NOW CLOSED: Share your tips for soothing colds and flu this winter with Kleenex Balsam and you could win JL vouchers!

[AnnMumsnet]

We've been asked by the team at Kleenex to help them build the ultimate resource for flu sufferers (or heavy colds) - bursting with tips to help soothe sufferers across the UK and Ireland back to health this winter!

So please share with us, on this thread, how you soothe your poorly children, comfort relatives with colds, deal with the dreaded man flu or even tips that have been passed on to you by your mum. Everyone who posts will be entered into a prize draw where one lucky winner will win £100 of John Lewis vouchers and two runners up will get £50 vouchers

For example, do you give your children certain food or drink which helps them feel better? Is there a classic film that you always let them watch to take their mind off their symptoms? When your DP/DH has "flu", are you sympathetic or do you find that a bit of tough love works best? Or are there any weird and wonderful things that your own mum used to do to soothe you, which you now absolutely swear by?

Please note - if you add your comments or tips on this thread - Kleenex may use your tips in other media - (for example: print (magazines/ newspapers) and online). They won't use your MN name. Tips may also be featured on the Kleenex pages on Mumsnet, coming soon.

For more information on the Kleenex Balsam range please visit: www.kleenex.co.uk/Balsam

and good luck!

My dad used to give me a tea spoonful of a mixture made up of butter, vinegar and sugar if I had a bad cough, it was disgusting but it worked.

Another one here who expects people with a cold (and no extenuating circumstances, eg asthma), to soldier on.

And I provide plenty of hot drinks - ribena or honey and lemon for kids, ribena or honey, ginger, lemon and lots of whisky for the grownups. And loads and loads of olbas oil to help clear the airways.

DD has allergies, so we're tissue users all year long thanks to her heavy post nasal drip and over production of snot and bogies and ickness. Her poor nose gets ever so sore and I have to admit basalm tissues with plenty of vaseline smoothed around the nostrils is a lifesaver, stops it getting too chapped and painful.

A cold is usually treated with honey and lemon for coughs, salt water gargle for sore throats, paracetamol for fevers, and if things get really rough we alternate paracetamol and ibuprofen. Only take time off if it's really zapping their energy and making them ill.

Flu, which I caught the year before last, needs an action plan as I am a single parent and oh boy did it knock me out:

Childproof one room (pre-illness), preferably the living room as it has the television and sofas.

Keep in a good stock of general medicines, I like to have in some cold and flu capsules, basalm tissues (wink wink), children's paracetamol and ibuprofen, cough sweets, honey lemon and glycerin, general cough medicine for all kinds of cough.

Keep cupboards well stocked with thinks like soups, cartons of juice (especially orange juice), and have some meals in the freezer ready to go so that if you get ill you can still feed the children without too much effort.

In better moments set up the sick room with blankets, pillows, plenty of DVDs, toys (quiet kind, so lego, books, dollies etc), snacks and drinks for the children, jug of water for the sick person to sip at etc.

If things are bad for a while, call on friends and family to give you some time out to rest, take the kids to school etc. I also keep a emergency fund, which in times like these is used to pay for taxis on school runs and extra internet deliveries of supplies for making life as easy as possible.

And then it's a case of just resting as much as you can, don't worry about the housework, keep meals simple, ask for support if you can and concentrate on getting better.

Oh and I forgot... when you are super ill and really struggling paper plates and plastic cutlery is great because you chuck it out afterwards, limiting dishes. I couldn't stand at the sink when I had flu and I was in bed for a week and wiped out for three weeks afterwards.

Embarrassed to admit to that tip

Bung in loads of Vit C tablets. Have lots of hot drinks and hot food to raise body temperature to fight infection - also helps to make you feel a bit better. Tissues with balsam to avoid the Rudolph vibe.

Homemade chicken soup. Vicks on chest at night. NightNurse is worth it's weight in gold IMO, and DayNurse is brilliant if you have to go out. Manuka honey. Honey and lemon drinks for sore throats.

For my 3 month old DS (who has already had 5 colds poor little mite!) - karvol capsules on his mattress, prop cot up on books so snot can drain away (nice), sit in steamy bathroom with him if he's too bunged up to breathe and calpol if he has a temperature.

For my 2 1/2 year old DS, hot honey and lemon if he has a sore throat or a cough, karvol capsules on his mattress and snufflebabe on his chest if he is bunged up, calpol if he has a temperature or aches and pains, watching 'Finding Nemo' under a snuggly blanket on the sofa and lots of cuddles.

