Home remedies · Colds, nose & fever
No home remedy here replaces treatment, and none is talked down. What has done good for generations does good — even if no one ever measured it. Where something is well studied, it says so. Where it is only experience, it says that too.
Rinse or spray with salt water several times a day. Blow the nose gently and one side at a time, not with pressure on both. In pollen season wash the hair in the evening.
Salt water rinses away secretions, dust and pollen and keeps the lining moist. Forceful blowing on both sides pushes secretions into the sinuses and the ear.
It does not shorten a cold. Decongestant sprays work fast, but beyond a week the nose gets used to them.
One-sided bloody or purulent discharge, pain over forehead or cheek with fever, or symptoms beyond ten days without improvement need assessing.
Have it assessed: fever beyond three days without improvement or rising again, breathlessness, pain on breathing, confusion. In infants under three months any fever is a reason. Also a nosebleed that has not stopped after twenty minutes of correct pressure.