While discussing the ridiculous number of coughs/cases of bronchitis/bouts with pneumonia our kids have dealt with over the course of this year, my friend mentioned that she used a warm steam humidifier instead of the cool mist variety. Since our cool mist one just bit the dust [it was completely riddled with bacteria -- that'll help!], and never seemed to do much good anyway, I decided to give it a try.
Lifesaver. Absolutely necessary purchase, especially coupled with the Vicks vapor stuff you pour in. I’m convinced that it played a major part in keeping Joey’s last cough from getting out of control, and it didn’t seem to hurt the girl’s congestion from turning into a cough this week.
Okay, but these things are such a pain to clean. I know I should have a better attitude toward the five-minute task of preparing it every night, and the twenty additional minutes each week to clean all of the mineral deposits out of the heating chamber, but I don’t. I despise it, almost as much as I despise taking the tank downstairs to fill it before bedtime.
“Downstairs” seems like it’s very far away by bedtime.
But — for the sake of my children’s weak little lungs and stuffed up noses — I’m doing my best to be diligent. Definitely easier than trucking it on over to the urgent care clinic at four in the morning; that’s what I’ll keep telling myself this winter.
