Home remedies for a cold: 4 French grandmother remedies

Everyone gets several a year, and everyone would like it to be over faster. That part is not on offer here, and it is worth saying at the start.

MedlinePlus is blunt about why: “More than 200 different viruses can cause a cold, but rhinoviruses are the most common type”, and “antibiotics will not help with a cold. Antibiotics help with bacterial infections, not with viral infections.” Some symptoms simply “last for 10-14 days”.

So what follows is what French grandmothers did to make those days easier: clear the nose, moisten the air, warm the throat. Four things, and the first one is the one that changes the most.

The salt water nasal rinse

This is the remedy on this page that does the most, and the one Americans are already most likely to own a device for.

Dissolve ½ teaspoon (2.5 g) of non-iodized sea salt in 1 cup (250 ml) of lukewarm water at body temperature, 99°F (37°C). Fill a neti pot or a nasal bulb syringe. Lean over a sink, tilt your head to one side, put the tip into the upper nostril and let the solution flow: it comes out of the lower one. Do the other side. One or two rinses a day, morning and evening, for 5 to 7 days.

A pinch of baking soda, about ¼ teaspoon, makes it gentler on a raw nose.

The water rule, and it is not negotiable. Never use plain tap water. Use distilled or sterile water, or tap water that you have boiled and allowed to cool. Tap water is safe to drink because your stomach handles what is in it; your nasal passages do not. This is the single most important line on this page.

Do not force it. If the solution will not flow, stop. And skip nasal rinses altogether if you get frequent nosebleeds.

Why it earns its place: MedlinePlus lists “saline nasal sprays” among the self-care measures for inflamed sinuses, which is exactly where a cold is heading if it settles in. If it does, we wrote about that separately in our sinusitis remedies.

Thyme steam inhalation

Pour 1 quart (1 liter) of boiling water into a large bowl. Wait 3 minutes for the steam to become bearable. Add 2 tablespoons (6 g) of dried thyme, or a bunch of fresh thyme. Lean over the bowl at about 12 inches (30 cm), cover your head with a thick towel, close your eyes, and breathe deeply through your nose for 10 minutes. Twice a day, morning and evening, for no more than 5 days.

Take off your glasses and jewelry first, and pull back if it burns.

The age rules, which are stricter than people assume. Not before age 3, at all. From age 7, five minutes, always with an adult present. A bowl of near-boiling water at a child’s face height is a scald risk before it is a remedy.

And two contraindications: not with asthma, significant respiratory allergies, or wounds on the face.

Never use thyme essential oil for this. The dried herb is what goes in the bowl. Essential oil in direct inhalation is far too aggressive for the lining of the nose and throat.

On what we can vouch for: NCCIH, our reference for what science says about a plant, has no thyme page. So we are handing on a French kitchen practice, with the steam doing work steam genuinely does, and not claiming more.

Humidify the room

Keep the bedroom between 40 and 60% humidity, with a humidifier or just a bowl of water beside the bed. Air the room out for a few minutes a day, even in winter.

Dry air keeps the lining of the nose irritated, which is why a cold always feels worse in a heated house in January. It is the least interesting item here and one you feel within a night. It is also, for the same reason, one of our cough remedies.

The ginger, honey and lemon tea

Grate ¾ inch (2 cm) of peeled fresh ginger into a cup. Pour over 1¼ cups (300 ml) of just-simmering water at about 185°F (85°C), cover, and steep 10 to 15 minutes. Strain, let it cool a little, then add the juice of half a lemon and 1 tablespoon (15 ml) of honey. Two or three cups a day between meals.

Adding honey to water that is still very hot is a waste of good honey: wait until it has cooled to about 104°F (40°C).

Honey is the ingredient here with something behind it. The American Academy of Pediatrics notes it outperformed store-bought cough syrup at reducing nighttime coughing in children, and suggests 2 to 5 mL from 1 year and older.

Never give honey to a child under 1 year. Infant botulism, and no exceptions for a spoonful in a tea.

On ginger, the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health is measured: it has looked at ginger for nausea, menstrual cramps and osteoarthritis, and it does not establish ginger as a treatment for a cold. It also says plainly that if you take any medicine, you should talk to your health care provider before using ginger. So: a warm, comforting cup with a long tradition, and the same one that turns up in our sore throat remedies.

Is it a cold or the flu?

This is the question everyone actually has, and MedlinePlus draws the line cleanly: flu symptoms “come on suddenly” while a cold starts slowly. The flu usually brings fever and aches; a cold rarely brings fever and the aches are slight. Headache is common with flu and rare with a cold.

If what you have arrived in an afternoon, with a fever and a body that hurts, read our flu remedies instead. And if the fever itself is the problem, that has its own page.

When to see a doctor

MedlinePlus gives three clear triggers for a cold:

• trouble breathing or fast breathing;
• a fever that lasts longer than 4 days;
• symptoms that last more than 10 days without improvement.

Source: MedlinePlus.

Add for a child: MedlinePlus notes that “some cold and cough medicines contain ingredients that are not recommended for children” and says to talk with your child’s provider before giving any. The nasal rinse, humid air and rest carry no such caveat, which is much of why grandmothers relied on them.

And call sooner if the pain moves into the face and stays there, if the cough turns productive and will not shift, or if a second fever arrives after the first has gone. Those are the patterns that mean something has settled in behind the cold.

FAQ

Can I use a neti pot on a child?

Older children who can lean over a sink and breathe through their mouth, yes, with an adult doing it and using distilled or boiled-and-cooled water. Small children will not tolerate it and should not be pushed. Saline drops and gentle suction are the age-appropriate version.

Does vitamin C shorten a cold?

Not according to anything we would put our name to. Lemon juice is in the tea above because it tastes right and it is what a French grandmother had, not because half a lemon is a treatment.

Why did French grandmothers reach for steam so often?

Because it was free, and because a heated house in winter is dry enough to make everything worse. Half of what steam does is simply putting water back into the air you are breathing, which is also why the humidifier further up this page works without any ceremony at all.