The Best Cough Remedies for Kids

Being sick is no fun! What’s even worse is when it’s your child who doesn’t feel well. From daycare to playgroup to vacation, we have had our fair share of colds and coughs. And we’ve ended up trying every over-the-counter medication and remedy there is! So here I am to help you and your kid feel better as I go through the best cough remedies for kids.

If you think your child might be ill, please abide by good playgroup etiquette and keep them home until they’ve been cleared by their doctor, or fever-free (without medication) for 24 hours.

I am not a doctor. For goodness sakes don’t just listen to me. Call your pediatrician if you ever have questions or concerns, and double check the age and weight recommendation on each medication.

And if you’re in need of a reliable thermometer, you can see my detailed unbiased comparison review here (complete with video demo!).

I do have affiliate links in this article – the items do not cost you any extra money but a small percentage goes to support my family and I. We thank you very much!

How do you know if it’s just allergies?

I wanted to start with this since that has been the culprit for us this spring. We wanted to be sure that it was only allergies plaguing our son and not something contagious.

We figured out that our son had just allergies because he was mostly fine during the day, he acted normal, he had no fever and no green mucus, and the coughing was a dry non-productive cough that showed up every night when he laid down. A call with our pediatrician confirmed that we should try age-appropriate OTC allergy medication and see if it helped after a few days. Like magic, it did!

Did you know? You can technically have “allergies“ without being allergic to anything. Everybody can be sensitive when there is a high quantity of pollen or other irritant.

The good news with allergies is that they can easily be treated over the counter (OTC) with something like Zyrtec.

The bad news is that you need to give it to your child regularly over time for the meds to really be effective. We told our son that we were building it up in his body, like a block on a tower where you add one a day. And then you experiment by not giving your child the medication after a few days or weeks, to see if they can do okay without it. Here in south Texas, our son did best when we used allergy medication from about mid-March to mid-April.

The Best Cough Remedies for Kids That You Can Make at Home

There are a few things you can probably make to help your child be more comfortable without even having to go to the store. These cough remedies for kids are really simple and can help alleviate symptoms, particularly if your child is just coughing at night or after running around.

A humidifier is a great way to make sure that your child can breathe easily, and it keeps their body from getting dried out. We run a cool mist humidifier at night while our kids sleep, but then shut it off during the day.

You don’t want to run a humidifier constantly for days on end as you can have issues with mold in your carpet or on your walls (and no one has time for that). Also make sure you break down your humidifier at least once a week and clean it thoroughly – I wash mine out and run it with some white vinegar and water.

Additionally, if you are an “oily” person, you can add a few drops of essential oils to help. Tea tree is always good for illness, lavender is calming and can help with sleep, and oils like lemon or peppermint are antibacterial. Just please make sure you use age-appropriate, high quality oils. That’s all I’ll say about that!

Another one of our favorite cough remedies for kids is a homemade lime and honey syrup. Limes are a natural disinfectant and the vitamin C is an added bonus for a child battling a cough. Honey is thick and will soothe the throat when consumed (just don’t drink anything after the syrup is given, as it coats the throat). This combination is also thought to be antibacterial.

Did you know? Honey never expires! While it may start to separate, aspects of the bees’ saliva render it antibacterial and antimicrobial. This is why honey is so dangerous for children under two years old: it effectively can kill all of the child’s gut flora and cause botulism.

We mix about one tablespoon of honey with the juice of one lime. Then we give it to our child right before bed, after they’ve brushed their teeth and had their water. We keep some extra by our side of the bed in case we need to give one more dose in the night. And no, the sugar doesn’t hype up our kid or make him restless. Ahhh.

You can read more about the benefits (or lack of) of lime and honey for cough here. My mother-in-law swears by it too, and it’s a common cough remedy in various cultures.

Finally, you can get an extra pillow – or a wedge pillow like we have – to help prop up your child and lessen sinus drainage. If you can get the angle of their back to not be as horizontal, it can help with a stubborn nighttime cough.

