Any home remedies for the common cold?

My daughter is 21 years old, and just recently became pregnant. She also just caught a nasty cold, and that is a special problem. She (at her Dr.'s advice) cannot take cough medicines at this early stage of pregnancy because it would be bad for the baby. So what we're looking for is any advice from the community on natural remedies (we've already got chicken soup on the list ).

I should point out that my daughter is of small build; probably 5'2" and about 100 pounds soaking wet. She is in very good shape otherwise, doesn't smoke, and moderate drinker, but even that's a no-no while she is pregnant. She's very very happy to be pregnant and wants to do everything right.

So, any ideas on what might work as far as natural, or home remedies, to help with the coughing and congestion, not to mention she feels dragged out?

Thanks

Ask Bondie. He has never had a cold or the sniffles.

For a cough or sore throat try drinking hot water with honey and/or lemon.
Steam is good for a stuffed up nose.
Most important is rest and plenty of fluids.

I hope that helps .

Like Umbrax said, drink lots of fluids and get plenty of rest. I usually eat alotta of oranges and drink like 3 glasses of orange juice when I get a cold.

[edit on 3-11-2005 by Striker122]

Striker122, I bet that works like a charm.
Pumping your body with vitamin C at the first signs of a cold works well. I can't say what the effect of high doses of vitamin C would have on the baby though.

The problem for me with this one is "home" remedies. It definitely narrows down the choices. Good luck!

Dr. Love's cold remedies:

NyQuil shooters
NyQuil jello shots
NyQuil and diet Coke
Long Island Iced NyQuil
NyQuil and soda
NyQuil and tonic
bloody NyQuil (w/ a lot of spice)
NyQuil on the beach
NyQuil and 7..................................you get the idea.

Peace

Originally posted by Dr Love
The problem for me with this one is "home" remedies. It definitely narrows down the choices. Good luck!

Dr. Love's cold remedies:

NyQuil shooters
NyQuil jello shots
NyQuil and diet Coke
Long Island Iced NyQuil
NyQuil and soda
NyQuil and tonic
bloody NyQuil (w/ a lot of spice)
NyQuil on the beach
NyQuil and 7..................................you get the idea.

Peace

You always make me giggle-- It's good to have the Dr. Love laugh after a day of total monotony and bore... I personally could use a Bloody NyQuil... It just seems natural for someone living in New Orleans with a low immune system...

Don't forget the Hot Toddie!
Shot of Whiskey
Honey
Lemon juice
Hot Water

Will give immediate relief to the symptoms and if you take it just before bed, it will help you to sweat it out. I have used it for years along with a drink that my wife makes which is made from soju, ginseng and a few other roots. A shot of that a day and you will not even get the sniffles.

Another good reason why people should be more specific about questions... Home remedies... That encompasses just too much ha ha.

I start taking about 25-50 mg. of zinc a day at the first sign of a cold, or if I've been in contact with someone sick. I swear by it.

I did a bit of looking on Google for references of zinc and pregnancy and I'll throw in a few quotes and links so you can do some research on your own.
I found one article with someone asking for advice about zinc, but I can't vouch for the credentials of the advisor. The page link is;
parenting.ivillage.com...

3. For the Baby: Zinc is highly involved in all phases of growth of the fetus, stabilizes the genetic code in each cell so that growth goes as planned, and is a component of insulin which helps regulate the glucose needed by baby, and much more.

The daily requirement for zinc during pregnancy is 15 milligrams. Your supplement is therefore, giving you all that you need for pregnancy requirements.
Zinc and Colds:

A little extra does enhance the immune system, but too much could backfire.
When you suck on zinc lozenges and decrease your incidence of colds, you are experiencing the action of a little extra zinc enhancing the immune system. Too much zinc (over time) can actually backfire, suppressing immunity. Regular ingestion of more than 50 mg of zinc can also cause interference with the absorption of other nutrients, causing secondary deficiencies. Copper is one such mineral whose absorption is depressed with too much zinc. Although zinc has a low toxicity for humans, The National Academy of Science actually warns against zinc supplements of more than 15 mg daily without medical supervision. Your pre-natal supplement falls under that category, and so is okay. The problem with too much zinc comes from a continued ingestion of excessive doses. The extra zinc that you take should not be a problem, however, because you are not taking it on a daily, or even weekly basis. Nonetheless, the additional 26 mg you get from two zinc lozenges should be cleared with a quick phone call to your doctor.

From another source it looks like a very needed suppliment for the babies development.

A lack of dietary zinc causes significant bone development problems in fetuses, new research shows. Sadly, most women -- pregnant or otherwise -- suffer from widespread nutritional deficiencies that frequently include zinc, meaning that most children are born with a lower level of health than possible. Simple supplementation of zinc and other nutrients, costing just pennies a day, would result in the birth of healthier, stronger babies.

www.newstarget.com...

The Google search for "zinc during pregnancy" is at;
www.google.ca...

Hope this helps. As I said before, I swear by this stuff. I find it shortens my colds down to about 4-5 days and who knows how many I've prevented in the first place.

Thanks for all the ideas. Home remedies, yeah, I know that's a pretty wide open field. But I don't mean, "Thank goodness I made it home, now gimme some Nyquil."

Like I said, I don't know what she caught first - the bad cold or the pregnancy, but she won't take anything that she thinks might jeopardize the baby, so that narrows her options down quite a bit. Plus she is in her last year of school, which takes up most of her days.

I saw an original soup posted by Gazrok in this forum - chicken soup with cabbage? It sounds effective, I may give it a shot this weekend.

How about natural remedies? I should've asked for them originally.

[edit on 4-11-2005 by jsobecky]

Chicken Soup was going to be my recommendation -- the steam helps the head and the soup is just such a comfort food. If she can tolerate spicy foods at this stage in the pregnancy - something good and spicy that will make you sweat a bit is always good in my opinion.