Treat Toddler Cough Without Medication

As a parent of an ailing toddler, you probably want to do whatever you can to make your sick child comfortable. Many parents opt to treat their child’s cough at home without medicine. Some illnesses do require medical attention, and knowing when to see a doctor is important. Fortunately, many less severe illnesses can be treated at home with simple and practical techniques, providing your child relief from their cough.

Steps

Using Natural Remedies

1. Give your child honey. If your toddler is over one year old, honey is a great remedy for cough and sore throat. A spoonful before bed or throughout the day will be a treat and will ease coughing and throat pain. You can also dissolve 1-2 teaspoons of honey in hot water or tea (but be sure to let it cool down before giving it to your child).
   • Honey should not be given to children under one year of age.
   • If your child shows any signs of allergic reaction, such as swelling, hives, or lethargy, you’re your pediatrician. If more serious symptoms occur, such as difficulty breathing, call 911.
2. Make sure your child has plenty of fluids. Children can get dehydrated quickly when they’re sick, which is dangerous. Plus staying well hydrated helps to loosen up mucus and make breathing easier. Give your child lots of cool water and juice and warm decaffeinated tea with honey and lemon. Choose warm soup like chicken noodle for mealtime – the warm liquid soothes the throat and helps to keep your child hydrated.
3. Treat croup with cool air and humidity. You don’t have to be a doctor to be able to recognize the common cough of croup. It sounds like a barking or seal-like cough; other symptoms might be a high-pitched sound when your child breathes in, fever, hoarse voice, and difficulty swallowing. Croup is caused by a virus, so does not require antibiotics. A cool-mist humidifier or steamed up bathroom, cool soothing drinks, or short exposure to cool air outside can help reduce throat swelling and improve cough.
   • Children usually recover from croup with no problems. As always, seek medical care if your child has difficulty breathing or a fever over 104°F (40°C).
4. Try homeopathic remedies with caution. Homeopathy is the practice of using natural substances in small doses to treat illness. It has not been scientifically proven to be effective. However, when practiced properly and correctly, many people find it beneficial and some medical professionals support its use. There is a risk of adverse effects when using homeopathy, especially with children, and careful dosing is important. If you are interested in homeopathic remedies, consult a professional and talk with your pediatrician.
   • Homeopathic remedies are matched to your child’s specific symptoms and the characteristics of their illness, so pay careful attention to how your child is feeling and acting.

Keeping Your Child Comfortable

1. Put a humidifier in your child’s room. Humidifiers are available at many department stores and are easy to use. Cool-mist humidifiers decrease the pain of a sore throat and alleviate nighttime coughing because they keep the inside of your child’s nose and throat moist.
   • If you don’t own a humidifier, replicate the moistening action in your bathroom. Close the door, turn the hot water on in the shower, and let the room steam up. Relax with your child in the steamy room for about 20 minutes. The soothing and moistening actions will make breathing easier and more comfortable.
2. Clean your child’s nose with saline and a bulb syringe. Young children usually do not know how to blow their nose, so you need to clean their nose for them. The saline moistens the inside of the nose and breaks up mucus a little, so that you can suction the mucus out with the bulb syringe. Tilt your child’s head back a little and use an eyedropper to squirt 1-2 drops of saline into each nostril. Squeeze the bulb, pushing the air out, and gently put the tip of the syringe into one nostril. Release the squeeze on the bulb, and mucus from the nose should get sucked into the syringe.
   • Do this before bed and up to four times daily.
   • Make sure the syringe is clean before putting it in your child’s nose.
3. Prop your child up on pillows when they sleep. Coughing often gets worse at night because mucus accumulates in the throat as your child is lying flat. Elevate your child’s head with a few pillows placed under their back, shoulders and neck. This can make it easier for them to sleep.
   • For babies, prop the mattress up with pillows to avoid pillows in the crib, which can pose a suffocation risk.
4. Soothe chapped skin with petroleum jelly. Petroleum jelly won’t help a cough, but you can make your child more comfortable by rubbing a little under their nose or on other chapped or irritated skin.
5. Keep irritants away from your child. While your child is sick, anything irritating to the nose, throat or lungs can make their cough worse. Avoid strong scents in the home like incense or air fresheners, keep pollen outside where it belongs, and do not smoke around your child. Exposure to smoke can cause asthma in children and can keep them sick for longer.
   • Even exposure to second-hand smoke from your clothes or hair can worsen your child’s cough or breathing problems. If you do smoke, do so outside away from your child, change clothes when you come inside (or have a big overcoat you wear specifically for smoking to protect your clothes) and tie back or cover long hair to prevent it bringing smoke into the home.
6. Show your child extra care and attention. Sometimes the best way to treat a child's cough without medication is with extra love in addition to other home remedies. Your toddler will appreciate the added affection, and you will be better able to monitor changes in temperature and demeanor and act accordingly.