The Best OTC Cough Remedies for Kids

As you can see, we’ve tried quite a few over-the-counter meds for our kids’ cough! Everyone needs to rest without feeling like they’ve been drugged. Here are our favorites.

Again, I’m not a medical professional. This is what works for us but please consult your physician for your child’s cough and for any medication recommendations.

Nasal saline is a great idea to get moisture in your child’s nose and attempt to clean anything out. Even if your child is congested, nasal saline is a simple way to try and relieve some of the stuffiness that may be causing them to cough (you know that awful pressure feeling, right?) I recommend combining nasal saline with a Nose Frida, not a bulb, as you have much more control. And I avoid nasal salines that have extra scents and other unnecessary junk in them. For me, simpler is better.

You can read my full honest review of the Nose Frida, as well as why I’m so passionate about it, here. It’s weird and amazing and it works!

A chest rub is another great idea to help your child rest. There are ones specifically made for infants  as well as children. You just want to make sure that your child won’t get their hands in it or anything. Additionally, we’ve had a lot of luck with putting some of the chest rub on their feet, and then putting socks on them! The goal is to get them to breathe in the vapors.

As you can see from the photo above, we do well with Hylands products. (No they don’t endorse me and I don’t get anything for free.) Hylands is a homeopathic company, meaning they aim to use more natural ingredients to teach your body to make itself well; however, they’re not evaluated by the FDA. Read more about homeopathy here.

As always, you want to make sure that you use the appropriate product and dosage for your child’s age (or weight, whichever is a smaller dose). For my four year old, we have the Hyland’s 4Kids Cold ’n Cough for daytime, and the paired product for nighttime. These two items are advertised for children aged 2-12 years old. They also make tablets but we’ve never tried those.

For my daughter, who is 2 years old but only 20 pounds, we use the Hyland’s Baby line for as much as possible. Our toddler also uses the Mucus + Cold Relief (daytime and nighttime) as needed. These two medications are more combo drugs, meaning that they aim to treat multiple symptoms.

I didn’t want to leave Zarbees off of this list, because they make some great stuff too. (We’re actually out of it at the time I was taking photos, so forgive me for not having any pictures!) For more information on Zarbees’ products, ingredients and more, please see the links for Zarbees products for children and Zarbees baby products.

A Few Other Suggestions

Teach your child to cough into their elbow or sleeve. Just like sneezes, a cough expels air out of their mouth and can spread germs.

Your child should also wash hands frequently when sick or coughing. While hand sanitizer is more convenient, you can also just scrub well with good old soap and water.

Make sure that you don’t have any fans on high, and that your child is dressed in light layers so that they don’t overheat. If you bathe your kids at night, ensure that they don’t have wet hair.

And a more advanced tip: if your child’s cough is productive (e.g. mucus comes up into their mouth), try to get them to spit it out. It’ll help get rid of the cough more quickly, and plus kids usually think it’s cool to see what was in their throat!

We do tend to be really conservative with medicating our children, so we try to only treat the symptoms that they actually have. Usually the best cough remedies for kids will be just cough relief, and not a combination medication. But that’s just my opinion.

On that same note, I don’t normally medicate for a cough during the day when my kids are up. I’d rather let gravity help them and try to get their bodies to work it out. I usually try to let my kids go through the day with no meds in their system (at least for a cough suppresant), but then give them something when it’s almost naptime or bedtime. Again, just our preference.

Finally, please please please make sure that all medications (for you as well as your children) are locked up. Not just “I don’t think the kids can get to them”, but be certain. We have a medicine drawer with a childproof lock on it like this. As a bonus, whenever my husband and I take medication or even our vitamins, we make them seem like they’re yucky so our kids aren’t tempted to taste anything when we’re not around. (I don’t have these cool magnetic ones but I wish I did!)

Viola! I hope that this article has helped to give you some strategies in regards to the best cough remedies for kids. Let me know what works for you in your house, and thanks for pinning and sharing!