Health Tip: Skip the Cold Medicine Before Age 4

Here's what you can offer instead

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(HealthDay News) -- Parents want to do whatever they can to ease a child's cold symptoms, but cough and cold medicines aren't recommended for children under age 4.

The American Academy of Family Physicians suggests these alternatives to ease a young child's cough and cold symptoms:

Encourage your child to get lots of rest.
Offer the child plenty of fluids.
Use saline nose drops to ease stuffiness.
Run a cool-mist humidifier in your child's room at night.
Steam up the bathroom with a hot shower, letting your child sit outside the stall while the shower runs.

-- Diana Kohnle

Last Updated: Dec 19, 2011

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