Your kids get sick; what's a parent to do? Let Puffs be there to soothe their every achoo.

The Best Prevention

• Wash your hands—and your toddler's. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, this is the most important thing you can do to keep from getting sick. By washing your hands frequently (and your toddler's), you can clean away germs that have been picked up from various sources.

Treatment Tips

• Offer plenty of water, juices, and other decaffeinated liquids to help keep mucous membranes moist and help control coughing. Warm liquids, such as chicken soup, can be especially soothing.
• Be sure your toddler gets plenty of rest to help his or her immune system rebuild its strength. You can help him or her sleep easier with a Vicks Vaporizer. It offers bacteria-free steam to relieve cold and flu symptoms.
• Teach your child the proper way to blow his or her nose to clear mucus, breathe easier, and help avoid spreading the virus. Use one of our preferred Puffs products for a soft and soothing touch.
• Relieve a cough quickly with the medicated vapors of Vicks VapoRub® ointment or cream. Use only on children 2 years of age and older.
• Talk with your pediatrician about using over-the-counter products to relieve your toddler's cold symptoms. If you have a child age 6 to 12, Pediatric Vicks Formula 44®M relieves coughs, dries runny noses, and reduces sneezing for up to six hours.

Pre-Tissue Techniques

Most children aren't developmentally ready to blow their noses until about the age of 3 or 4. Until then, help make your toddler more comfortable and reduce the spread of the virus with these techniques:

• Suction mucus from your toddler's nose with a rubber-bulb syringe. After using the syringe, wash it in cool, soapy water. Squeeze the bulb several times to clean out the mucus. Rinse well with clear water.
• Gently wipe excess mucus away from his nose with a clean, soft tissue.
• Sit with your toddler in the bathroom and run the shower for about 15 minutes. The warm water vapor can help ease congestion. (A warm bath can help in the same way.)
• Use a cool mist vaporizer in your child's bedroom to help make breathing easier and keep his nose from clogging.

Helpful Resources

Sharing picture books and videos with your toddler is a great way to help him learn about germs and preventing colds. Here are a few you can find at your local library or video store.

Books

• "Stand Back," Said the Elephant, "I'm Going to Sneeze!" by Patricia Thomas; Harper Collins, 1991
• The Ah-Chooo Book by Linda P. Pohl; Pohl, Linda Perelman Publishing, 1989
• I Love to Sneeze by Ellen Schecter; Bank Street, Inc., 1992
• Those Mean Nasty Dirty Downright Disgusting but... Invisible Germs by Judith Anne Rice; Redleaf Press, 1997
• Germs Make Me Sick! by Melvin Berger; HarperTrophy, 1995
• Germs! Germs! Germs! by Bobbi Katz; Scholastic, Inc., 1996
• The Magic School Bus Inside Ralphie: A Book About Germs by Joanna Cole; Scholastic Paperbacks, Inc., 1995

Videos

• Reading Rainbow Series presents Germs Make Me Sick! adapted from the book by Melvin Berger (Harper Collins, 1995)
• Scholastic's The Magic School Bus presents Inside Ralphie adapted from the book by Joanna Cole (Scholastic, Inc., 1995)