For DH - lemsip with extra lemon juice and honey stirred in and lots of sympathy.

For me - hot honey and lemon under a blanket on the sofa and 'Poseidon Adventure' (not sure why) on the telly is what I used to do in my pre-child days when feeling poorly. Nowadays it's a case of get lemsipped up and get on with it...

why do I suddenly feel I have a cold coming on after reading this thread?!

Make up a Thermos flask of the following to drink through the day when you have a cold (allowing time for it all to infuse first):

-boiling water
-freshly squeezed lemon juice (Vit C)
-honey (soothes throat)
-fresh ginger (claimed to have various medicinal properties)

Hot juice and balsam tissues always go down well. Swear by day / night nurse to keep going !

I should be a share holder in tissues, I always seem to have a cold these days.
I soldier on until the weekend though if I'm feeling really ill I go straight to bed after work and try to sleep as it is a great healer.

I take echinacea and Vit C , drink OJ and original Lucozade, warm Ribena or fruit teas. I can't stand ordinary tea or coffee when I have a cold, in fact, when I think my tea tastes 'funny' it's usually the first sign that a cold is on it's way. I swear by Jakemans original too.

I read Nora Roberts, Terry Pratchett or Georgette Heyer novels, well, devour them is probably a more accurate description. I have R4 on in the background. I watch TV when I feel a little better cwtched up under a furry throw. A hot toddy is essential, 'to sweat it out'!

The only food to eat is Flu Stew!
Potatoes, carrots, swede, parsnip, celeriac, then lots of alliums, onions, leeks, bit of garlic, in the stewpot with lots of bouillion or veggie oxo stock. You can add dumplings made with veggie suet and parsley, sage and thyme or add the herbs to the stew. Another good addition is red split lentils, only a few as you want plenty of 'juice' it's not a thick stew, quite a soupy stew.

When I was little the best thing about having a cold or flu was my Nanna Ford's Elderflower Wine. Diluted with water, heated on the stove with sugar, it was a really healing drink, I can taste it now, thinking about and remember sitting with my Bampa in front of the coal fire, making up stories about the shapes in the coals.

When my children were little colds and flu, asthma attacks too, meant a day in PJs and dressing gown on the sofa, under a blankie, watching TV or a video. Especially when they are junior or secondary age it's nice sometimes to get back your baby for a while.

Melting a square of milk chocolate in your mouth does wonders to soothe a sore throat!

Oh it's got to be homemade chicken soup! A pack of chicken wings, an onion, a couple of carrots, a big handful of fresh parsley or a couple of tablespoons of dried, half a dozen cloves of garlic and a shake of salt and pepper, all in a pot of water simmered for an hour. Then lift out the chicken wings, knock the meat off them, use a potato masher to squish the veggies in the pot a bit, toss the chicken meat in, and voila, the best cold remedy ever.

I make the honey and lemon drink too, a couple of sliced lemons with boiling water poured over them, but I put in a big teaspoon of cinnamon and half a teaspoon of dried ginger as well as a big dollop of honey. Makes a lovely warming drink.

dear kleenex, it would be a tissue revolution if you could provide those of us who are sinusly challenged with some other smelly tissues. i love that second of being able to smell before your sinuses fill up there are tissues on the market with olbas oil in and they are fab.

but i do love your tender tissues with balm in becuase my nose gets very very sore and even scabby and this can sometimes get infected and stuff and its not helpful - so lovely balm smelly tissues would be great.

i have recovered from a 3 month period of health hell in which i had the real flu where you can't get out of bed, then the whole sinus thing where i want to rip my nose off to just get the dyson on my sinuses and let the snot run free.

anyway my being ill routine is like this

i become ill. i lay on settee and dh puts lots of films and american trashy tv progs on a stick and i watch them on my laptop - falling in and out of sleep. to hand is a little table. on this little table is stuff that dh had brought.

dh comes home from work armed with
kleenex man size x 2 ~(at least)with balm - has to have balm for mi nose problems
sinutab
paracetemol
other drugs as appropriate
cake and pastries
pot of tea, sugar dish, milk jug on a tray
trashy womens magazines - preferably with free make up, free make up makes me happy

dh tops up teapot with hotwater periodically

so i am set up on settee, dh brings quilt down, i watch programms all day on lap top. drinking tea, eating cake and taking drugs.

