Cold Season Tips for Parents of Toddlers

I’ve got one of those toddlers, that despite eating pints and pints of berries and an orange and an apple a day, seems to catch everything. This year, it feels like cold season was delayed, as she’s been under the weather, later in the season.

If you’ve got a toddler with a cold at home, here are a few cold remedies that are toddler safe:

Honey Lollipops

There’s an easy way to make honey lollipops to help soothe those sore throats. Using 1/2 to 1 cup of honey, simply boil on low to medium heat until it reaches 300 degrees. At this point, you can place it into lollipop molds, insert sticks and have them ready to go to get you through the entire cold season.

Use a Cool Mist Humidifier

We prefer to use humidifiers for the kids that have the scent pad slot for use with Vicks VapoPads for soothing scent, especially at night when colds seem to be worse for them. The Vicks Sweet Dreams Cool Mist Humidifier has a sweet dreams projector that doubles as a night light and the auto shutoff means it’s not going to be running when the water runs out. It’s easy to fill, with a nice, wide opening and runs quietly.

Ditch the Kleenex, Use Wet Wipes or Muslin

When kids are half way through a cold, they get the telltale red nose that just looks sore to the touch. Though kleenex is great for runny noses, using wet wipes every so often helps to soothe. Even better, we have muslin handkercheifs that are some of my favourite things when the kids have a cold (so long as they’re being washed often, so the germs aren’t being spread around the house). They’re soft on tiny noses, and very absorbent.

Get the Blankets Ready

Rest is one of the biggest factors that are going to help the kids to get over a cold. Get the blankets together and make a spot for them on the couch so they can watch their favourite movies, read books and spend time playing, without exerting themselves. Before you know it, they’ll be back to themselves so take advantage of that snuggle time.

Get Squeezin’

Fresh squeezed orange juice is the first thing I reach for on winter mornings with the kids. Usually, we skip the juicer and use the Le Creuset citrus juicer. I find it more effective than most juicers, and the kids love helping and ‘making juice with their own hands’. When they’re coming down with a cold, this vitamin-C packed juice is one of my must-haves.

What are some of the ways that you combat cold season as the weather changes into spring? It seems that we’ve been dealing with snotty noses for months on end and feels like we’ve been taking temperatures, daily around here - easier, when you’ve got a fast thermometer like the Braun Thermoscan.

Here’s hoping that snotty-nose-toddler season is quickly coming to an end - but just in case, use some of the above tips to get through it easier.