I grew up in a family where nobody ever took any medications to treat cold and cough. My parents and grandparents were keenly aware of the fact that there is no such thing as “safe drug,” be that prescription or over the counter. Drugs might help one thing but hurt another with their side effects. Chemicals, grandma called them. “I don’t want to put chemicals in my body,” she would say.

Instead, we used a wide range of natural cures to treat colds and coughs. I knew them as a kid and began to use them by myself as soon as I was old enough to handle their preparation. One of the most common ones was Raspberry tea. It can be made from fresh raspberries, dry raspberries or raspberry jelly/preserves. It has pleasant fruity flavor; I usually add some sugar as well.

Honey tea was another cold remedy we frequently used. It is very easy to make, you just add a teaspoon or two of honey into a cup of hot water, stir it in, and drink it. This one is in fact backed up by a recent clinical trial that “has found that honey is more effective at soothing a sore throat than a common active ingredient in children’s cough medicines.” (See more info here.)

Another effective natural cold remedy we used was Basswood blossom tea. I have a detailed article about it here; in a nutshell, you pick basswood blossoms, dry them and store them as you would regular tea leaves; when someone has a cold, you make “tea” by adding these blossoms into boiling hot water. The person must drink this tea as hot as they can stand it before going to bed. They will sweat profusely during the night, and the infection goes out with the sweat. The tea is not much different from regular tea, both in color and taste. I add some sugar to it, which makes it even more similar to regular tea.

My least favorite remedy was hot milk with a touch of butter and baking soda. If you think it sounds nasty, you’re right; it tastes nasty as well. My husband can’t bear the thought of trying it, and I do not insist, knowing how detestable it might be to someone new to it. I, however, have drunk it countless times as a kid and have gotten used to it (somewhat). The nasty concoction is used for persistent cough, and I must say it works very well. It immediately soothes and softens the throat, reducing that unbearable itching that makes you cough again and again. If I can’t sleep because of a bad cough, I get up, warm a cup of milk, add a small piece of butter in it and 1/4 of a teaspoon of baking soda, mix it all well together and drink it. Minutes later, I would be peacefully asleep.

Another cough treatment was homemade inhalations. The procedure was the following: boil water in a pot, add some vegetable oil in it and half a teaspoon of baking soda. The moment soda is added, it starts a strong steaming reaction, and that’s what you are supposed to breathe in, deeply, with your mouth. The reaction does not last long, but some steam will be still coming for a while. These inhalations are to be done daily or as often as needed; they soothe the throat and help to get rid of the infection.