Hot, boiling hot, bath and bed, for adults, if it's possible. For dc: extra hugs, easy to eat food, leniency. Damp teatowel on the radiator for dry coughs.

We tend to just get on with it, when we have colds. DH tends to hibernate through the worst of his and runs himself very hot steamy baths - humid air helps a lot. DS1(7) has mild asthma which tends to be aggravated by a cold, so we get quite aggressive with making sure he takes his preventer and we give him medised at bedtime. I find the most important thing for myself is staying well hydrated.

DP likes to have whiskey in his lemsip.

I always read the backs of the packets and go for the cold remedies with the most drugs in. I know you can get tablets with the same ingredients now but I find a mug of neon yellow stuff has a great placebo effect.

Spicy food is good, especially spicy chicken broth.

I typed a post which has mysteriously disappeared! Probably removed by Vit C tablet manufacturers, because I said do NOT waste money on it. Despite a million studies there is NO evidence that it does anything at all for colds.

Instead buy
whisky
soft tissues
chocolate

My DS likes the vapour balm stuff rubbed in his chest when he gets a cold and he never needs an excuse for a few spoonfuls of Calpol and then Minadex.

I like to have a hot bath and try to sweat it out in bed with warm pj's. I like a bit of Olbas Oil and i've usually got some Molton Brown Eucalyptus shower gel or some Doctor Bronner Eucalyptus soap which always feels nice when i'm ill too.

I'm always too tight to buy posh tissues so to try to avoid the red nose and eyes that seem to accompany a cold I smother my nose and eyes in vaseline.

I have started buying the effervescent vitamin c tabs from Morrisons as they are only 99p. My aunt is convinved that if you boil up some star anise and drink it as a tea it helps too - she says they put this in tamiflu - i'm not sure how true this is but if i've got some in the house and i'm ill enough I usually give it a go!

blast it with vitamin c. drink about 2 litres of orange or grapefruit juice at the first dry scratchy throat thing and keep hot so you sweat. At the first sign of a mild diarrhea, stop the juice. this works for me. dd doesn't get colds but I would give her less (but plenty) of juice too.

I'm a big Olbas oil fan. One drop on the chest area of the pj's your little one is sleeping in, 3 or 4 drops for adults.

I also put a large teddy (but a pillow will do too) under the mattress at the top of the bed, so that the mattress is slanting upwards and this helps them to breath a little easier at night.

My DS has just gotten over a cough and a cold actually. He likes to have Soothers for his throat, cough medicine as his cough always goes into his chest and Karvol capsules dropped onto his pillow at night to help him breathe better. A nice warm bath before bed usually helps and he always has pocket sized tissues in his bag for going to school. He does like the balsam tissues as they don't make his nose red raw after lots of sneezing and rubbing :-)

He likes to drink power drinks or Lucozade when he has a cold too, he insists the sugar rush helps!

Echinacea
A poorly cup of lemsip (a big cup that comes out for illness)
Porridge and cinnamon

Steam inhalations all the way - boil the kettle and pour the boiling hot water into a bowl. I add some menthol type oil, stick my head over with a towel over my head to keep the steam in and breathe deeply for 10 mins. I do this 3 times a day when I have a cold and it always helps the blocked nose feeling. It's amazing how much it makes you blow your nose as it clears out the sinuses!

Honey is also great as is a big mug of tea and lots of chocolate any excuse . Oh, and I avoid milk when I have a cold as the milk tends to make my cold fuller.

Home-made chicken noodle soup if the rest of the family are ill - tinned if it's me!

Here are my tips for dealing with flu:

(1) Utilise the potty as a vomit bowl for those moments when it's coming out both ends and you can't see straight.
(2) Put towels on the bathroom floor - to lie on because you can't make it back to bed and also because people often get the chills while vomiting/feverish.
(3) Drink clear fluids as much as possible, small sips are great. For children, use a Neurofen type syringe to fire 5ml shots of water (or rehydration salts if you can get them down them if they are vomiting) into the cheek if they are reluctant to try drinking. Tell them this amount will not make them sick (it's usually right. But if you do it often enough they don't get dehydrated.
(4) Keep your head low - don't try to stand up, ideally you want to be lying down - you are quite likely to injure yourself when pyrexic and dizzy.
(5) Keep everyone away.
(6) Make EVERYONE wash their hands, including you. Now is the time to bugger the green credentials and actually use disinfectant sprays all over the bathroom six times a day - no really you don't want it lingering.
(7) Resolve to get your flu shot earlier next year.