how to soothe coughs in toddlers?

W has been left with a lingering (but somewhat nasty) cough and runny nose after the flu. It doesn't seem to bother him much during the day, but during the night he seems to be coughing an awful lot, and it must be disturbing his sleep, even when he doesnt' wake up enough to cry out for me.

What can I do to help him? He's 17 months.

We have the same problem so would love to hear everyone else's answers. We have somewhat controversially resorted to a cough medicine although i'm not convinced it helps at all.

L seems to constantly have a cough, which is worse at night. I put drops of Karvol on a towel near his bed and it seems to make him cough less.

My LO has had a persistant cough for what seems like ages. The doctor says it teething related (he's 16 months). We got a humidifier for his room and it seems to really help. It was about £50 from Kiddicare, and puts warm mist nto the air. I think coughs can get worse when the air is dry from central heating. Thankfully over the past week or so whilst using this he has slept through.

HTH

I second the humidifier as well as propping up the end of the cot & having some snuffle babe on a muslin at the end of the cot.

Not sure what worked, if any of it, but it did seem to lessen the symptoms & help reduce the coughing.

HTH.

can i just ask what humidifiers you have?

our LO has a persistant cough and a humidifier sound like a good investment just done a bit of googleing but do i need a warm or cold mist dont want his room to get cold as we dont have the heating on at night

thanks sorry for the hijacking

We found Saline drops up the nose helped, just one drop up each nostril at bedtime.