Cold Medicine?

Shawnee11507

DS appears to have a cold- no fever or anything- pure snot. We were up pretty much all night, needing to suck out his nose every couple hours or wipe what was running. He couldn't sleep and kept crying.

We've been using saline, boogie wipes, and the nosefrida. Anything else you ladies suggest or have used?

KatelynEA90

The only cold medicine I could find for babies as young as ours is Hyland's Baby Tiny Cold tablets. I know some mommas on here don't like Hyland's and some others do.

When DD had a cold, I gave her 'fever' medicine some nights when she had a really hard time sleeping. Fever reducer/pain medicine is about the only thing babies this young can take(that I saw at the store at least). 

aglenn

 A humidifier can help, and the Vicks Baby Rub.  I also have a Vicks thing that plugs into an outlet and will vaporize the room, which seems to help.

You might also have his ears checked.  Whenever DS can't sleep and cries all night like that he usually has an ear infection, and he never runs a fever with them.

KatelynEA90

aglenn:

 A humidifier can help, and the Vicks Baby Rub.  I also have a Vicks thing that plugs into an outlet and will vaporize the room, which seems to help.

You might also have his ears checked.  Whenever DS can't sleep and cries all night like that he usually has an ear infection, and he never runs a fever with them.

I can't believe I forgot this! Vicks Baby Rub was awesome for A's cold.

firecracker8

KatelynEA90:

aglenn:

 A humidifier can help, and the Vicks Baby Rub.  I also have a Vicks thing that plugs into an outlet and will vaporize the room, which seems to help.

You might also have his ears checked.  Whenever DS can't sleep and cries all night like that he usually has an ear infection, and he never runs a fever with them.

I can't believe I forgot this! Vicks Baby Rub was awesome for A's cold.

Yes to Vicks Baby Rub. We put it on his chest and on the bottom of his feet. I read quite a few places about the bottom of the feet and that it helps with congestion. I'm not sure if it really works, but we do it! 

Jen0204

Ditto the Vick's baby rub, and we also use the Vick's waterless vaporizer in their room, which helps a lot at night. 

My mom got me a bottle of the Hyland's cold tablets but I read the directions and wasn't too thrilled with how much it said to give.  It instructed to give 2 tablets every 15 minutes and then another 2 tablets every hour until the symptoms subside.  Even though all of the ingredients are in small doses that seems like a lot of tablets to be giving them.  

sooner1981

Jen0204:

Ditto the Vick's baby rub, and we also use the Vick's waterless vaporizer in their room, which helps a lot at night. 

My mom got me a bottle of the Hyland's cold tablets but I read the directions and wasn't too thrilled with how much it said to give.  It instructed to give 2 tablets every 15 minutes and then another 2 tablets every hour until the symptoms subside.  Even though all of the ingredients are in small doses that seems like a lot of tablets to be giving them.  

From https://windsorpeak.com/baby411/2009/01/13/vicks-vaporub-placebo-effect/

A study that was published in this month's medical journal, Chest, took a look at the common practice of rubbing Vick's on a child in hopes of clearing the nasal passages. We all remember how our moms used to do this and how the darn stuff smelled. Parents today have resorted to putting Vick's on again?sometimes on the feet instead of the chest?because there just aren't too many options out there now that cough and cold medications for children under the age of two have been taken off the shelves.

To cut to the chase, the study found that although people claim a sensation of opened nasal passages, their congestion actually INCREASES! The ferrets who were studied for the experiment responded the same way as humans?their nasal passages became more congested with Vick's. The cool sensation of the vapors is what makes people perceive they can breathe better.

From https://pediatricinsider.wordpress.com/2010/11/09/great-study-but-wrong-conclusion-the-vapo-rub-fail/

"An 8 tsp dose can kill a child. Much smaller doses are probably safe, but have occasionally been linked to seizures (children with seizures were excluded from the study.) In children less than two, Vick?s can cause serious lung irritation and breathing troubles."

Jen0204

Way to rain on our parade, Sooner

Thanks for the info.  I have been putting the baby rub on them but I didn't think it was doing much.  Do you know if the Vick's waterless vaporizor does the same thing?  I asked my doctor about it and he said it's fine and that seems to help but if it's making it worse I'd just as soon stop wasting money on those damn pads.

jmccall79

sooner1981:

"An 8 tsp dose can kill a child. Much smaller doses are probably safe, but have occasionally been linked to seizures (children with seizures were excluded from the study.) In children less than two, Vick?s can cause serious lung irritation and breathing troubles."

If it's so bad, why would my son's pedi actually recommend that we use it????  Said there's not much else that we can do for a cold in one so little, but the vick's should help with the symptoms.

Jen0204

jmccall79:

sooner1981:

"An 8 tsp dose can kill a child. Much smaller doses are probably safe, but have occasionally been linked to seizures (children with seizures were excluded from the study.) In children less than two, Vick?s can cause serious lung irritation and breathing troubles."

