Natural remedies for a stuffy nose and tight chest

Caring for a sick child with cold-like symptoms such as a stuffy nose and tight chest can be exhausting, especially if your tot starts feeling unwell in the middle of the night and you don’t have any medication to treat her.

Fortunately, there are some things you can do to make your little one feel better until you can get her to the doctor the following morning.

Here are a few natural remedies that can help ease your child’s stuffy nose and tight chest.

Use a humidifier or vaporiser

Mucus in the lungs causes congestion, so having your toddler breathe moist air can help to loosen this mucus. Try using a humidifier or a vaporiser. Alternatively, let your child sit in a steamy bathroom for a while.

Turn to essential oils

Eucalyptus essential oil is a wonderful decongestant and perfect to diffuse in your child’s bedroom. Not only is it effective in loosening up mucus in the airways, but it also smells great too! Lavender essential oil has also proven to be very calming for children.

Use a nasal aspirator and saline drops

It can be tricky to clear your baby’s nasal passages. You can try using a bulb syringe or ‘snot sucker’ to remove any excess mucus. If they struggle with this, saline drops, sprays, or mists are extremely effective at clearing a baby’s congested nose gently and effectively.

Ensure your child takes in lots of fluids

Keeping your sick child hydrated is one of the easiest and quickest ways you can help her recover. If she’s reluctant to drink water, healthy and nutrient-rich alternatives like smoothies or raw juices with her favourite fruits and vegetables might work better. If she prefers warm drinks, try giving her some chicken soup, rooibos tea, or even warmed apple juice.

Give your child a chest rub

A chest rub is often the first thing you’ll reach for when you notice your little one has a stuffy nose or chesty cough. But do you actually know what ingredients have been used to make up the rubs you’re so readily smearing onto their baby’s chest, feet, and nose?

Pure Beginnings’ Natural Chest Rub with eucalyptus and lavender, is the perfect addition to your winter medicine cabinet. Free from petroleum and menthol, and with 100% of the ingredients from natural origin, this chest rub is safe to use on babies as young as three months old. Incorporating the powerful healing properties of eucalyptus, tea tree, lavender, and frankincense, this chest rub provides a gentle, safe, and effective way to ease congestion.

Help your child fall asleep

Children need plenty of sleep – even more so when they are ill. Sleep presses the reset button and allows the body some downtime to fight the bugs it’s up against.

While sleep is ideal, it is not always easy to enforce. If this is the case, you can encourage quiet play. Create a comfortable space for your little one to cuddle up in where she can page through books, play quietly with toys, draw, or colour-in. This way, they can keep busy without exerting themselves.

Change your child’s sleeping position

Elevating your toddler’s upper body so gravity can help reduce congestion will definitely help to ensure a more peaceful night’s sleep.

When children lie flat on their backs, the congestion that builds up in their little bodies can sometimes worsen. You can lift one side of your child’s bed by placing a rolled-up towel or a pillow beneath the mattress. If they are in a ‘big bed”, you can prop the legs up on hard books or blocks of wood.