Is Your Kid Sick? Here’s What to Do First │ Vicks (2024)

Common cold symptoms include nasal congestion, sore throat, coughing, scratchy throat, and runny nose. In kids, the flu includes many of the same symptoms, including fever, but with the addition of chills, sweats, and muscle aches and pains.²

Vicks offers an extensive line of OTC medicines that helps relieve your child’s cold and flu symptoms. First identify which symptoms your child has, and then look for the children’s OTC medicine with the active ingredients that address those symptoms, so you can make sure your child is getting the relief they need.

Let’s look at symptoms and the OTC medicines that address them.

Stuffy Nose
A stuffy nose can make your child uncomfortable during the day or at night. Young children may have trouble blowing their nose to clear secretions. And when they can’t breathe, they can have trouble focusing at school, playing, eating, and sleeping well.

If your child is 4 years old or older and has a stuffy nose, they may be given a nasal decongestant that contains an active ingredient like phenylephrine. Nasal decongestants work by decreasing the swelling of nasal passages to open nasal passages, thereby relieving a stuffy nose.

Vicks Children’s products with nasal decongestants include:

• Vicks Children’s Cough Congestion Daytime (Ages 4+)
• Vicks Children’s Cough Congestion Nighttime (Ages 6+)
• Vicks Children’s Multi-Symptom (Ages 6+)
• DayQuil Kids Honey Cold and Cough + Mucus (Ages 6+)
• NyQuil Kids Honey Cold and Cough + Congestion Relief (Ages 6+)

Cough
Your child’s cough may make you worried, especially if it’s making it hard for them to breathe or keeping them up in the middle of the night. Nighttime cough is not fun and can disrupt your child’s sleep, leaving them (and you) exhausted, sleepy, and not ready or alert to take on the next day.

If your child has a cough, they may be given an age-appropriate cough and cold medicine containing a cough suppressant. The active ingredient in many cough suppressants is dextromethorphan. Cough suppressants work by easing the urge to cough, thereby relieving cough due to minor throat and bronchial irritation.

Vicks Children’s products with cough suppressants include:

• Vicks Children’s Cough Congestion Daytime (Ages 4+)
• DayQuil Kids Honey Cough and Cold + Mucus (Ages 6+)
• NyQuil Kids Honey Cough and Cold + Congestion Relief (Ages 6+)

Another cough suppressant is Vicks VapoRub Children’s topical rub; it relieves cough without the fight trying to get your child to take a spoon of medicine! Rubbed gently on the chest, throat and back, medicated vapors start to work instantly to suppress cough. Plus, you can use it on kids 2 years and older.

Thick Mucus
Thick mucus can make it hard for your child to cough it up and out.
If your child is finding it difficult to cough up thick mucus, a cold medicine with an expectorant may help. Expectorants work by loosening phlegm (mucus) and thinning bronchial secretions to help make it easier to rid the bronchial passageways of bothersome mucus.

Vicks Children’s products with expectorants include:

• Vicks Children’s Cough Congestion Daytime (Ages 4+)
• DayQuil Kids Honey Cough and Cold + Mucus (Ages 6+)

Runny Nose
The constant dripping coming from your child’s nose is just as uncomfortable as it looks. A runny nose is an excess of watery nasal secretion, the immune system’s way of flushing out a virus and delivering virus-fighting cells to the site of infection. It is often one of the earlier signs your child may have a cold virus.

If your child has runny nose, they may be given a medicine with an antihistamine to dry up the nasal passages and stop that constant drip coming from their little nose.

Vicks Children’s products with antihistamines include:

• Vicks Children’s Cough Congestion Nighttime (Ages 6+)
• NyQuil Kids Honey Cough and Cold + Congestion Relief (Ages 6+)

Fever
A fever is a temporary increase in your child’s body temperature. It’s a sign that your child’s immune system is doing a good job of fighting off an infection by making a hostile environment for the virus.

Vicks Children’s products with fever-reducers include:

• Vicks Children’s Cold Multi-Symptom (Ages 6+)