Recognizing When to Get Your Child Medical Treatment

1. Check for a fever. It’s not uncommon for children to have a low fever even with a mild illness, and children tend to run higher temperatures than adults. However, a fever of 104°F (40°C) or higher, or any fever (over 100.4 F) in a baby less than 3 months requires a call to the doctor. A fever can cause dehydration, lead to seizures, or indicate that infection is present. If your child has a high fever or one that lasts for over 5 days with home care, they should be seen by their doctor.
   • If your child has a fever (over 100.4F) and a rash, then this is also a reason to seek medical attention for your child.
2. Know signs of dehydration. Kids get dehydrated much faster than adults, and the consequences can be more severe. If your child exhibits signs of dehydration, take them quickly for medical care. If they cannot be rehydrated with fluids they may require an IV.
   • Signs of dehydration in toddlers include a dry or sticky mouth, seeming dizzy or especially sleepy, sunken in eyes, lack of tears when crying, and having fewer wet diapers or urinating less frequently.
3. Have an asthma plan. If you already know that your child has asthma, you and your doctor should work up an asthma plan, i.e. what to do in the event they have an asthma flare up. However, you may not know your child has asthma if they are at a young age. If your child is coughing and you hear them wheezing when they breathe out, it can be a sign of asthma and they should be treated by the doctor.
   • You may also notice asthma if your child has a cough and wheezing for many, many nights, but they have no symptoms of a cold like runny nose or fever.
   • Use a cool-mist humidifier in their room for some relief, and make sure they drink lots of fluids.
4. Pay close attention to how your child is breathing. If your child’s cough begins to interfere with their ability to breathe in any way, you should take them to the doctor quickly. You may notice that their chest or stomach is heaving because they are working hard to breathe, that they are breathing faster than usual, or that they are making a noisy or musical sound when breathing in (called stridor).
5. Watch for a blue tinge to your child’s skin. When your child isn’t breathing well and isn’t getting enough oxygen, you may start to see a blue or dusky purple color in their lips, tongue or face. This is a serious indication of breathing problems, and you should seek emergency care.
6. Check your child’s phlegm for blood. It’s not typical for a child to cough up blood, so if they do you should skip at-home remedies and go to the doctor. You can, however, first check their mouth to make sure the blood isn’t from a bite on the tongue or cheek.
7. Listen for a “whooping” cough. You’ve probably heard of whooping cough, the common name for an infection with the pertussis bacteria. Pertussis infections were becoming uncommon but are on the rise due to children going unvaccinated. Pertussis infections require antibiotics to get better, so a doctor’s visit is needed. Listen for the classic presentation: many dry coughs in a row in a long coughing attack, followed by a high-pitched “whooping” sound when your child breathes in.
   • Your child is at risk for whooping cough if they did not receive their DTaP (Diptheria-Tetanus-Pertussis) vaccine.
   • You can make your child more comfortable for a short time by making sure they drink lots of fluids, and using a cool-mist humidifier in their room. This is not a cure, however, and they do need medicine.
8. Know signs of pneumonia. Pneumonia is a medical emergency in toddlers. Seek emergency care if your child has a wet-sounding, mucus filled cough and is having a hard time breathing, has a high fever, has general achiness or chest pain, is vomiting, has chills, or shows any blue color in the skin.
9. Consider other reasons to seek medical attention. There may be other reasons to seek medical treatment for your child if they have a cough. Some other situations when you should seek medical attention for your child’s cough include:
   • Your child has a blood or immune disorder or has not received routine immunizations.
   • Your child is vomiting repeatedly and / or has severe diarrhea.

Tips

• When in doubt about whether your child needs medications or can be treated at home, or what OTC medicines are safe for your child, consult your healthcare provider or pharmacist.
• Most coughs are caused by viruses, not bacteria. Antibiotics don’t work to treat viruses; usually, viruses just need time to pass through. Therefore doctors usually do not give antibiotics for a cough. Viral coughs can last up to 2 weeks, so don’t worry that your child needs antibiotics just because their cough is long-lasting.
• Don’t worry too much if your child vomits while coughing; this isn’t unusual. Coughing can trigger the gag reflex and make your child vomit, and since kids don’t usually blow their nose on their own, mucus drains into the stomach and can cause nausea or vomiting. Suction their nose regularly to minimize this.

Warnings

• If your toddler's cough persists or gets worse following two to three days of home treatment, it is advisable to alert a physician and get appropriate advice. They can probably tell you the cause of the cough and the best way to treat it.
• If your child vomits repeatedly, becomes dehydrated, or has vomiting with a fever, then see your pediatrician.
• These guidelines are best applied to toddlers ages 1-3. If an infant of 3 months or younger has been coughing for more than a few hours or has any fever, take them to their doctor.

Related Articles

• Relieve Stuffy Nose in Toddlers

Sources and Citations

See also

• Treat a Sinus Infection for a Toddler
• Perform the Heimlich Maneuver on a Toddler
• Relieve Stuffy Nose in Toddlers
• Reduce Fever in a Toddler
• Strengthen Toddlers Immunity

What links here

• Reduce Fever in a Toddler