If it's so bad, why would my son's pedi actually recommend that we use it????  Said there's not much else that we can do for a cold in one so little, but the vick's should help with the symptoms.

Mine said to me with the Vick's vaporizer that if it helps with the symptoms and helps them to sleep to go for it, but that it's not actually treating anything.  He also said not to use it during the day (like for naps) because the coughing, sneezing, and nose running is actually good for them and is their body working on getting everything out.  And her quote didn't say it was horrible, it even says that small doses are likely fine.  I've used it and I'm sure that neither you nor I came anywhere close to 8 tsp when we put it on, that's a ton!  But the message from my doctor with this stuff seems to be to help them sleep because sleep is important and will help them recover faster, but also to be careful about not allowing the body to do what it needs to do because we'll just prolong things.

jmccall79

Jen0204:

jmccall79:

sooner1981:

"An 8 tsp dose can kill a child. Much smaller doses are probably safe, but have occasionally been linked to seizures (children with seizures were excluded from the study.) In children less than two, Vick?s can cause serious lung irritation and breathing troubles."

If it's so bad, why would my son's pedi actually recommend that we use it????  Said there's not much else that we can do for a cold in one so little, but the vick's should help with the symptoms.

Mine said to me with the Vick's vaporizer that if it helps with the symptoms and helps them to sleep to go for it, but that it's not actually treating anything.  He also said not to use it during the day (like for naps) because the coughing, sneezing, and nose running is actually good for them and is their body working on getting everything out.  And her quote didn't say it was horrible, it even says that small doses are likely fine.  I've used it and I'm sure that neither you nor I came anywhere close to 8 tsp when we put it on, that's a ton!  But the message from my doctor with this stuff seems to be to help them sleep because sleep is important and will help them recover faster, but also to be careful about not allowing the body to do what it needs to do because we'll just prolong things.

Much smaller doses are 'probably' safe?  Have been linked to seizures?  And yes my dr said to use to help with symptoms, she did not say that it would treat him and make it go away.  I guess I'm just not a believer that all things are evil!

Jen0204

Eh, I kind of look at those as standard disclaimers that they have to put on pretty much everything nowadays because of lawsuits.  We all react differently to everything, so it stands to reason that some baby somewhere could have a reaction.  Seeing something like what you bolded wouldn't make me stop using a product, but it is information that I would keep in the back of my head, especially since I had epilepsy as a child so seizures are something that are definitely something I worry about more then most people.  So it's not that the product is evil, but especially with my history I appreciate the information.

sooner1981

JM--I never, not even once, said that Vicks is evil.  I linked to two articles that were both:  (1) sceptical of its ability to actually help a cold, and (2) against using Vicks in babies under 2 because of certain potential risks.

 Since this topic was about different remedies used to treat a cold in babies, I thought this information was relevant.

A couple of weeks ago, our LO got her first cold.  My DH and I spent a couple nights up multiples times a night with saline and the nose frida to give C some relief.  At one point, I asked DH about Vicks, because my mom had used it on me when I was little, and he told me that he had read that Vicks: (1) doesn't help congestion, (2) may, in fact, cause more congestion, and (3) may pose some other, rare, not too serious risks.  Based on that, he said it just wasn't worth it, since there wasn't really any upside, in his opinion.

Again, I didn't say it was the worst thing ever.  Just that there are studies out there that say that it really isn't worth it to treat your kid with anything other than saline and snot suckers, as long as it is just a no-fever, run of the mill cold.

jmccall79

And I know that there will always be "disclaimers" for EVERYTHING!  But OMG, if you were to look at every single disclaimer, for everything that's out there (food, meds, exercise equipment, clothes, I could go on), I might want to go live in a bubble...BIODome anyone?  I do appreciate information like this, as I have looked at things myself, but also think that some things do have to be taken with a grain of salt.  And again, my dr did say that it could, notice I said could, help with the symptoms, but not necessarily make them go away.  I'm not arguing that Vicks is the cure all by any means.  But also not arguing that it could be the worst thing in the world to try.  I tried it, it seemed to help for a day or so then lost it effectiveness so I quit using it.  Same hold true for tylenol and ibuprofen.  Sometimes it seems to help, and sometimes it doesn't.  So, if it doesn't seem like it's doing anything, I won't keep dosing him.  That is all.

Jen0204

Jm, I don't think anyone disagrees with you. Sooner's posts seem to rub you the wrong way probably because of her clinical way of presenting information but I like that they're too the point and give a lot of information. Will I stop using vick's because of her post? No, I'll probably still use it from time to time. But it's good to know what to watch out for.

If we freaked out over every warning, like you said, we would live in a bubble. And honestly as horrible as it is I don't even read disclaimers on the crap I take anymore. But I'm a FTM and overprotective still so I like getting as much information as possible about what I give the girls and then make an educated decision.

MollySm

Thanks for the info, Sooner. Lucia has a cold and I've been meaning to look into Vicks.