If your child seems to catch colds on a regular basis, it probably seems like he or she is constantly sick during cold season. What you may be surprised to learn is that it's actually common for children to get colds more than adults. In fact, children might experience between 6 and 10 colds per year, and each cold could last between 2 and 14 days. While there isn't a cure for the common cold, there are a few things that you can do at home to help reduce your child's cold symptoms.

Chicken Noodle Soup

Eating chicken noodle soup to relieve a cold isn't just an old wives' tale. Chicken noodle soup will actually make you feel better if you eat it while you have a cold. The soup increases the movement of the mucus in your nose and works to improve the way your nose hairs function — which helps keep germs out of your body. Additionally, eating chicken noodle soup when you have a cold helps keep your white blood cells from moving. While experts aren't sure which chicken noodle soup ingredients keep your blood cells from migrating, they believe that eating chicken noodle soup while you have a cold slows down the amount of blood cells accumulating around your lungs, which helps keep you from getting congested. So, when your little one has a cold, serve large bowls of chicken noodle soup for dinner to keep the congestion at bay.

Honey

When you take your child to his or her primary care physician in search of a medication to relieve cold symptoms, you might get a prescription for cough syrup. While prescription-strength cough syrup will help your child refrain from coughing, honey can do the same thing. If your child is experiencing coughing bouts, a spoonful of buckwheat honey will help. In fact, a 2007 study compared the effectiveness of buckwheat honey and dextromethorphan — an ingredient found in many cough syrups. Surprisingly, the honey was the most effective way to relieve a cough. However, if your child is less than a year old, you need to speak with the baby's primary care physician before administering spoonfuls of honey. While the risk is slight, babies under a year old can contract botulism — a form of food poisoning that's rare, but serious — from consuming honey.

Fluids

It's really important to make sure your child gets enough fluids when he or she has a cold. All of the coughing and sneezing that comes along with the common cold can cause children to become dehydrated. Encourage your little one to drink fruit juice, water, herbal tea, or broth to keep him or her hydrated. If your child refuses to drink enough fluids, feed your little one popsicles or Jello.

You shouldn't worry too much when your child gets a cold. Colds are so common, there's a good chance that your child will get at least one cold per year. The best thing that you can do is focus on relieving your child's cold symptoms and talk to your child's primary care physician about different ways that you can work to prevent colds from occurring. If you're interested, click here for more information.

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