This is one of my old articles originally published on Yahoo! voices, May 1st, 2013.
This morning, my son’s runny nose and an annoying cough reminded me that it’s that time of year again and it would be a good idea to stock up on Vicks. Here is a great way to sooth your dry hacking cough. Trust me, it really works.
Yes, you heard me right. Soothe dry, hacking cough at night by applying Vicks to the bottoms of your feet and covering them with socks.
When a good friend of mine tried to convince me of this remedy a few years ago, I laughed it off. What do the bottoms of your feet have to do with coughing your lungs out?
It was so silly to me that it entered my mind each time I or one of my kids suffered from dry cough. I’d usually just smile at the memory of my friend swearing by this and would reach for cough syrup.
Until cough syrup failed to work. Last night, I was up with my 5-year-old most of the night, thinking of various ways to calm his dry, hacking cough. His doctor advised me to give him Delsym, which worked pretty good during the day, but not so well at night.