We have had a rough week. School has started again which is always chaotic, and with the first week of school comes everyone else’s germs. Even though we homeschool, we are not immune to the germ feat. We still go out in public and play with other kids who do go to traditional school. No one is safe from the back to school bugs. No one.

In this week alone, we have had a stomach virus, and a cold. Talk about a party. All three of my kids have had the worst coughs with this cold as well. Those nasty, wake you up from a dead of sleep kind of cough. And at two in the morning when your kids are up coughing, you want nothing more than to make it all better and to make it better now! So that’s why I turn to grandma’s remedies sometimes.

Maybe it’s because they just remind me of growing up, or maybe it’s because they stinking work. My grandmother’s solution to a late night cough? Vicks Vapor Rub on your feet, covered with socks. I know, you think I am crazy! But you will have to just trust me on this one. It works. It is even safe for young babies. As far as can tell, it is the eucalyptus oil in Vicks that does the trick. Why the feet you ask? That I’m not too sure about, something about the oils ability to soak in perhaps.  All I can tell you is that it works, and one night at three am you will thank me for having told you about it.

If your kids have a cough at bed time you can absolutely put it on before they go to sleep. One application should last all night, which honestly is better than any cough medicine anyway. (Psst, it also works on us grown people too!)

-Stephanie Wright