Dr. Jayavasanth

Home remedies for babies up to 6 months

Cold & Cough remedies

1. Breast Milk

Breast milk is best home remedy for curing each and every disease in infants. Some children don’t latch properly when suffering with cold & cough. Don’t worry, keep offering breast milk. You don’t really have to give any other medicine for simple cold and cough. Breast milk will solve the problem.

2. Squirt Breast Milk in Nose

Lessor known use of breast milk. Some moms put few drops of breast milk in nose of child, and it helped in fast curing from cold.

3. Saline Water

If you don’t know, saline water is salted water. You can even make it at home but I recommend you to buy it from market because packed saline water has appropriate ratio of salt & water. Put few drops in the blocked nose of your child. Saline water will help unblocking the stuffy nose of your child. Keep cleaning the nose.

4. Nasal Suction with Pump

Suction pump is used for cleaning the nose of infants because cloth based hanky cotton based face towel can make rashes on soft nose of new born baby. Make sure to wash suction pump after every use.

5. Garlic & Ajwain Fumes

Garlic is very powerful medicine with anti-bacterial properties. Ajwain (carom seeds) also kills virus & bacterias.

Roast 2–3 big cloves of garlic & few pinches of Ajwain on tawa for just one minute. You will be able to smell powerful fumes. Let the mixture cool down and keep near your child. The smell of mixture will heal the cold & cough of your child. You can also bind the mixture in pouch for better handling.

6. Light Steam

Inhaling steam is a natural way to provide relief for blocked nose, chest congestion & cold.

I will not recommend proper steam for infants using steamer. Rather keep your room little steaming by placing a steamer or boiling water near your bed.

You can also make your bathroom steamy by running hot water tap for some time. Sit in bathroom for 10–15 minutes by taking your infant in your lap.

7. Cover chest, head and feet

You know better how to protect your child from cold. All kids are not same, so it’s better to observe your child. My son gets cold from chest and we take utmost care in winters to cover him with cloths, especially his chest. He remain okay without hat or socks.

8. Sanitizing hands

Once anyone in house is caught up with cold, make sure everyone keep their hands sanitized. It’s not rocket science but people spread infection by not keeping hands clean. It’s simple home remedy to protect your family from cold & cough.

9. Keep babies head elevated

Babies feel difficulty in sleeping when suffering from blocked nose & cold. Elevate your baby’s head with help of pillow or cushion while she is sleeping to minimize the discomfort of blocked nose. Other home remedies can work better when child is at rest and sleeping.

10. Oil Massage

Light massage of mustard oil or coconut oil will help your baby to get relief from cough. Do massage on chest & back of your baby.

11. Coconut Oil with drumstick leaves

Warn up coconut oil and put some drumstick leaves (moringa). It is effective home remedies when applied on hair of child who is suffering from cold.

12. Herbal Coconut Oil Massage

Warm up coconut oil and add tulsi leaves. Tulsi will leave its healing properties in the coconut oil. You can also add a pinch of camphor. Mix well to dissolve camphor into coconut oil. Massage the oil on chest of your baby before sleep. You can also do hair massage with same oil. It will give relief from cold and cough.

13. Diffuse Essential Oils in Room

Essential oils (EOs) are extracts of plants. They can come from the roots, leaves, flowers, stems, or a mixture of these. Don’t get confused with many type of fragrance oils found in the market. Fragrance oils are synthetic, they do not have the healing properties or effects. The essential oils that are good to diffuse to help with congestion are: Cedarwood, Clove, Eucalyptus, Ginger, Lemon, Melaleuca (ericifolia), Peppermint, Rosemary, Sandalwood and Thyme.

Dilute essential oils with water and put in diffuser for better results.

Home remedies for fever in babies (upto 6 months)

14. Breast Milk

Again, breast milk helps in fighting with fever (and it’s root cause). Don’t stop feeding your little one even in fever.

15. Skin to Skin Contact with mom

Most of people ignore the power of child’s connection with mom. Child remains inside mother’s womb for 9 months and always feel comfortable near mom. We have experimented it several times since the birth of our child. A direct skin to skin contact with mom gives tremendous relief to child. Give a close hug to your child without any cloths in between.

16. Lukewarm Bath

A warm bath helps bringing temperature to normal. Give your child a lukewarm bath in tub or by sponge.

17. Vinegar Sponge Bath

Add some vinegar to lukewarm water & give the bath to your little one. Soon your kid’s fever will be down.

18. Diluted Lavender Oil Massage

Like I mentioned in cold & cough remedies, oil massage helps in fever as well. Scientifically you have to give comfort to your child. Fever will go away when your child is in harmony. Dilute lavender oil in mustard or coconut oil. Give a light massage to your baby from head to toe.

19. Onion in Socks

Traditionally onions are used to cure fever in India. Cut the onion into 2–3 pieces and put under the feet, inside the socks of your child. Works best when the child is sleeping.

Home remedies for gas in stomach (upto 6 months)

20. Burp after every feed

You have to understand why babies have gas problems more often than elders. When infants drink milk, air stuck into their throat & stomach. The sound of burp happens when the air is released from stomach.

As they said, prevention is better than cure, always burp your baby after every feed and in-between the feed.

21. Exercising baby’s legs

If baby is feeling uncomfortable with gas problem, then help her in exercising by cycling legs for two minutes. Don’t do this exercise immediately after feeding but give a time gap of at least 30 minutes. Folding and pressing both legs towards stomach will also help releasing gas. We tried both methods and it worked most of the times.

