use are eucalyptus, sage, rosemary and peppermint oil. Amixture of eucalyptus and rosemary works really well at night,since the eucalyptus will calm your baby’s cough and allow herto breath easier, while the rosemary helps calm her down anddrift off to sleep.
Mix the olive oil and essential oils well, then apply themixture to your baby’s chest and back. If the baby is small,swaddle her in a soft blanket, otherwise keep her back and chestas covered as possible with a thicker, tight fitting shirt tobuild up body heat which will allow the essential oils tovaporize. As baby breathes in the fumes, breathing will geteasier.
A humidifier is another great option when it comes to makingyour coughing baby more comfortable. Use a few of the sameessential oils suggested above and run the humidifier in baby’sbedroom.
Some Moms have found that breastmilk will help soothe and heala cough better than any other drink. If you're nursing and babydevelops a cough, don't stop breastfeeding. Increase baby'sfeedings. Breastmilk is not a dairy product and is the safestfood for baby when he's sick.
This article is provided for information purposes only. Pleaseconsult your baby's health care provider before trying homeremedies.
About the Author: Visit http://www.NaturalBabyWorld.com tolearn more ways to care for your baby naturally. Then have alisten to the free internet talk radio show athttp://www.NaturalMomsTalkRadio.
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