Chest congestion in infants and toddlers can be very distressing for parents as children cannot be given cough syrups before the age of six. So, how do you relieve babies and toddlers from chest congestion naturally?
Though we cannot replace the medical consultation, the home remedies help in some relief to your child from congestion. Here we have made a list of natural and safe home cures for treating chest congestion in children. Note that, all these remedies have been categorised according to child’s age.
Safe home remedies to treat chest congestion in babies and toddlers
To decongest the congested chest of your child, whether he is suffering from the wet cough or a dry cough, here is some mucus (phlegm) clearing remedies:
Use vapouriser: A vapouriser (warm mist) can melt the dried mucus inside respiratory tracts. It can also help in thinning down the thick mucus. However, vapouriser must not be used if your baby has dry coughs. In that case, use a cool-mist humidifier.
You can switch on vapouriser nearby your child’s head for up to 10-20 minutes. Use
it when your baby is asleep. This way, he won’t feel uneasy with it. Keep the vapouriser out of children’s reach.
Steam in bathroom for young babies
Your child could also take a steam the natural way. If you have got a solar water heater or a geyser installed in your bathroom, then close the bathroom, turn on the hot shower.
Place a bucket below your shower and drop peppermint, lavender, or rosemary oil into it. Make your baby rest his head on your shoulder, cover the top of his head with a towel and make him take steam naturally for about 10 minutes.
Humidifier
Humidifier (cool mist) can lubricate the mucus stuck inside the nose and chest. Difference between vapouriser and humidifier
is, vapouriser generates the hot steam and humidifiers generate the cool mist. You can use vapouriser for few minutes and result is instant whereas the humidifier is for overnight and work slowly. Even if you use a vapouriser, a humidifier is still recommended as it will work for longer effect. The baby will inhale the humid air containing essential oil particles throughout the night.
It is said that dry air, chimney (cooking) smoke, vehicular emission and other such things, can damage the cilia situated at our air passageways. When cilia get tampered, the mucus stays in our lungs and from there it can cause the common cold, chest congestion, and respiratory diseases too.
Hence humidifier can be used on a daily basis at home. On doing so, regularly change and fill in the humidifier with filtered water, as molds can grow on their water tanks, overnight.
Children suffering from Asthma should not be exposed to the cool mists of humidifiers.
Slope hill sleeping position
You should make your baby sleep in a slanting position. Arrange the pillows, cushions, and bolsters, between the mattress in such a way that you form a little slope inside his crib. Make your baby sleep as if he is sleeping on a beach chair.
This step will encourage, mucus clearance through the nose. Such a position will also provide proper support to both his neck and spine. Unlike the ‘head elevating’ position, where instead of one pillow a baby is made to sleep on two piled up pillows.
If you don’t have vapourisers at home, you can drop few drops of, any of the essential oils like eucalyptus, chamomile and lavender oil on his pillow.
Body massage
Body massages are therapeutic for the body, as all our body parts are interconnected with each other via several nerves, blood vessels, and connective tissues. On merely massaging the toe fingers you can control the mucus production made by sinus, situated at the bridge (center) of your forehead.
You should light-handedly massage your child’s chest, neck, back, and his feet’s soles with our chest decongesting body massage oil mixture: Mustard with garlic and carom seeds massage oil.
Natural vapour rubs
Usually, vapour rubs are used during the common cold, but it also must be used during chest congestion, whether or not his congestion is accompanied by common cold.
We are suggesting you, homemade natural vapour rubs, as the commercially manufactured vapour rubs, are not suitable for children less than six years of age.
The air that we breathe in, through nose enters our lungs. And your child’s lungs can get cleared, only when he would take in the smell of our mucus clearing vapour rub.
Hydrate
With water, you can thin down the thick mucus collected in the lungs. Babies can be kept hydrated with breastmilk, as breast milk contains about 80-90 percent of water.
Whereas, toddlers can be kept hydrated with herbal juices, teas, and soups
Don’t try to give water to babies under six month as water is strictly a complete no-no for them. Salt water gargles should be done only when advised by your child’s doctor. Don’t try to be his doctor on your own.
Mix veg soup
Vegetable soup broth is also capable of healing chest congestion in older babies and toddlers. For making vegetable soup you can include mucus clearing, veggies like: Carrot, tomato, ginger, garlic, onion, potato, green beans, peas and bottle Gourd, etc.
me soup with chest congestion healing spices and herbs like: Black pepper powder, bay leaf, fennel powder, cayenne pepper powder, dried thyme powder.
Don’t forget to add salt for taste and clarified butter (ghee) or unsalted butter to it. After all the vegetable gets soft and cooked, you can strain it. But if your child has properly learned to chew things, then don’t. Still, if you are unsure, you can add grated vegetables like carrot, potato, and bottle gourd in the soup. This is to avoid choking hazard. Give them this vegetable soup, 1-2 hours before dinner.
– Culled from gomama247.com.