22. Stomach massage

Light massage on stomach will help soothing your child. You can use any baby oil but I prefer mustard or coconut oil. Do tummy massage for five to seven minutes with light hand.

23. Hing (Asafoetida)

Hing is very effective Indian home remedy for gas related issues in children. Take a spoon of warm water and put a pinch of hing into it. We can not give hing to infants directly by mouth so apply the hing water on your child’s abdomen or around baby’s navel in anti-clockwise direction.

24. Warm Towel

Boil some water in the pan. Soak a clean hand towel into hot water and squeeze out excess water. Check the temperature and make sure towel is not too hot for the child. Place the warm towel on the tummy of your child and it will start giving relief to your kiddo from gas problem.

Home Remedies to cure vomit & loose motion in infants (upto 6 months)

25. Breast Feeding

Whatever the issues are, breastmilk is proven medicine for infants. Keep your child hydrated by breastmilk. Don’t give any other type of external milk, not even cow’s milk.

You should also look for reasons of vomit or loose motion. It could be because of some infection, teething, or just because of climate change. Try to recall what child has eaten in past 24 hours?

26. Change to soy based milk powder

If your child is taking formula powder then shift to soy based formula. Your child will have lesser rashes with soy based formula and it will help in fast recovery from loose motion.

27. Gripe Water

Gripe water is effective remedy for diarrhea in babies. Gripe water gives relief to stomach and help curing loose motions.

28. Curd and Buttermilk

It’s not recommended to children below 4 months but if your child is able to sit and started consuming semi-solids then give some curd and buttermilk. Curd has natural probiotic that help curing stomach related issues.

Home Remedies for babies more than 7 months

Cure cold & cough with home based remedies

Prevention is always better than cure. Try these super effective immunity boosting foods to stop the cold and cough before happening at the first place.

29. Steam

Steam is the first thing you should try in case of cold & cough. Inhaling steam helps to clear baby’s blocked nose and open blocked airways. It helps your baby to sleep better and speed up recovery from cold , cough & congestion. You can use room humidifier or steamer to keep room air moist. Avoid to keep your baby close to hot & steamy water.

30. Garlic Ajwain Potli

Dry roast 2–3 garlic cloves & one tablespoon of ajwain on dry tawa or pan. Once its roasted, switch off the flame. Make a potli out of it. You can place potli around baby’s bedding or in his cradle during sleep time. The garlicky ajwain smoke helps to get relief from blocked nose & chest congestion.

31. Dry roasted turmeric rub

Turmeric is one of popular home remedies for cold & cough. The antibacterial properties of turmeric makes it an effective solution to treat cough and cold naturally. Take a dried turmeric root, burn it and make a turmeric powder from it. Apply the turmeric paste(turmeric powder & few drops of water) on the baby’s nose to get relief from blocked nose.

32. Turmeric paste

Make a turmeric paste by mixing half teaspoon of turmeric powder with 1 tablespoon of water. Heat it up on flame & apply the warm turmeric paste on baby’s chest, neck, feet. As turmeric has antibacterial properties, it helps to get relief from phlegm, congestion & cough.

33. Garlic & Mustard Oil Massage

Mustard oil has medical & antibacterial properties. Its a safe & effective way to cure cough & congestion in children. Put one or two garlic cloves in mustard oil and heat the oil. Once the oil is lukewarm, rub it on baby’s chest & feet. Warmth & smell of mustard oil helps to get quick relief from nasal congestion and cough & cold.

You can also heat the mustard oil with a teaspoon of rock salt into it. Once the oil is lukewarm, rub it on baby’s chest, back & feet.

34. Nilgiri Oil

Nilgiri oil, also known as eucalyptus oil, a good remedy for a cough and cold. Eucalyptus oil helps increase circulation in the body, helps expel phlegm and decongests the blocked airways. Nilgiri oil helps to keep nose moist. Just sprinkle few drops of nilgiri oil on baby’s clothes or on some handkerchief n keep it around baby.

35. Rub Essential Oil

Add one or more essential oils to a carrier oil and run some on your baby’s feet or chest. A few that should be safe to try are eucalyptus, lemon, and sandalwood (peppermint is not recommended).

36. Use Vaporub

Rub Vicks Vaporub to bottom of your baby’s feet and chest at night, cover her feet with cotton socks. Your baby will get instant relief from cough. VapoRubs actually don’t remove congestion, it makes baby feel better with its cooling action.

37. Tulsi Water

Tulsi juice helps to get relieve from cough, cold and fever. Boil few leaves of tulsi into water & give this water to your baby or you can add 2–3 spoons of tulsi water into baby’s milk.

38. Boil tulsi and badi Elachi

Boil 4–5 tulsi leaves and one badi elachi (black cardamom) in one cup of water. Once boiled, strained and let it cool down. Feed two teaspoons of this water to your baby.

If you are giving top-up milk / formula to your baby then you can add 2–3 teaspoons of it to milk.

39. Panikoorka Juice

Panikoorka is an Ayurvedic herb, commonly used in south indian states to cure cough, cold, sore throat, nasal & chest congestion in children.

Boil the leaves of panikoorka for 4–5 minutes in 1 cup of water. Once cool down, feed 2 tablespoon of water to children. Its a very effective remedy to treat excess phlegm.

40. Warm water with ajwain

Water boiled with ajwain seeds is a good remedy for cough. Give this water on regular interval to your baby to keep him hydrated.