How to stop coughing or at least reduce coughing? Medicinal herbal tea, essential oils, mixture of hot water and honey, there are many natural remedies to calm and stop coughs.
Dry cough or oily cough it is possible to feel better quickly thanks to some natural remedies and tips. I therefore propose in this article 10 tips and tricks to calm a cough quickly.
Tips to stop coughing:
1. A medicinal herbal tea to calm coughs
Drinking herbal teas will do a lot of good for your cough (especially for wet cough). Several types of herbal teas and medicinal plants exist, therefore, those based on thyme.
Here’s how to make this cough tea:
- Boil 4 sprigs of fresh thyme in 200ml of water.
- Leave to macerate for a few minutes and remove the thyme.
- Drink this herbal tea several times a day to quickly feel better.
The taste will not please everyone, so why not add a little sugar or better still a little honey to enhance the taste of the herbal tea.
2. Inhale essential oils against cough
Essential oils can be a real ally in fighting coughs or at least calming them down for a while.
A drop of essential oil in 1 liter of boiling water is more than enough for this inhalation.
Here are the best oils for inhalations to help with coughs:
- eucalyptus essential oil
- thyme essential oil
- lavender essential oil
- chamomile essential oil
It will do a lot of good for your throat as well as your bronchial tubes. This trick is effective in temporarily relieving you of a dry cough and irritated throat.
3. Calm cough with warm water and honey
A really effective home remedy for coughing up is hot water and honey. Indeed, honey softens the dry and burning side of the throat when you have a bad cough.
Here’s how to make this grandma’s recipe:
- Boil some water and then pour the hot water into a cup.
- Add a tablespoon of honey and mix well.
- Wait until the water is a little less hot to drink the remedy.
You can also add a little milk at the same time as the honey to make this cough remedy smoother. Personally I also use this tip against the flu and colds.
4. Plants to calm a cough
Some plants can be used to calm a cough, especially when the bronchi are congested.
Here are the plants that you can use in herbal tea to relieve a cough:
- climbing ivy (cough, cold and bronchitis)
- fennel (cough and cold)
- plantain (dry cough and wet cough)
- white broth (dry cough, bronchitis and laryngitis)
5. Lemon juice and honey for throat inflammation
To complete the trick of hot water and honey proposed a little earlier in this article, know that lemon juice is also an excellent trick against cough.
Here’s how to perform this other natural trick:
- Boil 1 cup of water and allow to cool (until the solution is drinkable).
- Add the juice of one lemon and 1 tablespoon of honey to hot water.
- Mix well and drink 2-3 times daily to calm the cough quickly.
This grandmother’s remedy is effective against coughs but especially against inflammation of the throat.
6. Use ointments to feel better
An effective solution to prevent your child from coughing too much at night is to apply some menthol ointments.
Indeed, this type of ointment helps clear the lungs and the respiratory tract effectively. Gently rub the throat and torso with this ointment every evening to successfully calm the cough.
For example, you can use the Vicks product or other similar products. With each breath it will be a pleasant feeling of freshness.
7. Use Onion Power ?
If you like grandmother’s remedies then the onion cough remedy is perfect! Here’s how to use it at home:
- Peel a large onion and cut it into two pieces.
- Then place the onion pieces under the bed or better directly on the bedside table.
Oddly enough, this trick really seems to work for nighttime cough relief in children and adults.
Drink a syrup of onion juice… ?
If you want to try an even more effective but let’s say it rather drastic cough trick, consider onion juice!
Boil an onion in a little water (in a saucepan) and simply drink the water. The taste will not be very good, but you will feel the benefits very quickly.
8. A humidifier for cough relief
For children and adults who cough a lot at the start of the night, the humidifier can greatly help reduce coughing.
Indeed, if you have a dry cough and an irritated throat, the air may be too dry in the house and particularly in your bedroom. The solution is to run a cool mist humidifier in the child’s room or yours an hour before bedtime.
The cold steam in the bedroom will greatly help you breathe better during the night and will quickly calm the cough for a few hours.
9. Inhale steam to eliminate cough
If you or your child have a rather harsh cough at night, steam (as we discussed above) can be a big help in controlling the cough.
An excellent trick is to run very hot water in the bath or shower and close the door to trap the hot steam.
The simple act of breathing in this room filled with hot steam will relieve your lungs and your breathing thus eliminating this unpleasant cough for a while.
10. Sleep with your head elevated at night
When autumn arrives and the weather is cooler, it is common to see children coughing at the start of the night.
A simple and effective nighttime cough remedy is to elevate your child’s head throughout the night.
Indeed, raising the head will relieve congestion and promote the passage of air. You can simply place a pillow or cushion under the mattress at head level.